Read this report of the UN Climate Talks in Poland earlier this month. It doesn’t need any comment.
“At the UN climate talks in Poznan, Poland, no farewell tears were shed for George Bush, whose rejection of the landmark Kyoto Protocol in 2001 almost destroyed multilateral efforts to roll back global warming.
“I don’t know how to put this,” top climate economist Nicholas Stern said mischievously at a dinner for businessmen and environmentalists, where he commented on Obama’s election.
“Relative to his prehistoric predecessor, it is something which we should celebrate,” he said, provoking loud cheers as he raised a wine glass to make a toast.
“Goodbye, George!”, he called out, amid cries of “Hear! Hear!”
South African Environment Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk sighed at the legacy of Bush’s two terms.
“It was a very difficult eight years. It was a disaster for climate change,”he told AFP.
“This climate conference will go down in history as the retirement party for the Flat Earth Society of the United States of America,” said Edward Markey, who chairs a panel on energy independence and climate change in the House of Representatives.
Asked to sum up Bush’s record on the issue, France’s climate ambassador Brice Lalonde chose instead to pass on a story he had heard.
A man comes to the White House asking to see Bush. “He doesn’t live here anymore,” he is told. The next two days he comes again asking the same question, and receiving the same answer.
On the fourth day, the exasperated guard shot back: “I’ve already told you, he’s no longer here.”
“I know, I know,” the man replied. “But it’s such a pleasure to hear you say it.”