Associated Press reporter Arthur Max played up how the United States drew "sustained applause" on Sunday in Germany for joining the liberal consensus on the need for dramatic energy regulation to stop the "climate change" menace. Absolutely no one in the story questioned that consensus, and Max even downplayed how the Senate (Democrats included) voted on a resolution opposing the Kyoto climate-change treaty 95 to 0.
BONN – Once booed at international climate talks, the United States won sustained applause Sunday when President Barack Obama's envoy pledged to "make up for lost time" in reaching a global agreement on climate change....
The debut of Obama's climate change team was widely anticipated after eight years of obdurate participation in U.N. climate talks by the previous Bush administration.
Notice how Max and AP carefully negotiated around the 95-0 vote during the Clinton administration and left readers with the impression that only Team Bush stood in the way of scientific enlightenment:
The United States was instrumental in negotiating Kyoto, but failed to win support at home. When George W. Bush took office, he renounced it, calling Kyoto a flawed agreement that would harm the U.S. economy and unfair because it demanded nothing from countries like China or India.
Now, Obama's man on global warming, Todd Stern, echoed the liberal internationalist wisdom and caused great relief (including, from the tone of this report, the AP):
"We are very glad to be back. We want to make up for lost time, and we are seized with the urgency of the task before us," Stern said to loud applause from the 2,600 delegates to the U.N. negotiations.
They clapped again when Stern said the U.S. recognized "our unique responsibility ... as the largest historic emitter of greenhouse gases," which has created a problem threatening the entire world.
...Stern said no one on his team doubted that climate change is real. "The science is clear, the threat is real, the facts on the ground are outstripping the worst-case scenarios. The cost of inaction or inadequate action are unacceptable," he said — a total change of tone from his predecessors....
"It sent chills up my spine seeing the U.S. applauded," Keya Chatterjee of the Worldwide Fund for Nature said after Stern's speech.
It was only 15 months ago at Bali, Indonesia, that U.S. negotiators were booed when they threatened to veto an accord laying down a two-year negotiating process to replace Kyoto. They backed off when the delegate from Papua New Guinea, Kevin Conrad, told them if "you are not willing to lead ... please get out of the way."
