{"id":107,"date":"2007-05-24T15:21:55","date_gmt":"2007-05-24T20:21:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/2007\/05\/24\/bush_co2\/"},"modified":"2008-04-22T14:00:49","modified_gmt":"2008-04-22T19:00:49","slug":"bush_co2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/2007\/05\/24\/bush_co2\/","title":{"rendered":"President says CO2 emissions have declined – have they?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yesterday, President Bush stated that carbon dioxide (CO2<\/sub>) emissions in 2006 declined 1.3 percent, "putting us well ahead of what is needed annually to meet my greenhouse gas intensity reduction goal of 18% by 2012." There are two problems with what he said<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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  1. The so-called "decline" is most likely a short-term dip in an upward trend.<\/li>\n
  2. The President’s goal is insufficient to halt global warming.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    <\/p>\n

    The graphs below come from an EPA report Trends in Greenhouse Gas Emissions [PDF]<\/a>. The first graph shows the annual percent change in greenhouse gas emissions from 1991 to 2005. As you can see, emissions fluctuate from year-to-year, and in some years they go down. In 2001, for example, emissions dropped 1.7 percent.<\/p>\n

    <\/p>\n

    But when you look at the cumulative trend, you see a different picture. The second graph shows that, despite some year-to-year fluctuations, U.S. greenhouse gas emissions are trending steadily upward, rising nearly 20 percent in the last 15 years.<\/p>\n

    <\/p>\n

    Even more important, the President’s emissions targets are not adequate to stop global warming. He mentioned two targets in his statement: <\/p>\n