In the past month, the Bush administration has made great strides living up to its promises of the progression of elections in Iraq. But while the eyes of the White House are fixed securely on the Middle East, the environment has fallen to the wayside. Recently, the Bush administration has made a slew of anti-environmental decisions. It is time for the government to take ownership of its environmental negligence. With the Kyoto Protocol, a worldwide attempt to reduce greenhouse emissions, going into effect today, it's time for the Bush administration to stop skirting its environmental responsibilities and join the rest of the concerned world in limiting industrial emissions of harmful and destructive gases.
According to a Feb. 1 CNN.com article, Britain appealed to the United States to sign up for climate-saving cuts in greenhouse gas emissions. America is one of the primary generators of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide, but rejects major scientific opinion that humankind is largely to blame for climate warming. Along with refusing to accept majority scientific opinion, the Bush administration also has declined to join the Kyoto Protocol. England's environmental minister Margaret Beckett, one of the chief activists for American involvement in the Kyoto Protocol, believes there is no hope of persuading President Bush to sign up to Kyoto.
The Kyoto Protocol has been ratified, accepted, approved or assented by 141 nations, including all members of the European Union. While the rest of the world is showing its concern with the near apocalyptic changes in global warming, the Bush administration has refused to enter into the pact. In 1997, the Clinton administration signed the initial Kyoto Protocol, but the U.S. Senate decided to turn over that decision from the previous administration. According to a Feb. 15 CNN.com article, our government is more concerned with potential damage to the economy than the potential collapse of our environment, while our president cites the "incomplete state of scientific knowledge." Is he just afraid that science will prove him wrong?
When our government rejects joining one of the most important environmental groups in the history of the world, we should be ashamed of the negligence of our elected officials.
When the largest climate protection organization, the Environmental Protection Agency, is undercut by one of the biggest deficit slashes in our nation's history, the environment will suffer. When our own president is unwilling to accept the facts of science and the global concerns for the deteriorating environment, the people of America need to stand up and fight for what is truly sacred - the preservation of our Earth.
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