How Embarrassing!

Updated below:

What is it going to take to overcome the stupidity and greed of the Bush cabal? As an American this is massively embarrassing. From the Guardian:

US rejects all proposals on climate change

The US has rejected any prospect of a deal on climate change at the G8 summit in Germany next month, according to a leaked document.

Despite Tony Blair's declaration on Thursday that Washington would sign up to "at least the beginnings" of action to cut carbon emissions, a note attached to a draft document circulated by Germany says the US is "fundamentally opposed" to the proposals.

The note, written in red ink, says the deal "runs counter to our overall position and crosses multiple 'red lines' in terms of what we simply cannot agree to". ...

The tone is blunt, with whole pages of the draft crossed out and even the mildest statements about confirming previous agreements rejected. "The proposals within the sections titled 'Fighting Climate Change' and 'Carbon Markets' are fundamentally incompatible with the President's approach to climate change," says another red-ink comment.

This is embarrassing for Mr Blair, who said on Thursday with some confidence that the US was moderating its position on climate change as the summit approached.

On the same story, The New York Times reports:

The push back by the Bush administration over the German proposal has left many European diplomats furious. "The United States, on this issue, is virtually isolated," one European diplomat said on condition of anonymity under diplomatic rules, and then added, "with the exception of other big polluters."

Both Ms. Merkel and Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain have, in private talks with President Bush, pushed for the United States to agree to the European proposal.

The Bush Administration has been pretending that it recognizes the reality of global warming but its actions are telling us a more truthful story. The United States is the planet's biggest global warming contributor and should be taking the lead in addressing the challenges we are all facing but instead Bush and his band are continuing to make us the biggest and most dangerous global warming denier. We have friends visiting this week from Northern England and they are telling us that this is the first winter that they had no significant snow and that they only had to scrape the windscreen once all winter. It is normally a daily task. As you can see from this article in the Independent, summer keeps arriving earlier and earlier in England:

Frog spawn was spotted on 25 February, 15 days earlier than a norm of 12 March. The seven-spot ladybird (Coccinella 7-punctata), common in hedgerows and gardens, was first spotted on average 16 days earlier than last year. Information for swifts is still being recorded but the trust says some of the birds were spotted in mid-April in south-east England, a month early.

The Woodland Trust said most of the sightings first occurred in the south of England and then spread northwards as the warmer weather also moved north.

Although researchers are keen to point out that the findings cannot be interpreted as a definitive guide to how the climate is changing, they say the results once again pointed to the early arrival of the season.

The trust said it was worried about the possible impact of increasingly warm springs "because the changes were so rapid".

This kind of response to the global warming crisis by my government is sorely trying my patience, not to mention my pride and sanity. Come on Bush, let's get with the program.

Update: A new visitor from "down under" Wadard at Global Warming Watch has brought to our attention an online petition insisting that the U.S. join the rest of the G8 on addressing Global Warming. Thanks Wadard.

h/t to Kos