In this respect, it is noteworthy that Tony Blair flew off to his final summit as UK prime minister (having announced his belated resignation last month) vowing to disabuse domestic critics of the notion that – on foreign affairs – he has served as nothing more than US President George W Bush’s poodle. And to this end he declared(i.e. promised?) that:
I can persuade George Bush on climate change.
(Incidentally, as Blair was busy thinking of ways to finally exert some influence over Bush, reports are that Turkish commandos were busy invading northern Iraq, ostensibly in “hot pursuit” of Kurdish terrorist. But if the conflagration in Iraq were not bad or hopeless enough already, this incursion by the Turks will surely make Blair and Bush rue the day they even fancied imposing peace and democracy throughout the Middle East. But I digress….)
Unfortunately for Blair’s beleaguered ego and squandered legacy, Bush’s (you’re either with me or against me) congenital unilateralism has already compelled him to torpedo any prospect of agreement on climate change. Because, accordingly, he preempted Blair’s (and summit host Chancellor Angela Merkel’s) very public efforts to draft an agreement that all G8 members would execute by giving the first major speech of his presidency on climate change last week in which he rejected their initiative and proposed his own US-led strategy for combating global warming.
Bush proffered – with no hint of irony, betrayal or hypocrisy – that:
…if you’re truly interested in cleaning up the environment and are interested in renewable sources of energy, the best way to do so is through safe, nuclear power — investing in new technologies to transform the way we fuel our cars and trucks, expanding the use of hybrid and clean diesel vehicles and biodiesel fuel.
And he offered that these technological innovations should be shared amongst all nations of the world. Whereas, the EU-led strategy calls for imposing emissions cap on each nation and setting up a carbon credits trading scheme; which, frankly, only allows rich nations to pollute as much as they like provided they pay for their environmental indulgences.
Hence, no one should be surprised when Bush shows no interest in what Blair, Merkel or anyone else has to say on the subject….
Of course, Merkel’s leadership on global warming was hardly enhanced by having her most internationally-revered predecessor, former chancellor Helmut Schmidt, join skeptics, like me, in dismissing all of the talk about climate change as just sound and fury signifying nothing. In fact, here, in part, is how Schmidt – in a recent interview with Germany’s Bild daily newspaper – threw a cold blanket over the heated debate this issue that so many were hoping would be resolved at this G8 summit:
The topic is hysterical, overheated, and that is especially because of the media….There has always been climate change on earth….We’ve had warm and ice-ages for hundreds of thousands of years….To assume that global climate change can be altered by any plans made at the Heiligendamm summit is “idiotic”.
But never mind Bush and Schmidt, both of whom might be suspected of merely furthering a myopic political agenda. Because as it happened, their remarks coincided with the following scientific assessment on the subject by none other than Michael Griffin – administrator of the world’s most respected scientific organisation, NASA:
…It would be arrogant to assume the world’s climate should not change in the future….I have no doubt that global — that a trend of global warming exists….I am not sure that it is fair to say that is a problem we must wrestle with.
Alas, this in turn provoked global-warming jihadists around the world, including some who actually work for Griffin at NASA, to denounce him as an “arrogant and ignorant” heretic. And so rages on this scientific debate….
Meanwhile, as I presaged a year ago this week in a commentary entitled Cold War redux: Friendship over between Russia and the United States, a simmering spat between erstwhile soul mates, Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin, is threatening to render climate change a mere afterthought at this summit. Because Bush flew to the Czech Republic on Tuesday and delivered an extraordinary speech in which he condemned Putin for “derailing democratic reforms” in Russia, reminded him that “the Cold War is over” and then challenged him to either join the missile defense system the US intends to install in the Czech Republic and Poland…or beat it.
To which, in vintage Cold War rhetoric, Putin threatened to blow up Europe if Bush does not withdraw plans to deploy his missiles. And this in turn prompted Bush to offer the following surreal, if not wholly anachronistic, words of assurance to Europeans – who were understandably unnerved by Putin’s threat:
Russia is not going to attack Europe.
(Indeed, JFK and Khrushchev must be rolling over in their graves….And Castro must be laughing his ass off – especially given his apparent new lease on life.)
Nevertheless, this spat constrained German and British offici
als to insist that:
…the serious cooling of relations with Russia over the siting of a US missile defense system within the EU will not deflect from the main agenda. [Although one British official is quoted as hoping against hope that] Russia will not take away (from the main issues). The Africa and climate stuff (sic) is very substantive as is trade and Darfur.
Apropos Darfur, suffice it to recall what I wrote above about the promises of G8 leaders providing comfort only to fools. Bush should be commended, however, not only doing more than any other national leader in history to fight poverty and diseases in Africa, but also for unilaterally imposing more onerous sanctions on the Sudanese government for being complicit in crimes against humanity in Darfur. Indeed, one wonders why no other G8 leader imposed similar sanctions – given that the UN has condemned this government for aiding and abetting Arab militias (a.k.a. the Janjaweed) in the genocidal slaughter they’ve perpetrated against helpless Africans for the past three years.
Therefore, the headline of my communiqué on this summit is that the motley crew of protesters making a nuisance of themselves on the sidelines has it just right. Because, despite lacking common cause, these perennially-unwelcome summiteers all share the informed view that nothing said or signed by these leaders will do anything to stop global warming or rescue the people of Darfur.
Although, given its sudden prominence in the hallowed “Guide Rouge”, Germany’s haute cuisine might be the one thing on which G8 leaders could reach genuine consensus….
NOTE: It is instructive that western leaders are paying so much attention to Putin’s idle threats while paying only lip service to the clear and present danger posed by the truly incendiary rhetoric of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Yet Iran’s nuclear program will loom like a dark cloud (or hover like a mocking pink elephant) over their summit talks. And this silence probably reflects their tacit acceptance – albeit begrudgingly – that Iran’s defiant march into the club of the world’s nuclear powers is now unstoppable….
Related Articles:
Belated resignation of PM Tony Blair
Cold War redux: Friendship over between Russia and the USPutin “derailing democratic reforms”
On nukes, Iran defies US and UN in equal measure
UN continues to dither and debate as genocide rages on in Darfur
Save Darfur rally: full of sound and fury signifying nothing
Bush has done more for Africa than any other US president
G8 summit ’06 (rvealed evidence that Blair is Bush’s lovesick poodle…)
G8 summit ’05 (more empty promises to make poverty history in Africa)
G8 summit Germany
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