Dems urge Bush not to weaken warming declaration

Fifteen House committee chairmen called on President Bush Friday not to weaken a proposed declaration on climate change that the Group of Eight (G8) will discuss at its upcoming summit. 

{mosads}Responding to reports that the administration is seeking changes to the declaration, the Democratic chairmen expressed their “deep concern” with such a move. In a letter to Bush, they ask the president to “reverse course and strengthen the G8 declaration.” 

“The G8 Summit should be an opportunity to galvanize international support for addressing this looming threat, not an opportunity to prevent and undermine international action,” the chairmen said. “U.S. leadership is critical to tackling this global threat.” 

According to news reports, the U.S. wants to make several substantial changes to the document, including striking a pledge from the declaration that would limit the global temperature increase during this century to 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit. 

“Support is growing for aggressive legislation to cap global warming pollution and cut it dramatically over the coming decades,” the Democrats wrote. “But we need an Executive Branch that engages the rest of the world to solve this problem rather than stubbornly ignoring it.