Some call it “resolve.” British Prime Minister Tony Blair came just short of calling it “stubborn.” Speaking to reporters about the possibility of holding any influence whatsoever on President George W. Bush regarding the Kyoto Protocol, Blair said it was “not achievable.”
“Obviously, there is a disagreement over the Kyoto treaty and you are not going to resolve that disagreement.”
Though he doubts his ability to persuade the Texan president, Blair leads by example. Blair will make the Kyoto Protocol, a treaty aimed at reducing green house gas emissions worldwide, a central issue at the upcoming G8 summit in Scotland.
Then again, a positive attitude may be required. You aren’t going to get anywhere with an attitude like that. Though Bush is unwavering (stubborn), Blair admitted that a solution to global warming would not become a reality without the help of the United States.
The US is the largest producer of greenhouse gases in the world yet it is still the lone holdout among the developed world.
But W likes to point at other countries with bad behavior like China and India for a “they’re doing it too” type of justification.
“I couldn’t in good faith have signed Kyoto,” Bush told the Danish Broadcasting Corp., before mentioning that India and China were not included in the treaty even though they were “big polluters.”
Bush’s most damning criticism of the Kyoto Protocol was that if the US signed it, the treaty would have “wrecked the economy.”
The President said that finding diverse sources of energy were a key element of the US’s effort for reducing greenhouse emissions. He also noted that a reliance on Middle East oil remained an obstacle.
