Huckabee's global warming dance
Gov. Mike Huckabee sent mixed signals this morning about how he would approach global warming if elected President.
During a speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington DC, the Republican former Arkansas governor derided the Kyoto Protocol, the 1997 international agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. He insisted America should never surrender its sovereignty to international organizations or compromise its interests with burdensome agreements or excessive regulation.
But then, during a press conference afterward, Huckabee seemed to suggest that God gave man a moral responsibility to protect His creation from greenhouse gas pollution. But he was evasive on whether he believes global warming is being caused by human industry, saying "that's an issue that can be divisive."
A reporter asked Huckabee: "Do you believe that people have a moral responsibility to protect God's creation from pollution, including man-made global warming?"
He replied: "I do believe we have a moral responsibility to take care of the planet....At the heart of conservatism is conservation.....The Earth doesn't belong to us, it is not ours to abuse...For me, it's a matter of 'I don't own something, it's not mine to abuse it.'"
"Anything that says we can use up the planet...That's not conservatism, that's pure selfishness," Huckabee said.
Bloomberg news reported in October 2007 that Huckabee was only the second Republican candidate for President to support mandatory caps on greenhouse gas emissions. The other candidate who supports them is Sen. John McCain, who sponsored an early but failed legislative effort to limit global warming gases through a "cap and trade" system. Such systems financially penalize polluters and reward companies that reduce their emissions of carbon dioxide. President Bush and all the Republican candidates who have dropped out of the race oppose mandatory limits on carbon dioxide.
Is it a coincidence that the two top remaining candidates on the Republican side -- as well as both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama on the Democratic side -- all support mandatory limits on global warming pollution? As the poet once wrote, "We report, you decide." (Wait...sorry...maybe that was Fox News).
Here is what Bloomberg news reported on October 13:
Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee said he supports a mandatory cap on global-warming pollution and that the U.S. has a moral obligation to address climate change.
``It goes to the moral issue,'' the former Arkansas governor said at a climate-change conference today in Manchester, New Hampshire. ``We have a responsibility to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, to conserve energy, to find alternative forms of energy that are renewable and sustainable and environmentally friendly.''
Huckabee said he supports an economy-wide ``cap-and-trade'' system to control greenhouse gases, which scientists say are causing climate change. The program, which has been introduced in Congress, would create a market for buying and selling permits to allow carbon-dioxide emissions. President George W. Bush is among Republicans who oppose a carbon cap.
I report on the environment and Chesapeake Bay. A native of West Virginia, I have focused mainly on Maryland's environment since moving here in 1983. Along the way, I've crewed aboard a skipjack in the bay, canoed under city streets up the Jones Fall from the Inner Harbor, and gone deep underground in a western Maryland coal mine. Recently, I have been covering the growth and development transforming the landscape. I love seafood, rambles in the country and good stories. I hope to share some here.
Comments
Over 400 World Wide Prominent Scientists Disputed Man-Made Global Warming Claims in 2007. See http://tinyurl.com/2dv6nz
Posted by: Dr Coles | February 10, 2008 10:34 AM
Why do the news media not talk about the need to study and deploy as needed "climate change geoengineering" to stop global warming in short order? This approach, in one version of which would emulate the cooling effect of large volcanic eruptions has been advocated by many prominent scientists over the past 30 years but is not spoken - except when forced to by the IPCC, the environmental community (they don't answer phone calls on the subject) and most of the media!!
Posted by: Sol Shapiro | February 10, 2008 2:44 PM