A lethal silence surrounds Bush's failure to embrace the Kyoto Protocol

[NV1962]

(xpost)

The news of the Russian government’s approval of the Kyoto Protocol, by sending it for ratification to the Duma, is making its rounds today - in Europe much more so than in US media. Which seems somewhat understandable, considering the underlying political wrangling on the global stage that is mentioned almost in passing at the very end of that article in The Scotsman:

(…) the deciding factor appears to have been not the economic cost, but the political benefits for Russia.

In particular, there has been talk of stronger European Union support for Russia’s bid to join the World Trade Organization, in response to its ratification of the treaty.

I think there are two significant angles to this story. It appears that the Kyoto Protocol has finally survived the Bush administration’s assault, as ratification by the Duma isn’t expected to present a problem. And with it, the Kyoto Protocol will finally come into effect, undoubtedly much to Bush’s chagrin - or rather, that of his energy buddies and industrial backers.

Which brings me to my second observation: Bush’s rogue-ish arrogance and unilateralist myopia towards the Kyoto Protocol has undercut and in the end annulled the U.S. government’s initially enormous leverage, and with it an important opportunity to set more favorable terms for the Kyoto Protocol.

There’s nothing surprising in that attitude. It’s highly characteristic in an administration that seems to revel in its global autism. Whether it’s about prosecution of the war in Iraq, world trade negotiations, the International Criminal Court, WMD proliferation treaties, or environmental sustainability negotiations: Bush takes pride in his sterile gung-ho attitude that apparently plays well to a very narrow domestic audience, while the deeper and broader interests of the people in the United States succumb to this awkward combination of diplomatic incompetence, journalistic indifference and public ignorance of the potentially lethal long-term effects.

Now that the international ratification process of the Kyoto Protocol is entering the last stretch to its entering in effect, I wonder when both media and corporate executives in the U.S.A. will wake up to the realization that they’ve missed a vital opportunity to engage in negotiations over that landmark environmental treaty and obtain a result that is much more favorable to their interests.

Petulance is a costly luxury for any government. In fact, the inability to realize that the Kyoto Protocol is an inevitable next step in the evolution of global interdependence may very well end up causing permanent damage to the U.S. government’s future negotiation power. Either Washington catches up to the reality of today’s international complexity and its inherent need for sensitive, sensible and intelligent diplomacy, or it’ll be game over for the U.S. economic and geo-strategic supremacy within decades.

The sooner attention is given to the profound significance and the long-term implications of today’s news, the better. It is not about winning a moral higher ground or some abstract academic debate, but pure and simple self-interest. A global leader can’t ignore the inevitable bottom line logic of sustainability and simultaneously entertain notions of long-term dominance.

It’s about time that people in the U.S. realize the equally apalling alternative explanations for this ultimately self-destructive attitude that characterizes the Bush administration: they’re either comfortable with it, or oblivious to it.

Whichever it is, present and future Americans can ill afford Bush’s toxic arrogance.