
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, April 24, 1990                   TAG: 9004240500
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

GREENHOUSE

GRANTED that politicians say much more than they do, there still is something bothersome about the discrepancy between George Bush's words about the environment and his actions. The gap never yawned wider than during last week's conference in Washington on global warming.

This was a meeting that, as a presidential candidate, Bush had promised to hold in his first year in the White House; it came during his second year. He was host to representatives from 17 nations, some of them champing at the bit to act on what he - unlike his predecessor - had acknowledged as a pressing problem. And he temporized.

"The climate-change debate is not about `research vs. action,' for we have never considered research a substitute for action," Bush told the delegates. Then he called for more research - "to sort out the science," in the president's inimitable phrasing.

In itself, there's nothing wrong with asking for more study of the "greenhouse" phenomenon. There's no doubt that humans are packing the atmosphere with carbon-dioxide particles: They've been doing that since the Industrial Revolution. But scientists are far from unanimous on whether there's a definite warming trend or just what the results of a warmer world would be.

The president, however, wants to be seen as an environmentalist without making difficult choices. More study is always safe. It's also, of course, a way to avoid offending anybody, spending any money or taking any unnecessary chances.

Because of his caution, Bush forfeited the leadership role at his own conference. He worries about the economic impact of action to prevent further global warming. But delegates from Western European nations - surely among America's strongest trade competitors - want to take emphatic steps, such as stabilizing CO2 emissions by the century's end. Even if the planet does not face drastic climate changes because of human activities, reducing those emissions would be a salutary goal. White House advisers want equal weight given to economic and environmental factors. It's a recipe for stalemate.

The approach is typical of Bush, who likes the showy gesture that needn't be followed up. He elevates the Environmental Protection Agency to Cabinet status, then leaves its secretary, William Reilly, at the mercy of White House number-crunchers and anti-regulators. He promises no net loss of wetlands, then delays and delays setting policy on reaching that goal.

Earth Day comes; he spends the day fishing in Florida, another risk-free appearance that can somehow be associated with the good of the planet. Everyone knows he likes the outdoors, and, he points out, the fishing is pretty darn good around those oil-drilling rigs. George Bush is an environmentalist, but he's not about to get reckless about it.

by CNB