How will historians judge the legacy of George W. Bush? The consensus seems to be that all depends on how the Iraq War goes. Not so. Although Arab nations in the Mid East will long remember the war as sort of a second Crusade, Western nations will forget quickly. Americans in particular don't know history. But Bush's denial of Climate Change will be a different matter. Like the medieval king known as Ethelred the Unready, he will be judged by his refusal to take action when action is necessary for the wellbeing of the nation and the world.
In the latter part of the twentieth century, it became clear to responsible scientists that the earth was warming and that climate change would have enormous consequences, some of them quite unpleasant. For instance, it is a fairly firm prediction that the midwestern part of the United States, and the corresponding bread basket in the Euroasian landmass, will undergo a drying process that severely cuts food supplies. Fish populations that feed many in Asia will be disrupted as the coral reefs die.The situation has grown more dire now. At the start of the twenty first century, the world had a major warning when a huge chunk of antarctic ice slipped into the sea.
It is desperately important that the president take action and the president will not take action--to curb greenhouse gases, raise CAFE standards, and more. He will go down in history--if history survives--as George the Denier.