Updating Bush's spin on climate change

President Bush is widely considered one of the world's most prominent skeptics of global warming. But to hear White House officials tell it, the world's view of him is wrong. In recent days, White House officials have made a special effort to argue that Bush has always been concerned about climate change. Moreover, they say, he has long acknowledged that human activity may be a significant factor. Apparently concerned that Bush was not perceived as being on the global warming bandwagon, White House officials released an unusual open letter on Feb. 7 contending that "climate change has been a top priority since the president's first year in office." "Beginning in June 2001, President Bush has consistently acknowledged climate change is occurring and humans are contributing to the problem," said the letter. But the record isn't quite so clear. The letter cited a June 2001 statement in which Bush quoted the National Academy of Sciences, saying an increase in Earth's temperatures was "due in large part to human activity." But it failed to finish the quotation, in which he went on to say it was unclear how much "natural fluctuations in climate" played a role, whether further climate change was inevitable and what, if anything, could be done about it. Critics see such discrepancies as evidence that the White House is trying to take positions on both sides of the debate. The issue came up at the daily press briefing, where Tony Snow, the White House press secretary, insisted there was nothing new about the president's recognition of global warming. "There's been a lot of misreporting," Snow said. "Perhaps folks have not taken notice of the fact that this is an administration that's been keenly committed, both to environmentalism and conservationism from the start." At the suggestion that Bush was awakening to the environment, Snow said it was reporters who were waking up. "The long national slumber," he said, "may be approaching an end."