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- [water splashing] - [children laughing and talking]
You've had enough. I have too.
We've all had more than enough of this hot, humid, hazy weather.
And we're all sick and tired of hearing about more 90-degree days.
[man] You do it all right at your GM dealers.
Hi, I'm Belinda Carlisle, and you're watching MTV.
["Heaven is a Place on Earth" by Belinda Carlisle plays]
♪ Ooh, Heaven is a place on Earth ♪
♪ They say in Heaven, love comes first ♪
♪ We'll make Heaven a place on Earth ♪
[man] That's it! Whoo!
♪ In this world, we're just beginning… ♪
Another day of sweltering temperature for most of the country.
In at least two dozen cities,
there has never been a June 22nd as hot as this one.
[ominous music playing]
[man] This is by far the worst it's been.
I can't remember one that's where the heat has just gone on and on.
It's very difficult for me particularly because I'm asthmatic,
and it poses a serious health threat.
Alarm bells are beginning to sound across the continent
as the drought of '88 enters a critical stage.
[reporter] The government says there are now drought conditions in 48 states.
The barren spots in the mountains, the parched fields of the Midwest,
the soaring temperatures throughout the country
all finally have got people believing in what once seemed science fiction.
Nationwide, our heat wave has killed at least 36 people.
Two men in their early twenties
died of heat stroke during the last month here.
The big worry, that the hot temperatures may be due to a buildup of carbon dioxide
in the atmosphere, the dreaded greenhouse effect.
[music fades]
[gavel pounding]
[Tim Wirth] I think the question that everybody's asking today,
with all of the heat going on
across the Middle West and the Southwest and so on is,
is the current heat wave and drought related to the greenhouse effect?
I'd like to start with Dr. James Hansen, uh,
the director of the Goddard Institute for Space Studies.
The rate of warming in the past 25 years is the highest on the record.
The four warmest years have all been in the 1980s,
and 1988 will be the warmest year on the record.
This evidence represents a very strong case, in my opinion,
that the greenhouse effect has been detected
and it is changing our climate now.
No one heat wave can be ascribed uniquely to the greenhouse warming.
But, as Jim said,
it's reasonable to assume that the greenhouse effect is here.
It's happening. The warming has begun.
[intriguing piano music plays]
[reporter 1] We have changed the atmosphere itself,
many scientists are now persuaded,
and made an entrapping bubble of it.
We find ourselves inside the bubble.
[disconcerting string music plays]
[reporter 2] Rapid climate warming would change the face of the globe
and might well be accompanied by more frequent natural disasters.
New York could have the same kind of weather that Miami has today.
[man] Dr. Stephen Schneider is with the National Center for Atmospheric Research.
I've probably received ten phone calls a week
in the last several months asking the question,
is this heat wave and drought finally the manifestation that you and others
have been talking about for 15 years?
Are you ready to say, "I told you so"?
There are not many opportunities when someone with your expertise
has a chance to talk to millions of Americans
at the same time and say, "Hey, dummies, wake up."
No matter how we do the calculations, backwards, forwards, or sideways,
it comes out the same.
So we know that the greenhouse effect is real.
[journalist] Do you know what the greenhouse effect is?
The pollution through… oil and plastics
and the destruction of those things in our natural environment.
We regulate traffic and we regulate other affairs in our life.
This is one very important issue that we should take care of.
[reporter] President Reagan went to America's heartland today
to get a firsthand look at the effects of the drought.
Farmers face the worst natural disaster since the Dust Bowl of the 1930s.
[reporter] In Illinois, Vice President George Bush consoled farmers whose fields
are full of withered crops.
In this campaign year,
the White House and the vice president are very sensitive to the fact
that how they handle the drought emergency could have a big effect
on Republican chances.
[man] Ladies and gentlemen, the vice president of the United States.
[crowd applauding, whistling]
[reporter] After seven years in the shadow of Ronald Reagan,
George Bush moved into the spotlight tonight and said,
"I want to be your leader."
"Listen, take a look, tell me in November what you think."
[dramatic high note plays]
[high note swells, fades]
- [indistinct conversations] - [tools thudding and clacking]
[camera shutters clicking]
[Bush] What this is about today, my aspirations.
We'll talk about what I want to do, how I want to lead in the environment.
[man] Vice President of the US, the Honorable George Bush.
- [applause] - Welcome to Michigan.
Thank you all. Thank you.
- It's beautiful out here. - It's a lovely setting.
[Bush] Thank you, ladies and gentlemen.
Thank you very, very much.
This summer, we've seen a lot of talk about the greenhouse effect.
As the nations of the world grow,
they burn increasing amounts of fossil fuels
and that gives off carbon dioxide
and thus could contribute to an increase
in temperatures in the atmosphere.
But some say these problems are too big,
that it's impossible to solve the problem of global warming.
My response is simple.
It can be done and we must do it.
And these issues
know no ideology, no political boundaries,
not a liberal or a conservative thing we're talking about here today.
They are the common agenda of the future.
Those who think we're powerless to do anything about this greenhouse effect
are forgetting about the White House effect.
And as president, I intend to do something about it.
[device whirring]
♪ Heaven is a place on… ♪
[music distorting]
- ["Let's Dance" by David Bowie plays] - ♪ Let's dance… ♪
[male announcer] Soul Train.
The hippest trip in America.
- [static crackles] - [music fades]
[static crackling softly]
[somber piano music plays]
Is it just bad weather or a historic change in climate?
And how will it affect our lives?
Scientists have been brooding over those questions for years.
Now one of them has gone public with this issue.
He's Dr. Stephen Schneider, a climatologist in Boulder, Colorado.
And he warns that we are gambling with our future and losing.
[intriguing string music plays]
Schneider is deputy head of the Climate Project
at the National Center for Atmospheric Research.
Whether he's meeting with colleagues or looking for trends in weather data,
his concern about our survival is almost obsessive.
Certain human pollutants are growing at an exponential rate.
[interviewer] You're talking about industrial and automotive
pollution of the air.
That's one example, yes.
The burning of fossil fuel, coal and oil and gas,
it all ends up with a by-product, carbon dioxide.
And the amount of carbon dioxide that was produced over the last century
we know has been increasing in the atmosphere.
There's no doubt about that.
We see about a 10% increase in carbon dioxide over the last 20 years.
[music fades]
Now, what does that do?
Well, it leads to the greenhouse effect, with tending to warm up the Earth,
which could lead to a change in the climate
that's unprecedented in the last 5,000 years.
That could occur as early as the end of the century,
competing with natural changes.
You saying it could happen?
It could happen. I don't think it's one in 10,000 either.
- You think it's-- - Much higher than that.
[Jimmy Carter] Good evening.
Tonight I want to have an unpleasant talk with you
about a problem that's unprecedented in our history.
The oil and natural gas that we rely on for 75% of our energy
are simply running out.
Our energy problems have the same cause as our environmental problems.
Wasteful use of resources.
Conservation helps us solve both problems at once.
[interviewer] Is there an area that the president touched on tonight
that you can't live with?
I don't like to be cold in the winter.
[laughs]
[interviewer] Are you willing to make some sacrifices to get us out of this bind?
I-- I have no problem with that,
and I have no problem saying to my children they should too.
In fact, they're telling me much of the time.
["Sunshine on my Shoulders" plays]
♪ Sunshine on my shoulders ♪
♪ Makes me happy… ♪
[interviewer] Would you pitch in what you can?
I think I will. I'm going to try to. Yeah.
I think the president can't do it all himself.
I'm sure that we're all going to have to, uh, pitch in.
Did President Carter scare you last night as far as energy's concerned?
I didn't see Carter last night, man. I got drunk last night.
[chorus] ♪ Sunshine on my shoulders ♪
♪ Makes me happy… ♪
[Carter] By the end of this century, I want our nation to derive 20%
of all the energy we use from the sun.
The long-term threats,
which just a few years ago were not even considered,
the buildup of carbon dioxide.
These kinds of concerns affect you and me.
Energy conservation has got to become a way of life.
[projector whirring]
[announcer] This is the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite.
Good evening.
Three presidents have tried to convince us we must use less oil.
But without success.
Consumption has risen and so has the nation's dependence on foreign oil.
While Iran is struggling to regain political order,
it still is not exporting oil.
And Iranian oil is an important part of American gasoline production.
The situation could become as serious as the '73-'74 Arab oil embargo.
["Take the Long Way Home" by Roger Hodgson plays]
[reporter] Energy Department officials unveiled a standby gasoline rationing plan
which could restrict automobile users to two gallons a day.
♪ So you think you're a Romeo ♪
♪ You're playing a part In a picture show ♪
♪ Well, take the long way home ♪
♪ Take the long way home… ♪
I've been in two gas lines already.
- [man] This morning? - This morning.
- [man] How long for the first one? - In both lines over an hour.
And I'm out of gas.
Dead out.
[car horns honking]
♪ Take the long way home… ♪
People ought to just take their cars, put them in their garages,
and let them sit there.
[man] You're not doing that.
I'm not doing it because nobody else is. What am I gonna do? Sit home by myself?
[car horns honking]
You know? If everybody'd do it, that would be a great idea.
[woman] Isn't this disgusting?
Why doesn't anybody contact the president? Why is he letting this happen to us?
- [song ends] - [horns honking]
Good evening.
I'm here tonight to announce my intention
to seek the Republican nomination for president of the United States.
[intriguing music plays]
If you ever had any doubt
of the government's inability to provide for the people,
just look at the utter fiasco
we now call the Energy Crisis.
The answer to our energy problem
is to take the authority away from government
and put it back in the hands of those who are experts in the field of energy.
[applause, cheers]
The oil companies now are issuing their financial statements
for the second quarter of this year, the period of the longest gas lines,
and their profits are way up.
Sitting beside me is Jack Bennett,
a senior vice president and member of Exxon Corporation's board of directors.
You have a union leader saying your profits are pornographic.
Aren't you kind of embarrassed you're making 119% increase in profits?
I'm not embarrassed because I know we've been moderate.
[intriguing music continues]
[Reagan] I have asked and I am recommending to this convention
that George Bush be nominated.
- [gentle music playing] - [applauding and cheering loudly]
[reporter] George Bush, a Connecticut Yankee
who moved to Texas and made a fortune in the oil business.
Former Congressman from Houston,
former Ambassador to the United Nations,
former director of the Central Intelligence Agency.
[crowd applauding]
Governor Reagan's approach to our energy policy
is to put all our eggs in one basket
and give that basket to the major oil companies.
[interviewer] Who'd you vote for?
- I voted for Reagan. - I vote for Reagan.
- Reagan. - He voted for Reagan too.
Who else?
Carter.
- Who'd you vote for in 1976? - Carter.
He's not such a bad guy.
Thank goodness after all we've had of Carter,
who would want another four years of him?
[NBC theme chimes]
[band marching, playing "Yankee Doodle"]
[people cheering]
[Jensen] Last night, all across the country,
businessmen loved what they heard.
We must come to grips with inefficient and burdensome regulations,
eliminate those we can, and reform the others.
I have asked Vice President Bush to head a cabinet-level task force
on regulatory relief.
- [man 1] You ready? - [man 2] Yeah.
- [man 1] Okay. - Can we go fairly tight on him? Uh…
- [man 2] Speed. - [man 1] Still rolling.
- [man 2] Okay. - [interviewer] Okay, Mr. Garvin.
- Happy to have Reagan in the White House? - Yes, I am.
I think… Considering the kinds of events and where we were,
I think if you look at this first 30 days, or whatever it's been,
he couldn't have asked for more.
[intriguing synth music plays]
[reporter] Vice President Bush singled out 30 regulations for administration review.
We've gone too far in the federal government
regulating things.
[reporter] The Reagan administration wants federal air pollution laws loosened.
The changes range from a rollback of auto-emission standards
to making it easier for industry to burn coal.
[Reagan] This administration wants to achieve economic growth
by reducing government intrusions
in order to expand human freedom.
And together, we'll make America great again.
- Thank you. - [applause]
["Eminence Front" playing]
I want my MTV.
[male reporter] Reagan has cut the Carter solar budget in half.
Exxon sold its solar-collector plant.
♪ The sun shines… ♪
Exxon has already invested over $300 million to produce American coal.
[song fading]
[ominous music plays]
- [rumbling] - [eerie music plays]
[people clapping rhythmically in protest]
[reporter] Conservationists attack plans to speed up the development
of coal and minerals on 768 million acres of public land.
This is my home and I would like to feel free to live here.
[women] ♪ We can fight together ♪
[tense music playing]
[clanks]
[whirring]
[device clicking]
[wind gusting]
[trilling]
[whirring]
Unfortunately, there is no other model of the Earth
with which we can make experiments
to see what causes fluctuations in the climate.
So we have to turn to mathematical models of climate.
[intriguing string music plays]
Then you literally pollute the model.
You type in a different CO2 concentration.
You run the model so many years forward in simulated time.
Compute a new climate.
And that's where these predictions,
which say two or three-degree temperature warming in 100 years,
come from.
Testing often involves comparing simulations
against a variety of empirical observations.
For example, right up there on Mauna Loa,
the very famous observatory, is this intake.
It sucks air in from the outside and feeds it into these instruments.
[devices clicking]
That's the instrument that Dave Keeling set up.
And he did it based on previous science done by Roger Revelle.
It gave me goose bumps to stand in front because it's possible that one instrument
could change the course of industrial civilization.
Since 1958, it's been, uh, measuring
the carbon-dioxide content of the atmosphere.
[dramatic notes playing]
[dramatic string music plays]
[reporter] We Americans use twice as much oil every day
as all the rest of the world put together.
And we mine more coal
than any other people.
[shatters]
[people cheering]
[Schneider] Here we are at present somewhere around 350 parts per million.
The steady trend is up.
So, if you take this curve and you continue to project it,
it doesn't just go straight.
Its graph starts to take off and up the page.
[somber music playing]
Somewhere around the end of this century,
or the first decade or two of the next century,
that's when you reach the level when our present theories say
you should have a large effect.
- [music fading] - [projector whirring]
[ship horn bellows]
[dreamlike music playing]
[ship horn bellows]
[device whirring]
[dreamlike music continues]
[music fades]
Even the pessimists, ones that predict these terrible cases,
aren't really predicting large effects for 50 years or so.
So I don't see the-- the reason for haste.
[Al Gore] This problem has reached a new stage in its development.
A scientific consensus has emerged, and now the debate is over how long
before the first effects will actually be felt.
As a result, it is moving from the scientific realm
into the political realm.
How are the policymakers going to react to this challenge?
[ominous music plays]
[music swells]
[music fades]
Those who think we're powerless to do anything about this greenhouse effect
are forgetting about the White House effect.
And as president, I intend to do something about it.
- [applause] - [crowd murmuring in agreement]
[Bush] Thank you all very, very much.
[Jan] It's eight minutes after 10:00 on WHO,
I'm Jan Mickelson, and could you name for me the top issues
that the new president should be facing?
[man] What I'd like to see the new president do
is really protect the environment
and get the right people to do it.
[Jan] In every public-opinion survey, that seems to be a bipartisan issue.
That's one apple pie, motherhood issue
I don't think any new administration
is going to have trouble dealing with.
[gentle piano music plays]
[reporter] The environment is one issue George Bush is using to distance himself
from the current administration.
I don't think we have been doing enough
to protect our environment in recent years.
We need to do more.
Coming from one of the charter members
of the environmental wrecking crew which went to Washington in 1981,
that's very strange indeed.
[man] I think the environmental issue is an issue that gets people out to vote.
It's an issue that makes people mad as hell
or makes sure that they go and they do something on election day.
We need a president who'll be committed to clean up the environment.
We need to do much, much better
with our environment,
and I will be a good president for the environment.
I'll do a good job because I am committed.
[reporter] Once again, I don't know
which George Bush I'm talking about here or looking at.
I plan on voting for George Bush.
- I'm gonna vote for Dukakis. - Bush.
[intriguing music plays]
[music ends]
[male reporter] It's over. Uh, George Bush wins.
[scattered applause]
[exhales in relief]
[chuckles]
[siren wailing]
[reporter] George Bush took a giant step today
toward filling the remaining top positions in his administration.
That Bill Reilly has agreed to serve as, uh, the administrator of the EPA.
[male reporter] William Kane Reilly,
president's Counsel on Environmental Qualities,
World Wildlife Fund,
the Conservation Foundation.
If we allow development to go hither and yon,
I think we'll continue to see, all across the country,
standoffs between environmentalists and developers.
To my knowledge, this is the first time
the leader of a major conservation organization
has been appointed directly
to the position of EPA administrator.
[intriguing music playing]
Perhaps the campaign rhetoric about pollution and the environment
was more than just talk.
[reporter 1] Mr. Bush also announced that John Sununu
will be George Bush's White House chief of staff.
[reporter 2] Governor John Sununu, conservative, Republican,
PhD in engineering.
[reporter 3] Friends say he also campaigned hard
for the job of Ronald Reagan's energy secretary
and was devastated when someone else was chosen.
[reporter 4] And just what kind of guy is he?
Brilliant, arrogant,
opinionated, strong-willed.
[reporter 5] An ideological warrior.
Energy is a very important component to the capacity of this country
to continue its way of life with the quality of life
that we have come to recognize as being crucial.
[journalist] Do you see it also as an opportunity
for you to give your views to the president?
Uh, if I have an opportunity to speak, uh, with the conservative perspective
as those issues come along, I will do that.
[journalist] Are you hot-tempered?
[people chuckle]
I'm a pussycat.
[people laugh]
[man 1] They're coming. You wanna…? We can be here or out there.
[man chuckles]
- [man 2] Maybe that's a little flat. - [man 3] Yes.
- Morning, everybody. - Good morning.
Bright and early. Good morning.
Good morning, good morning.
Let's eat.
Let's see what else we got. Patty?
Let me just give her a little junk here, and then we'll sit in.
[Sununu] I prepared this to make me legitimate,
if you'd be a witness.
I'm making you legitimate?
- [Sununu] Yeah, swear me in. - Right now? Let's do it.
[man] That I'll well and faithfully discharge…
That I'll well and faithfully discharge…
…duties of the office…
[man] …on which I'm about to enter.
…on which I'm about to enter.
- [man] So help me God. - So help me God.
- Thank you. - [man] Congratulations.
- You're in. - I can do it now.
- Great. - Yeah, thank you.
[man] No turning back now.
- Thank you very much. - [Bush] That's good.
Well, that was painless.
[man] All right, go give some orders now. Be the chief.
[tense string music plays]
- [applause] - [music fades]
And so tonight, we must take a strong America and make it even better.
We must address some very real problems.
We need a new attitude about the environment.
Because the time
for study alone has passed and the time for action is now.
[applause]
And in some cases,
the gulfs and oceans off our shores
hold the promise
of oil and gas reserves,
which can make our nation more secure and less dependent on foreign oil.
And when those with the most promise can be tapped safely,
as with much of the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge,
we should proceed.
[applause, cheers]
[tense music plays]
[static crackling]
[male radio operator] Exxon Valdez. Valdez traffic.
[Joseph Hazelwood] Yeah. Uh, it's Valdez back.
Uh, we've touched up, uh, hard aground.
We're leaking some oil.
And, uh, we're gonna be here for a while.
[male reporter] The tanker Exxon Valdez ran aground
after loading a cargo of 1.25 million barrels
from the Alaska pipeline.
More than 8.5 million gallons poured into Prince William Sound.
[camera shutters clicking]
Who else have you got?
Ah.
The pilot departed in here someplace.
The vessel told VTS
that he wanted to get into this side
of the traffic-separation scheme
rather than go down his side because out here you get
some bergy bits coming off Columbia Glacier.
Now he hit the reef--
At about 12 knots and opened her up almost all the way.
The press hasn't realized how far that ship's opened.
Co-chaired by both.
- [Yost] Coast Guard and EPA. - Yeah.
[Yost] Coast Guard at sea, EPA on land.
[man] Settle down.
This is a matter of tremendous concern to Alaska and indeed to all of us.
Conservation side is important. The energy side is important.
Bill Reilly, the head of EPA,
will go up to Alaska to take a hard look
at where this disaster stands.
[helicopter blades whirring]
[tragic string music plays]
[reporter 1] On Alaska's north slope, Exxon is going farther
to find new reserves nearly 300 miles above the Arctic Circle.
[reporter 2] The Trans-Alaska pipeline will travel 789 miles
to the ice-free port of Valdez on Prince William Sound.
[reporter 3] Valdez is among the world's most beautiful areas.
[helicopter blades whirring]
[tragic string music continues]
[man] You come highly recommended.
You're the first environmentalist that's ever headed the agency.
Now that places a horrendous responsibility upon you.
Can you give us an assessment of the damage?
[Reilly] It's difficult to describe in terms that convey the impression
that that much oil in the water makes on you.
It's just heartbreaking.
I found myself asking the question, "Is this really the best we can do?"
[reporter] The big eight oil companies explore, drill, and pump
more than 50% of America's oil.
The eight major oil companies also own pipelines and refineries
and 60% of gasoline stations in the United States.
[interviewer] And I don't think many people realize how big Exxon really is.
Now there is a fundamental question here, Mr. Jamieson, of corporate responsibility.
Should any company be as big as Exxon is?
What have we done that's so bad?
I think we have failed to be sufficiently attentive
to the very severe damage
that oil can continue to do to our environment.
And this does raise broader questions about the, uh, dependency we have
on fossil fuels and oil.
[all chanting] Boycott Exxon! Boycott Exxon!
Boycott Exxon! Boycott Exxon!
This is what I think of you, Exxon.
[all chanting] Boycott Exxon! Boycott Exxon!
First up tonight, a newsmaker interview with Lawrence Rawl,
chairman of the board of Exxon Corporation.
Are you going to have a long way to claw back as an industry
against the, uh-- the public relations and other effects of this?
This is not meant as an excuse
or trying to say this isn't a bad thing to have happen.
It's a terrible thing to have happen.
But the facts are I don't really think that the impact
will be catastrophic unless people want to stop using oil
or they just give up on energy totally.
I don't think any of us think that's a very practical way to do things.
[interviewer] Mr. Rawl, thank you for joining us.
Thank you for giving me the opportunity.
[Reilly] The press and others
ask whether this is really going to be
an environmentalist administration.
Scientists estimate that if we don't act to reduce greenhouse gases,
worldwide temperatures will rise at least two to three degrees centigrade
by the year 2050.
We dare not ignore it.
Environmental protection is about sustaining life on Earth
for the long term.
I think we at EPA are the long-distance runners of government.
By our example and with our encouragement,
I believe this nation can lead the campaign to re-stabilize the planet.
Thank you very much.
- [applause] - [tragic string music plays]
[music ends]
- Hey, Bill. - Mr. President.
- [Bush] How are you? - Good. Thanks.
[talking indistinctly]
- Mr. President. Mr. Chairman. - Good.
Mike, it's easier…
I think Mike's wheelchair fits easier here.
- [Mike] All right. - We'll get a quick shot.
Bill, why don't you sit over here next to me.
Everybody, Al, Mike, anywhere, just grab a seat and we'll…
[tense music plays]
[music becomes ominous]
[music fading]
[gavel clacks]
This hearing will come to order.
I'd like to welcome our witnesses.
Dr. James Hansen and Dr. Steven Schneider.
Dr. Schneider, would you say there is now a consensus in the scientific community
that there will be warming?
[Schneider] If you define "consensus" as saying
the majority of knowledgeable people
considers it an even bet, I'd say yes,
there certainly is and probably has been for a decade or so.
[Wirth] Let me ask you, Dr. Hansen,
have you ever been asked to brief, uh, Mr. Sununu
or the, uh, White House staff on issues
of global climate change?
No.
- [Wirth] Have you, Dr. Schneider? - No.
Dr. Hansen, in your statement,
you respond to our request for scientific understanding
by saying that increases in greenhouse gases will intensify drought
in the United States.
I am, uh, puzzled that you also say on page four of your statement
that that conclusion shouldn't be regarded as reliable.
Why do you directly contradict yourself
in the testimony you're giving
about this scientific question?
[Hansen] The… The last paragraph in that section
which seems to be in contradiction to that
was not a paragraph which I wrote.
That was added to my testimony in the process of review.
Now if the Bush administration
forced you to change a scientific conclusion,
it's a form of science fraud by them.
Well, I did object to the addition of that paragraph because in essence,
it says that I believe that all the scientific conclusions
that I just discussed are not reliable.
I certainly don't agree with that.
The testimony represents, uh, my scientific opinion,
not government policy.
I don't believe
that, uh-- that the science aspects in the testimony should be altered.
With that, this hearing will stand adjourned.
[gavel clacks]
[journalists clamoring]
[journalist] Are you worried about retaliation
or that someone may try to make it rough on you?
Well, I am now.
[chuckling]
I-- I simply don't want to take a position in the politics.
My job is science. And that's what I want to do.
And if someone changes
what I feel is my scientific evaluation,
that-- that is the, uh…
a serious problem to me.
Because I…
You know, I live for my science.
[tense string music plays]
[reporter] President Bush was embarrassed this week by the NASA scientist
who said his testimony on global warming was softened to minimize the problem.
[Wirth] A few months ago, the American people were told
that the new administration would be different from the old.
One of the areas in which great change was expected
was in the area of environmental protection.
I'm concerned, Mr. President,
that the current administration is falling into the same pattern
that characterized the past eight years of negligence.
And although I benefited from close association
with President Reagan, I think there are profound differences.
We've got a good team.
I don't think we have really been tested by fire yet compared to others
that have sat at this desk in this Oval Office.
But, uh, I'd like to think that when such a test comes along,
I'll be able to do my best based on good information
coming from very good people.
[music ends]
[journalist 1] What assurance can we get that we won't have
a repetition of scientists being muzzled, as we saw in the case of Jim Hansen?
Well, I think that the concerns that have been raised about that this week
make it even less likely that that will be a problem in the future.
Uh-huh.
[journalist 2] How would you characterize the current view of this administration
about the urgency of global warming?
Is it not terribly urgent right now?
I think the, uh, president is making clear
that, uh, we are giving a very high priority to global warming.
We intend to engage the rest of the world on it,
and to, uh, accelerate the science
and, uh, the other work preparatory to addressing it.
We, uh, are going to make it an important priority
of our foreign policy.
[journalist 3] I wonder, are you comfortable in your job,
and how would you rate
the administration's environmental performance today?
[journalist chuckles]
Well, the answer to those questions is I'm having a hell of a time,
and I'm very satisfied with the way things are going.
[intriguing, pleasant piano music plays]
I have confidence that political leaders
react to perceptions of their constituents.
That's why I personally as a scientist feel it's necessary to go to the public,
because when the public understands and perceives problems,
it's amazing how quickly politicians will follow with, quote, "leadership."
There's some speculation that you've actually been helped
in the political climate by the Valdez oil spill,
by all the talk of the greenhouse effect.
I think that all of that has conditioned the public to want action,
and the president has proposed it.
So we are very committed
to a significant greenhouse-gas reduction.
We are proposing some alternative fuel innovations,
which have a much more benign effect with respect to greenhouse gas
than, uh-- than gasoline, which-- which they would replace.
[intriguing music playing]
The polls suggest that the people of the United States are very concerned
about the environment, as are the people of Western Europe.
There's a higher level of concern than at any time in our history.
[reporter 1] It's being called the Green Summit
because it's the first time the Group of Seven leaders
have made the world environment such a big priority.
[reporter 2] On the table, efforts to convene
an international convention on the greenhouse effect.
We agreed that decisive action is urgently needed to preserve the Earth.
[Reilly] So we are very committed to a framework convention or treaty
that will, uh, involve all of the major countries
which emit these gases to try to get them under some control.
How strongly and closely is President Bush standing behind you and the EPA?
He was the only one of the leaders of the Western countries
who had his environment advisor, me, with him in Paris at the summit.
There's no question, the president's out there.
- He's not gonna leave you standing alone? - Absolutely not.
Mr. Reilly, thank you very much for being with us this morning.
[music ends]
[clunks]
[whirring]
[tense string music plays]
[devices clicking rapidly]
[tense music building slowly]
[wind gusting]
- [thunder crashing] - [cables whipping]
- [wind gusting] - [thunder crashing]
[music swelling]
[music softens]
[music becomes melancholy]
This morning you were showing the devastation
in South Carolina from Hurricane Hugo.
[melancholy music continues]
We can expect that as the Earth warms that events like Hurricane Hugo,
which normally come every 50 years,
start to come every 25, for example.
But what if I say, "That's all well and good, but it's still speculation"?
"Come back when you can prove it."
That's true. We can prove it in the time frame of the next 20 years.
The problem is we're performing that experiment
on a laboratory called Earth
and we and all living things are along for the ride.
Dr. Schneider, thank you.
We'll be back after a message.
Hurricane Hugo doing that damage down there.
Going round and round, doing that hurricane thing down there.
Natural disaster. Not my fault.
And we will show you our categories which are deforestation, global warming…
♪ …blowin' out the atmosphere ♪
♪ Greenhouse effect You wanna live here? ♪
[clacking]
[thud]
[squishing, sloshing]
[dramatic sting]
[tense music plays]
[music fades]
[Bush] Here he is, the good doctor.
- Sorry to keep you waiting. - No problem.
I, D. Allan Bromley…
…do solemnly swear…
…that I'll support and defend…
Bill Reilly and Allan Bromley will be going to the Netherlands
in about a week to discuss with the international community
how we can responsibly,
and the emphasis is on that word "responsibly,"
address the current status of understanding of the problem
that can constructively deal, uh, with our obligations across the board.
[ominous music playing]
[church bell tolling]
[man in Dutch] 60 environmental ministers
are talking about what's called "saving the planet."
This is where the first agreements have to be signed
combating the feared greenhouse effect.
[dramatic string music playing]
[journalist] In Noordwijk, Minister Nijpels,
what proposals will you be making?
We want to say something
about the reduction of all gases causing that greenhouse effect,
in particular CO2.
[applause]
[reporter 1] Most countries are prepared
to stabilize the CO2 emissions in the year 2000.
[reporter 2] But some Western nations, together today in the US embassy,
want to form a united front against such measures.
[journalist in English] You argue, as I understand,
that we don't know enough.
What's different from the American perspective?
What we would like to have is a somewhat better understanding
of the economic consequences.
[Alden Meyer] There are very powerful forces within the Bush administration
that would like to see no action on this issue
and it seems that our environment minister, Mr. Reilly,
does not have the freedom of action from the White House
to make a commitment to the progressive position
put forward by the Dutch government.
[man and woman talking indistinctly]
Is that the final paragraph?
[dramatic string music continues]
[music swelling]
[music ends]
[Tom Brokaw] An international conference on global warming
failed today to reach agreement on a proposal
to cut emissions of carbon dioxide,
emissions that scientists say cause the so-called greenhouse effect.
And the United States' role in defeating the cutback
raises some serious questions.
[man speaking indistinctly]
[reporter] The proposal at this first big international conference
on global warming would have set the year 2000 as a target
for reductions of carbon-dioxide pollution.
Sixty-three nations favored that, only six opposed,
led by the United States.
What happened in between?
Chief of Staff John Sununu and Science Advisor Allan Bromley
have persuaded the president that more study of the problem is needed.
[ominous music playing]
Bush's go-slow attitude is a win for White House Chief of Staff John Sununu
and the defeat
for his Environmental Protection Administrator,
William Reilly.
[journalist] What the world was watching so closely
was whether the United States would accept specific targets,
namely a stabilization of CO2 emissions by the year 2000.
- Will we accept that? - We will not agree to that here.
We accept that stabilization of greenhouse-gas emissions is a goal.
Mr. Reilly, if we accept it as a goal, if we accept the necessity of it,
the need for it, why not set a target date?
We hope to negotiate it sometime beginning next year.
We'll be fully prepared to play our role at that time.
[static crackling]
[music fades]
[wind gusting]
[Schneider] There's been a perceptible change
in terms of their resistance that seems to come from the, uh…
from the, uh, chief of staff, uh, on this question.
At least that's my perception from-- from a distance.
- [man] This is really depressing. - Yeah.
I've tried!
But remember, this is not my view.
This is not in comparison to the last one, an ideological administration.
This is more of-- There are ideological figures like Sununu,
but there's much more of a political administration.
And I really think that until the public demands something to be done,
they are going to deal with
a particular wing of their party for political purposes.
That's my view. I don't think it's a conspiracy.
They'll get away with it as long as they can.
[intriguing string music plays]
[man 1] I've got-- Susan, I've got one little hair up on top.
[man 2] What I got?
[people talking indistinctly]
[camera shutter clicks]
[reporter] Administration sources describe a fierce internal debate
over how to frame the global-warming issue,
pitting, among others, Sununu against
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator William Reilly.
[helicopter blades whirring]
[journalist] Mr. President.
Many in the environmental community are questioning your commitment
as an environmentalist because of the continuing reports of infighting
between your chief of staff and your EPA administrator,
over watering down such things as global warming.
- What do you say to that? - I say they're wrong.
You can't play to the extremes.
Our EPA chief is doing a great job.
My chief of staff is doing a great job.
And, you know, this… [scoffs]
…this always trying to get on the inside-baseball stuff.
The American people are not interested in that.
[intriguing string music continues]
Some people believe that you think you're the assistant president of the US
and they cite as the most recent example
your writing of the president's policy on global warming.
There's a little, uh, tendency by some of the faceless bureaucrats
on the environmental side to try and create a policy in this country
that cuts off our use of coal, oil, and natural gas.
I don't think America wants not to be able to use their automobiles.
Most of the folks that have taken positions
on environmental issues are really establishing
an anti-growth position.
And I'm convinced
you can take care of your responsibilities to the environment without being
anti-growth, anti-jobs, anti-America.
[interviewer] How much influence do you have on policy?
My job is to make sure that in the time we have available for the president,
he gets everybody in there that he wants to get in there.
So I'm a door opener, not a door closer.
[intriguing string music continues]
[male interviewer] You're a man of known intellect and strong opinions,
and you hear advice that you disagree with and you say, "Fine"?
I know the president's smart enough to act-- to ask
when, uh, he thinks I can make a contribution, and he does occasionally.
[music ends]
[Bush] Come in, Brad.
[tense music plays]
The climate is always fluctuating,
and there is nothing in what we have seen in the last hundred years
that looks any different from these fluctuations.
It hasn't warmed up as much as it should have,
and that's the real problem with the greenhouse dilemma.
[ominous music plays]
[Fred Singer] There is no real scientific support
for the so-called global greenhouse warming.
[music fades]
This is not, you should understand, a close call.
It's not as though US scientists are evenly divided
or even close to being evenly divided.
Dr. Fred Singer has received consulting fees from Exxon.
Professor Michaels is editor of the World Climate Review,
which is funded by the Western Fuels Association,
a consortium of coal utilities.
Those views, in turn,
are quoted often
and admiringly by the popular archdeacon of conservatism himself, Rush Limbaugh.
Humans are not destroying the Earth.
We are not causing global warming.
I'm trying to attract the largest audience I can…
[crowd cheering]
…and hold it for as long as I can.
This is a business.
I can produce as many scientists who say there is not global warming
as they can who say there is.
Pat Michaels, University of Virginia, is one that I rely on.
[Ted Koppel] And you wouldn't expect the folks at Western Fuels to be too upset
if the scientists they're funding were to conclude that emissions of CO2
is actually good for the environment.
[woman] The year 2085,
the atmospheric level of carbon dioxide has doubled to 540 parts per million.
What kind of world have we created?
A doubling of the CO2 content of the atmosphere
will produce a tremendous greening of planet Earth.
[TV show theme music plays]
[Al Gore] Your, uh, film, which has been widely circulated,
by the coal industry and by OPEC,
uh, was financed by the coal industry.
Is that correct?
It was.
And it was made by a company which you established on the side.
Is that correct?
It was…
It was, uh, helped to be made by a company which I established on the side,
which I haven't been associated with for about a year now.
Who's the head of that company?
My wife.
[Koppel] But what do we have here? Is science for sale?
[morose music playing]
[man] It's a real pleasure to have Steve Schneider.
[applause]
Thank you, John.
The issue of the greenhouse effect and global warming was so obscure
in most of the public's mind before the heat waves and droughts and fires,
and then all of a sudden there was a blitz in the media
of various critics saying, "Oh, it ain't so."
Here's a typical example from one of the more literate scientific journals.
[crowd laughs]
What?
Did somebody kick the plug out of that?
Somebody from Forbes here want to plug that back in?
[crowd chuckling]
Perhaps Governor Sununu is here.
- Ah, okay. - [crowd laughs]
[dramatic string music building slowly]
The ones who denied there was seriousness in global warming,
they were essentially handed a very big
and loud megaphone by the fossil-fuel industry
and by John Sununu and the Bush administration.
[music fades]
And that's when a lot of ugliness began.
- [theme music plays] - [announcer] Tonight, "Hell on Earth."
How can you as a responsible scientist look me in the eye?
You know what CO2 does in the atmosphere.
You know what the properties are…
- I know what it does. - Doesn't it bother you?
I'm going to tell the people something they probably don't know.
We are probably not going to reduce carbon-dioxide concentration
in the atmosphere by much over the next 30 years.
You want to gut the world's economy.
It's not gutting the world's economy.
What do you say we do? Just sit around?
Hold one. I want to finish this guy off. Okay.
Pat, it's ridiculous.
Dr. Lindzen's opinions are not only on the scientific fringe,
but according to the recent satellite data,
probably wrong.
Dr. Lindzen, he says you're on the fringe.
Well, I think that's a curious statement.
Where is your last computer model?
Computer models are not the only way to do research.
[Oppenheimer] You're not at the cutting edge.
[host] Gentlemen…
[scattered applause]
- [applause] - [talking indistinctly]
[Bush] Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Please be seated and welcome.
Some of you may have seen two scientists just on one of our talk shows on Sunday.
One scientist argued that if we keep burning fossil fuels
at today's rate,
by the end of the next century,
Earth could be nine degrees Fahrenheit
warmer than today.
And the other scientist saw no evidence of rapid change.
Two scientists, two diametrically opposed points of view.
Now where does that leave us?
[dramatic string music plays]
[automatic gunfire]
[Jennings] Anyone who says this crisis
isn't in very large measure about oil is simply mistaken.
The US alone gets 23% of its oil from here.
[crowd cheering]
So he who controls the oil has enormous power.
[Bush] Our jobs, our way of life, our own freedom
would all suffer if control
of the world's great oil reserves
fell into the hands of that one man, Saddam Hussein.
[reporter] So far the American public, predictably but overwhelmingly,
is rallying around the president during this crisis,
with his support rising sharply.
[chanting] USA! USA! USA! USA!
The question is, does the US really need to rush
to the Middle East in defense of oil?
[dramatic string music continues]
[music fading]
[Schneider] Despite the controversy over the greenhouse effect,
there are things we know well.
The concentrations of gases like carbon dioxide and methane
are at historic high levels,
higher than in the recent geologic past,
the 160,000-year record of the ice cores.
[gentle piano music plays]
[whirring, clacking]
[Hansen] And you measure the amount of CO2 and gases trapped in glaciers,
it suggests that about 100 years ago,
there was about 25% less
of the CO2 in the atmosphere.
[music becomes intriguing]
So far in 1991,
the temperature is about seven-tenths of a degree Fahrenheit
above the 1950-to-1980 average.
That would make this the second-warmest year on record,
second only to 1990.
But why all this unseasonably mild weather?
George Lindsay Young is here to look at that question.
Some would say the answer is global warming,
but that depends on who you ask.
[Schneider] The problem now is you have a public that isn't certain,
listening in to a debate being translated through the media
and the public thinks we are all fighting with each other constantly.
A lot of people, I think,
have gotten confused by that debate.
How can we, as a democracy, work
if we can't send signals to our political leaders about what to do
because we're so confused about things that it's hard to know ourselves?
[music fading]
[Brokaw] There is a warning flag
in our latest NBC News Wall Street Journal poll.
The president's approval rating, although it's still very high,
it is down nine points from last month, to its lowest level all year.
[female reporter] And the economy clearly is the problem.
Only 8% agree with the president's assessment
that things are improving.
44% say they're getting worse.
But with numbers like these,
there's a sense here that something has to give.
[static crackling]
[chorus vocalizing]
[James Earl Jones] On June 1st, 1992,
world leaders from almost every nation on the planet
will converge on Rio de Janeiro for the first-ever Earth Summit.
Held by the United Nations,
these leaders will sign treaties
that will determine the future of our global environment.
At stake is the entire human race.
Problem is, our own president may not participate.
[reporter] It's been showing on movie screens
in more than 500 theaters across the country,
a commercial made to look like a coming attraction for the apocalypse.
The minute-and-a-half movie's inspired
more than 5,000 telegrams to the president.
But Mr. Bush hasn't said if he'll go to the summit.
It's not easy to not go or to go.
I mean, you just have to sort these things out.
Sources say the administration is debating
whether it can actually stabilize global-warming gases.
For the first time, there's a feeling that such a plan is possible
and need not crush the economy.
[intriguing music plays]
What's allowed this debate even to take place
is the departure of John Sununu as chief of staff.
[Sununu] He's going into a campaign,
he doesn't need an extra political target that folks would be shooting at.
It's best for the president that I move on.
[Ned Potter] They say he was so anti-environment and so intimidating
that nobody dared tangle with him.
William Reilly and his team at the Environmental Protection Agency
are hardly faceless now.
They are hoping to show the White House how a range of measures
could stabilize America's output of carbon dioxide.
[birds chirping]
- [man] Good morning, Mr. President. - [Bush] Welcome, environmentalists.
- [men laugh] - [Bush] Of all stripes.
[men talking indistinctly]
- Come on, sit down here. - [man] I want people over here.
Here, slide in. I thought sitting here might be easier.
We could all be in the shot.
So I really want to, uh, thank Bill Reilly,
thank the secretary,
thank the chairman, Mike Deland, for coming over,
and to say I look forward to working with them
and the other members of the cabinet to win support
for this budget on Capitol Hill
and for continuing to be responsible stewards of the environment.
[journalist] Mr. President, is this at all reflective
of the, uh, perhaps concern about dropping polls?
- Are you concerned about falling polls? - No.
We're in an election year and you get all kinds of charges,
and I think we're just going to keep on.
And… Polls? My heaven, seem to go up one day and down the next.
Anybody have any questions on the environment here?
[all laughing]
Domestic environment questions.
[speaking indistinctly]
["Losing my Religion" by R.E.M. plays]
What issue matters to you most in this upcoming election?
What one issue?
I think the economy is very important.
- Environment. - The economy.
The economy always plays a role in any election.
♪ Oh, life is bigger ♪
♪ It's bigger than you ♪
♪ And you are not me… ♪
[man] Times are really hard. Everybody's getting laid off.
Everybody's looking for a job.
♪ The distance in your eyes ♪
♪ Oh no… ♪
It's scary that he would have to go to the hospital.
We'd have to think before we could send him
because we wouldn't have the money to pay the bills.
♪ That's me in the corner ♪
♪ That's me in the spotlight ♪
♪ Losing my religion ♪
With all that's going on, I don't feel like President Bush is in control.
A new poll out today puts President Bush's approval rating at an all-time low.
[song ends]
[tense music plays]
[music fading]
[indistinct conversations]
Good afternoon and welcome to the Cato Institute
and our policy forum today.
"The End of the World as We Know It: The Apocalypse Lobby Goes to Rio."
[intriguing string music plays]
The global warming treaty is a disaster for the United States.
It offers absolutely nothing for the people of America
and it will reduce us
to some previous level of wealth and health.
And this is-- this is eco-imperialism.
This is, uh, what Rio is really all about.
There seems to be a movement by the very liberal Democrats
and some extremists in the environmental movement
that somehow the only answer to having a good environment
is stop all progress and all growth.
[static crackles]
[Limbaugh] Humans are not causing global warming.
And the environmental movement as fueled by the militants who lead it,
uh, I think is the new home of socialism.
I think we need to educate the American public
about what is in fact going on
with the abuse of science.
And, uh, we need to do this now.
- [people chanting] - [intriguing music plays]
[woman] Most people don't go for all this environmental stuff.
It's these commie liberals or whatever, worrying about this stuff,
and it's not a reality.
- [man] We can! - [crowd] We can!
[radio host] Back to the phones. Go ahead.
[woman] We are not suffering global warming.
Liberal Democrats are gonna destroy our economy,
and this is the new socialist agenda.
- We are 550 coal miners! - [people cheer]
[people chanting] Save our jobs! Save our jobs!
We're talking about jobs.
Right. But there's also the future too.
[tense music playing]
- [reporter] Anti-environmentalists. - Please don't take our jobs away!
[reporter] They're organizing into a powerful nationwide coalition.
This country, they say,
can no longer afford to save the Earth at all costs.
[people clamoring]
- [object shatters] - [woman screams]
[music ends]
[applause, cheers]
You may have read about the Rio conference on the environment.
Uh…
I have withheld commitment to go there because it seemed to me
that what we had to do before committing to go
is to work out sound environmental policy.
But I also wanted an underpinning of sound economic policy.
[intriguing music plays]
[reporter] Pressure on Mr. Bush comes at home and abroad
from his political opponents and from the United Nations
because the United States spews out more carbon dioxide
than any country on Earth.
I think it's embarrassing to our country that President Bush is the only leader
of a major country in the entire world
who is still refusing to go to the Earth Summit this June in Brazil.
And now--
Mr. Reilly says he's not refusing, but he's considering.
[chuckles] Well, I give Bill Reilly a lot of credit.
I think he's a great guy, and he's trying to do a good job
under very difficult circumstances.
[female journalist] Mr. President,
are you trying to undercut Mr. Reilly in Rio?
I-- Mr. Reilly… a top environmentalist, has my full support.
He conducts himself the way he should with great dignity and great decency.
And, uh,
I feel a-- I feel a real, uh,
obligation.
Part of my duty as president is to do two things.
One, formulate sound environmental policy.
Then on the other hand,
worry about American families, people that need jobs.
And I'll go down to Rio
and proclaim the-- the solid, uh, points
of a sound environmental record.
[audience laughing]
[applause]
I'd… I'd love to-- love to just take care of the greenhouse effect
in one fell swoop up here.
Not gonna sacrifice jobs down here.
Na ga da.
[audience laughs]
Well, today I travel to Rio de Janeiro to join over 100 heads of state
at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development.
I think it's critical that we take both those words,
environment and development, equally seriously.
And we do.
[gentle classical music plays]
[Schneider] Super hot years like 1988
with super hurricanes like Gilbert, or in '89, Hurricane Hugo.
Events that now happen once in 50 years will start happening once in 30
and once in 20.
People will start asking early in the next century,
"What is nature doing to us?"
It's not nature doing to us,
it's what we're doing to nature and to ourselves.
[music intensifies]
[crashes]
[sirens wailing]
[men shouting]
[female reporter] In all the years since 1866,
when scientists began tracking the Earth's temperature,
the year that just ended was the warmest.
[male reporter] The '90s were the hottest decade in a thousand years.
[Schneider] There's probably damages already.
We know that mountain glaciers are melting.
We know sea levels are now higher than they were.
[rumbling]
[male reporter] And just now comes word that 2003 will go into the books
as the third-warmest year our globe has known.
[dramatic string music playing]
[helicopter blades whirring]
We're increasing the intensity of hurricanes,
that's been demonstrated.
We're increasing heatwaves.
[male reporter] 2010 may become the warmest year on record.
[siren wailing]
[Schneider] At the moment, we've only warmed up one.
What happens when we warm up three or five,
which is projected in the next several decades
to the end of the century?
[reporter 1] 2014 is set to be the warmest year on record.
[reporter 2] 2015 was the warmest year on record.
[reporter 3] 2016 had the warmest global temperatures on record.
[music building]
[female reporter 1] 2020 has tied as the world's warmest year on record.
[music swelling]
[female reporter 2] 2023 was the hottest year on record by a long shot.
- [music fading] - [electronic warbling]
[dramatic whooshing]
[rumbling]
[disorienting tone plays]
[ominous music plays]
[melancholy string music plays]
[Boutros-Ghali] Distinguished delegates, I have to say that this
is an historical moment.
However, it will only be so
if the Rio Conference
also marks a new beginning.
There's been reports the US government has put pressure on governments
not to put together an agreement to reduce carbon-dioxide emissions
by the year 2000 and 1990 levels.
No, the United States never puts pressure on anybody.
- This is… This is… - [people laugh]
This is clearly a canard.
[dramatic string music playing]
[reporter 1] The US government is under serious criticism
for watering down a global-warming convention
on the grounds that it would hurt the American economy.
[reporter 2] The other nations caved in,
agreeing to a treaty that calls for cleaner air
without setting deadlines for achieving it.
[people chanting]
- [people clamoring] - [objects shatter]
We're simply discussing the fact that everyone in the United States,
particularly the youth,
are not happy with the policies of the administration.
[Bush] Let's face it,
there has been some criticism of the United States,
but I must tell you,
we come to Rio proud of what we have accomplished.
It is never easy to stand alone on principle,
but sometimes
leadership requires that you do.
And now is such a time.
[intriguing string music plays]
[man] I made a special point of being present
while Your Excellency was delivering your speech.
Well, I'm afraid some people didn't like it,
but, uh, once in a while,
the United States has to stand on what we think is clear principle there.
[reporter 1] In the eyes of many delegations,
the United States is more isolated at this conference
than at any time
on almost any single issue since the Vietnam War.
Here, America is seen to have relinquished its role as world leader,
refusing to sign on to an environmental new world order.
[reporter 2] George Bush had gone home.
His stand-in, William Reilly, the most hounded man in Rio.
[journalist] Mr. Reilly, the United States was guilty here
of politicizing the environment.
What's your reaction to that?
A number of people brought, uh,
very large expectations to this conference.
Unrealistic expectations also of the United States.
We are in a political season, obviously,
and this conference will more than realize the expectations of those who came to it
with a realistic sense of what things of this sort can achieve.
With that, let me go off to a, uh, meeting
with the minister from Mexico.
Thank you.
[dramatic string music playing]
[news anchor] Was it good leadership to permit this country
to be dragged kicking and screaming to the first Earth Summit in Rio,
and yourself made a pariah before the rest of the world?
I don't think leadership, Robin, is going along with the mob.
Yet it also seemed to be almost premeditated
to humiliate you in the process.
[Reilly] It's not the best thing that's happened in the last 24 hours.
[news anchor] You hired a leading environmentalist,
and you were applauded for that.
If you are the environmental president,
why don't you stand up and defend your own environmentalist?
Isn't the president in for a more difficult time as a result of this?
I don't think this is going to make the lives of any of us easier.
[reporter] White House spokesman Marlon Fitzwater says
Mr. Bush remains committed to the environment.
He simply changed his mind on global warming.
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[Reilly] What I most remember is
the incongruity between my finally, uh,
being the spokesperson for the United States
and having to give
a disappointing presentation on what we're practically,
realistic, willing to do.
That I had not been able to bring the White House, the president,
to support something that I thought was, uh,
incalculably important.
The advantage we might have had
if President Bush had committed to seriously undertake
the reduction of greenhouse gases
is that we might have removed
the partisan nature of the dialogue in the United States.
A Republican president, after all, that would have made some difference.
And I regret that we weren't able finally to do that.
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[Schneider] If I go all the way back
to when I started really pushing this issue,
most of my immediate objectives have failed.
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But here we are.
Uh, we have haltingly made progress.
But people have learned the problem so well now
that we're on the edge of actually implementing cultural change…
but that moves at generational time frame.
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[device whirring]
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[man] Yep.
It's recording.
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[gas hissing]
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