Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Time
, which had dubbed Ronald Reagan “Man of the Year” in 1980, modi-
fied the award in order to name the Endangered Earth “Planet of the Year”
in 1989.
58
Distancing himself from the Reagan administration's reactionary
environmental policies, Vice President George Bush declared himself “the
environmental candidate” during the 1988 presidential primaries (a bold
statement considering that Al Gore was also in the field at that time, albeit
for the Democrats).
59
Bush specifically tagged global warming as a new and
important environmental challenge and vowed to counter the greenhouse
effect with “the White House effect.”60
60
Despite the increasing visibility of the problem, however, once in office
Bush backed away from his commitment to fight global warming. His admin-
istration was slow to appoint a science advisor, and Bush received his main
briefings on the issue from William Nierenberg, then working for the con-
servative Marshall Institute, which had recently published a report casting
doubt on greenhouse warming.
61
Following Nierenberg's lead, the adminis-
tration— and particularly White House Chief of Staff John Sununu— began
to play up the uncertainties of atmospheric models and the climate system
itself.
62
The president took what one historian has called an “America-first,
business-first” approach to formulating policy on global warming.
63
The
administration stressed the “likelihood and severity of economic risks
that
would
be posed by regulation, while downplaying those that
might
be
posed by 'potential' climate change.”
64
Thus, despite unprecedented public
interest and domestic political backing for addressing climate change, the
Bush administration, like most other national governments, entered inter-
national negotiations on climate change in the late 1980s focused primar-
ily on protecting national economic interests. Just as at home, within the
international community the Bush administration used doubts about the
science of global warming as a first line of defense against aggressive climate
change policy. The IPCC became a vehicle for these doubts.
the iPcc and the neW Politics of consensus
As the Bush administration understood, the overt ties between the IPCC
and the forthcoming UNFCCC not only helped establish political buy-in
on future climate change policy; these ties also raised the political and eco-
nomic stakes of the IPCC's assessment of climate science itself. Whereas
the 1985 Villach conference was just another in a series of warnings from
