Better late than never, science appears to have won a key debate inside the Bush administration. Its proposal Wednesday to list the polar bear as threatened under the Endangered Species Act puts the U.S. government on record as saying that global warming is a real problem with serious effects.
Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne, the former Idaho governor, acknowledges that the habitat of polar bears in Alaska – sea ice the bears need for hunting – is shrinking because of rising temperatures in the Arctic, and that human activity is at least part of the problem.
That’s a significant admission, the strongest to date from a Bush Cabinet member. But the real import of Wednesday’s proposal is that it could unleash legal action under the Endangered Species Act forcing the government to do something about that human activity – namely, curbing or capping carbon emissions.
The administration to date has preferred voluntary approaches to curbing greenhouse gases such as industrial and vehicle emissions, which trap heat in the Earth’s atmosphere and cause temperature increases that could prove catastrophic. Bush rejected the emission-reduction requirements of the Kyoto Treaty because, he said, it would do undue harm to the U.S. economy.
Now, with momentum building for quicker action as evidence of global warming’s destructive potential becomes clearer – and the force of law potentially coming to bear – the president faces a moment of opportunity to lead us toward good solutions.
They needn’t be unreasonable nor economically devastating. Done right, they could open the door to new business opportunities as U.S. companies develop cleaner technologies that cut emissions here and abroad. The market potential in developing China and India, where carbon emissions are growing exponentially, is virtually unlimited.
Bush must be willing to deliver tough medicine to his friends in the gas, oil and coal industries, who in their own self-interest continue to complain that the global-warming threat is exaggerated. With just two years left in his presidency, such a show of independence would help bolster his legacy and the planet’s future health.
Both could use it.
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