Paul O'Neil - Canada's 2050 Plan Way Too Late To Do Anything For Climate

[hatrack]

Yes, that Paul O'Neil.

A former top U.S. official in the Bush administration says the world can't wait to tackle greenhouse gases until 2050, the date the Harper government wants Canada's emissions cut in half.

"We don't get the luxury of kind of growing into an awareness, we need to begin acting right now," said Paul O'Neil, who served as treasury secretary in President George W. Bush's cabinet for two years. "There is no doubt that we have witnessed an enormous increase in the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere over the last 100 years."

O'Neil spoke Wednesday at an Ottawa conference organized by the World Wildlife Fund on the risks and opportunities for business in tackling the problem. If the world eliminated all greenhouse gas emissions tomorrow, O'Neil noted, it would take a century for the current atmospheric concentrations to be cut in half. That's one reason why he said he doesn't think waiting until 2050 makes any sense.

EDIT

Yet while urging action to deal with a threat that he believes can fundamentally change the planet, O'Neil sounded more like his former boss when it came to the Kyoto accord, which was barely mentioned by business leaders and environmentalists at the conference. "I believe it was a political bargain crafted by the devil because it would have imposed enormous costs on the world and the contribution to reducing greenhouse gas concentrations was something close to zero," he said

EDIT

OK, Paul, you would suggest that we . . . ?

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2006/10/26/climate-change.html

[phantom power]

1. Sounds like Paul's plan is to wait for someone to invent Mr. Fusion