On April 14 1989 24 US senators declared that the US should cut its carbon emissions in advance of any international agreement.
The context was that the new Bush administration was still delaying and trying to resist any move towards negotiating a global treaty. They weren’t alone in this. So were the Australian and UK governments.
Why this matters
We have to see declarations and statements as part of a Forever War between action and inaction.
What happened next?
A couple of weeks later, having been caught trying to muzzle James Hansen, the Bush administration was forced to say “okay” to an international treaty process. It then, of course, proceeded to stomp on this process as hard as it could…