US behavior at Montreal

A personal note. I find the behavior of the American delegation to the Montreal climate talks, in particular, the walkout of Harlan Watson, disgusting and despicable. I am ashamed of the conduct of my government in this matter. The policies of the Bush Administration with regard to climate change do not reflect my views, or, I believe, the views of the majority of the American people. I am ashamed of those policies, and what they represent to the rest of the world. I apologize for the behavior of my government, and I am relatively confident that these policies will be repudiated over time.

In the meantime, I want to assure the rest of the world that at the local level, we are applying American ingenuity and work ethic to developing solutions to greenhouse gas pollution and fossil fuel dependency. We are working on solving this problem at a local level, and intend to share our solutions with the rest of the world.

We are particularly interested in extending a hand to developing nations, to help them reap the benefits of sufficient energy for all, without making the error of replicating the hydrocarbon economy.

Comments

[Zeno Swijtink]

The Bush administration represents that part of the US economy that has staked its fortune on a continuation of the hydrocarbon economy.

This is still a very strong fraction in the US and its not certain that the next administration would enthusiastically embrace the end of carbon. For now carbon is locked-in (Gregory Unruh's term), and unlocking it will take greater shocks than we have seen thus far. They will pour a lot of public research money in CO2 capturing and sequestering, so they can have their cake and eat it.