The environmental (and mathematical) genius John Kerry, Democrat of Massachusetts and failed presidential candidate (and owner of 6 enormous mansions and a private jet), sneered and dismissed the scientific report’s initial estimate summarily, and then informed us peons, oh-so-authoritatively, as such: “This is more proof that this President just doesn’t get it when it comes to combating climate change. The science tells us that we need to reduce our emissions by 60-80% by 2050 in order to avoid catastrophic damage.”
Well then. Apparently math and common sense aren’t environmentalists’—or liberals’—strong points.
Carbon dioxide emissions dropped by 1.3 percent last year. And that was in an economic boom year in the United States, during which such an achievement would naturally be difficult. At that rate, by 2050, carbon dioxide emissions will drop by far in excess of 60% by 2050.
43 x 1.3 = 55.9, and that doesn’t take compounding into account—which would increase the reduction to 74.6% by 2050; nor does it take into account economically slow years when emissions would normally drop more easily. At this rate, in effect, the goal would be far, far exceeded by 2050.
But, see, Bush “just doesn’t get it when it comes to combating climate change”.
Not signing Kyoto is apparently a boon to the environment, and the economy, then, beyond even John Kerry’s wildest dreams. Bush was right again.
U.S. Carbon Emissions Fell 1.3% in 2006
By Juliet Eilperin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, May 24, 2007; Page A14U.S. carbon dioxide emissions dropped slightly last year even as the economy grew, according to an initial estimate released yesterday by the Energy Information Administration.
The 1.3 percent drop in CO{-2} emissions marks the first time that U.S. pollution linked to global warming has declined in absolute terms since 2001 and the first time it has gone down since 1990 while the economy was thriving. Carbon dioxide emissions declined in both 2001 and 1991, in large part because of economic slowdowns during those years.
In 2006 the U.S. economy grew 3.3 percent, a fact President Bush touted yesterday as he hailed the government’s “flash estimate” that the country’s carbon dioxide emissions dropped by 78 million metric tons last year…
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