Clinton raps Bush, as US isolated at UN climate talks

http://www.bangkokpost.com/breaking_news/breakingnews.php?id=66855

Montreal, Canada (dpa) - Former president Bill Clinton called the Bush administration's climate policy "flat wrong" Friday (this morning Thailand time) after US delegates refused to take part in UN talks on future steps to curb global warming.

"Who can refuse to have this discussion?" Clinton told delegates in a much-applauded speech at a nearly 200-nation climate conference that was due to wind up late Friday or early Saturday.

The former US president's broadside against his successor, George W. Bush, was one of many expressions of outrage at the two- week conference about the US stand on climate change.



Bush has rejected the UN Kyoto protocol, saying its mandatory targets for cutting emissions of Earth-warming greenhouse gasses would harm the US economy and that voluntary measures are enough.

US delegates stayed away late Thursday from talks in Montreal on ways to limit carbon-dioxide emissions, even though the discussion's mandate involved no commitment to actually cut emissions.

Clinton warned there is "no serious doubt" that climate change is already under way. Without mentioning Bush by name, he said the notion that a shift away from fossil fuels would hurt the economy is "flat wrong". In fact, developing alternative energy sources creates jobs, he argued...

gives me chills every time I see it, there must have been some cosmic
karma going on that day.
Who can refuse to have this discussion, it just unnerves me to
think that this admin. has no regard for any type of
negotiations.