Greenpeace: Bush is a "Climate Criminal"

It is now clear to the rest of the world that the US is responsible for far more than its share of pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, the gasses responsible for global warming. What is also clear is that the time for change has long since arrived and the Bush administration sits back and does nothing. What is worse is that 6 years ago, while first campaigning for president, Bush promised that he was committed to the environment and would sign and ratify the Kyoto Protocol. One of his first acts as president was to withdraw from the Kyoto talks and refuse to sign the treaty.

Greenpeace has more. From Greenpeace:

George W Bush is leading the world into global climate catastrophe. With only five percent of the global population, the US is responsible for a quarter of all the world’s climate change pollution. George Bush sees no reason to change this.

In 2001 Bush withdrew the US from the Kyoto Protocol, the only international agreement to tackle climate change, and since then he has opposed any meaningful measures to address the problem.

Bush has close links to the oil industry. He was an oilman, his dad was an oilman and many of his close colleagues have links with oil. His party is also heavily funded by oil, with Esso being one of the largest donors. So it’s no wonder that Bush would rather put the interests of the oil industry ahead of the climate.

Like Esso, Bush has denied the reality of climate change and has even ordered his government department in charge of the environment to alter the findings of a report, which said climate change is real

The Bush government has also worked closely with corporations like Esso to stop the rest of the world from taking action on climate change. Although the US is no longer a part of the Kyoto agreement, Bush’s representatives still attend international climate negotiations to try to prevent progress.

The US is the only one of the G8 countries not signed up to Kyoto and has showed no signs of taking decisive action on climate change. If Tony Blair wants to get progress from the G8 on climate change he must stand up to George Bush and not let him hamper the rest of the world’s efforts to tackle the problem.