A NN’er suggested to me yesterday that GWB might actually be good for the environment. Not for his science funding (even the DOE and nanotechnology programs received cuts), conservation, or influence over EPA, but because his foreign policies have contributed to the price of oil skyrocketing, forcing Americans to change their oil consumption habits. Therefore more people think about climate change (i.e. global warming) and sustainability. I suppose historically people have always needed external motivation to change. There’s a principle in geology that goes “the present is key to the past.” I wonder if that’s true for the future too?
(for the meaning to all this bold nonsense, read here)
Didn’t the previous Bush preside over a reduction in CO2 emissions as well? I heard this somewhere, apparently it was because of the recession he had.
Opinions differ.