President Bush’s climate summit of the world’s top polluters kicked off yesterday in Washington, D.C., with rhetoric aplenty and the arrest of some 49 protesters from Greenpeace and other environmental groups outside the State Department offices. Meanwhile, inside the conference, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice talked up the need for strong climate action even while advocating the administration’s position that each nation should act in its own self-interest and at its own speed toward as-yet-undefined voluntary goals. President Bush said in a brief speech to the summit this morning, “We acknowledge there is a problem, and by setting this goal, we commit ourselves to doing something about it. We share a common responsibility: to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions while keeping our economies growing. … Each nation must decide for itself the right mix of tools and technology to achieve results that are measurable and environmentally effective.”
