Paul Martin Pisses of Washington

[ollie]

Washington furious over Martin's climate change comments

A senior official in the Bush administration has told Canadian Ambassador Frank McKenna that Martin's comments are the worst slight against the president since Germany's Gerhard Schroeder suggested President George W. Bush's stance against the Kyoto Protocol was responsible for hurricane Katrina.

"There is such as thing as a global conscience," Martin said at the UN Conference on Climate Change on Wednesday.

"Now is the time to listen to it. Now's the time to join with others in our global community. Now is the time for resolve, for commitment and leadership and above all, now is the time for action. Because only by coming together can we make real and lasting progress."

I'm having a hard time trying to figure out what's blasphemous about his comments. Sensitive much, George?

[Davey Boy 2.0]

i'm loving that, kudos paulie m!

i think this goes back to whoever it was that called dubya a moron (in the Cretien days), there's a chip on the shoulders of the yanks- the fact is that the US were never going to give an inch on the environment anyway, so whether or not paul had called them on it, they would have nevertheless been boorish pigheaded self interested mypoic twunts, at least PM voiced what everyone else is thinking about them- the fact that the senoir bush official chided PM for his comments seems to indicate that at least they're feeling a bit self conscious about it

[AD]

That or the States see Paul Martin as a lame duck PM who is just taking potshots and grandstanding for Liberal votes at home, under cover of an official event for the PM of Canada.

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[Davey Boy 2.0]

oh it's certainly politically motivated, he's been taking plenty of flak or not having much of a plan to actually meet the protocol measures

either way, he might as well take the moral high ground even if it's a largely empty gesture

[AdamH]

I would doubt the US actually cares much. A "senior official" said something to the ambassador, and more likely the "senior official" was pissed off and Bush didn't have more than a moment to think about it. If it was Scott whateverhisnameis or a Press Secretary it might be a bit different.

[Davey Boy 2.0]

yup, i'd be mildly surprised if bush even heard about it

[can-o-phish]

The White House has officially complained about Prime Minister Paul Martin's comments this week at the climate change conference in Montreal.

OMG, it's like something out of grade school..."Miss Darling, Paul said something bad!"

Too bad The Mercer Report isn't back until the New Year 'cause Ricky would've had a run with this little gem of a story

[AdamH]

Even better, they're also "officially pissed" that Clinton is making a surprise appearance this weekend.

Here's a story with less CBC-Bias:

U.S. Stands alone as world climate talks go to wire

Industrialized and developing nations were close to a breakthrough on Friday on a deal to begin work on extending the Kyoto Protocol to fight global warming past 2012, but the United States resisted calls for new commitments to combat climate change.

On the final day of the Nov. 28-Dec. 9 U.N. conference on climate change, environmentalists said they were losing hope that the United States -- the largest producer of heat-trapping greenhouse gases -- would sign a separate agreement for all nations, not just Kyoto members.

[Davey Boy 2.0]

CBC News correspondent Neil MacDonald said he has been told that the Americans are watching the election campaign, and if there is too much anti-U.S. rhetoric, that it would an impair progress on sensitive political issues between the countries.

http://www.cbc.ca/story/canadavotes2006/national/2005/12/09/katrina-global-warming-bush-martin.html

[d_rawk]

Part of why they were pissed off was the hypocrisy of it. Some of the comments by their delegates in response were rightfully scathing, pointing out that they may not have signed on to Kyoto, but the US has done a better job of reducing emisions than Canada since that time.

According to a report by the U.N.'s climate-change secretariat that was released just before the Montreal meeting began, Canada's performance on greenhouse gas emissions is close to the worst in the world.

Under Kyoto, we, (and all other signatories) are pledged to reduce our emission by the period 2008 to 2012 to 6 per cent less than our levels in 1990. Instead of going down, our emissions have gone up — by a whopping one-quarter (24.2 per cent), by the end of 2003.

This is the sixth-worst performance in the world. Only one other large country, Spain, has performed worse than us.

Worse by far, in the light of Martin's opportunistic moralism, the U.S. has done far better than us. Its rate of emissions is also up, but only by a cumulative 13.3 per cent, roughly half as much as ours.

Questioned by reporters, Environmental Minister Stéphane Dion said our record was caused by our rapid economic growth during the period.

True. Except that the United States has had a faster economic growth rate than we did during the same period and has done better in terms of its emissions.

This doesn't mean that they're right and we're wrong. It means, rather, that we're both wrong: the U.S. not to have joined Kyoto and ourselves because we have done so little — really nothing more than some expensive ad campaigns about conservation. Nor is there any prospect of our record improving. Real change would require penalties for polluters.

The Martin government has neither the will nor the nerve to do this. And the oil sands, which we are developing as fast as possible, are the most polluting form of oil extraction of all.

one of many articles

The fallout is that the US is expected to veto a Canadian proposal regarding climate change within the UN.

[Freak By Night]

Part of why they were pissed off was the hypocrisy of it. Some of the comments by their delegates in response were rightfully scathing, pointing out that they may not have signed on to Kyoto, but the US has done a better job of reducing emisions than Canada since that time.

If you read the article that you're quoting, you'll see that the US has not reduced emissions at all. US emissions have increased by 13.3%

[d_rawk]

True, good point. I guess what I meant was that they have done a better job at reigning in their increasing emissions than Canada has.