Who heard what happened in Bali over the weekend? It was hard to find, but basically, every country at a conference on climate change, most of the 200 countries in the world, decided to put off important decisions on stopping global warming until 2009.
Because that is when our new president will be elected.
I don't think the moniker of the "most powerful person in the world" ever rang so true. Our president has the singular power to veto anything that the rest of the world signs on climate change. Period.
The reason goes something like this:
We produce 1/4 of the greenhouse gases in the world, so any plan that doesn't include us will not work;
The president has veto power over the ratification in the U.S. Senate of any protocol (the protocol would be a treaty, and the U.S. Constitution gives power over treaties to the Senate);
Even if that veto is overturned by a 2/3 majority of the Senate, making it a law, the president can include with his or her signature a signing statement saying, in essence, his or her administration will not enforce the parts of the law he or she does not like.
So even if every other country in the world signs onto and ratifies a climate-protection pact, and our own Senate votes for it with more than a 2/3 majority, the president can with a pen stroke say, "The United States of America, to protect its vital homeland security, will not allow the creation of a cap-and-trade program that would slow our economic growth, because that would make us weak in the face of terrorism."
And it will all go up in smoke.
One person. One vote. Please make sure we give that vote to the person who shares your view on the subject.
