After holding up progress at the recent U.N. Climate Talks in Bali, Assistant Secretary of State for Global Affairs Paula Dobriansky dramatically caved in to the world's leaders and stated, "The United States will join the consensus." This occurred after the United States had been booed by the world's diplomats for our continued rejection of the U.N. consensus opinion on a range of global warming issues. And it was one hour after a representative from Papua New Guinea stood up and said: "If you're not willing to lead, please get out of the way."
Why did this happen? After being humiliated by a country that only recently emerged from the Stone Age and booed by diplomats representing 6 billion human beings, did Dobriansky phone home and recommend that Bush waffle for once? Or maybe she was fatigued from having caused the last day of the meetings to go all night long and into the next day.
Why did we so narrowly avoid another Kyoto-style train wreck? As the recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report showed, the data have not changed: Global warming is occurring and very likely for "anthropogenic" (human-caused) reasons. We can likely do something about it, but we must act now.
The Bush administration didn't change its mind because scientists discovered the "missing link" in global warming science. The story told by the data has not changed: Global warming is here, it's urgent and unless we act now, we likely face a very grim future.
The Bush administration signed the U.N. consensus because the followers are beginning to lead and the leaders are beginning to follow. We in Blaine County will have the opportunity to lead with our leaders during this month's Focus the Nation (www.focusthenation.org) day on Jan. 31. Students and citizens across the nation will stand up and say to our leaders, "If you're not willing to lead, please get out of the way." Stay tuned.
Larry Barnes
Hailey
