RE: Presto, don't be a Bush-whacker"A level playing field"
Wouldn't that be fixed emmisions per capita accross the planet?
I Can't beleive the US is arguing that one. Not only are they the lagest producers of CO2 on the planet as a country (followed by China) but per capita they are so far ahead of the rest of the planet it's not funny.
The caveats for developing nations was because they are starting from a very low emmissions base per capita and it would be unfair to cap or reduce their emmissions from what are already very low levels. To do so would severely limit their abiltiy to develop economically. Just becuase the west got there first, cut down most of their forests (well europe anyway) and burn more fossil fuels than anyone else, does that give us the right to dictate to developing countries that they can't?
Bush choses to listen to a diminishing minority of climate advisers for pure economic reasons IMO. From memory, a recent report from the UN which represent an overall consensus in the scientific community is that from the end of the 70's onwards, global warming cannot be explained by 'natural variations'. If CO2 and warming continue, it is likely we will lose the Artic Ice cap this century. Normally, temperatures rise to a maximum 2,0000 after an Ice age, right now, 10,000 years after the last one, we should be experiencing a mini ice age, except, we are not.
Temperatures this century will rise between 1.5c and 3c, more than the 1c rise in the 10,000 years since the last ice age.
Kyoto was never going to do more than slow these changes, the proposed reductions are not enough reverse these trends.
CO2 production in the US is a global issue, I don't think Bush will wake up until it becomes possible sue in a US court for damages caused by warming. After the success against cigarette companies, that may only be a matter of time.
Idle
Further reading:
https://pubs.acs.org/hotartcl/cenear/951127/pg1.html
https://www.globalwarm.com/
https://www.phy.syr.edu/courses/modules/CLIMATE/Glacial/glacial.html
https://www.worldscientist.com/