G8 Summit a Bust?

Well, for Greenpeace anyway.

Police helicopters forced down a Greenpeace hot air balloon on today as the environmental group took to the skies to try to get its message across to world leaders at a G8 summit.

[...]

The white hot air balloon had a giant yellow banner with the slogan "G8 Act Now" hanging below it, with the word "Failed" stamped across it. It was in the air for around 15 minutes before it was forced down.

"The hot air balloon was spotted immediately," said police spokesman Manfred Luetjann. "The air space is closed. They did not get very far. The two people on board were taken into custody."

Yesterday, police boats rammed two inflatable Greenpeace speed boats that breached the security zone in the Baltic Sea in front of Heiligendamm, tipping activists into the water and injuring three of them.

Perhaps they should have brought their silly ark instead.

he rest of the summit, it seems, has been predictable. A lot of general "we need to" statements, little in the specifics department. However, a couple of steps have been taken:

Leaders also said they would pursue a new global climate deal by 2009 to extend and broaden the Kyoto Protocol. The final text noted that the EU, Canada and Japan all wanted emissions halved by the middle of the century -- a sign of the split over targets advocated by Merkel.

Under the deal, new climate proposals unveiled by Bush last week would be integrated into the established United Nations process -- a key demand of European countries.

But Bush won't sign on to targets reductions until China and India do, saying:

"By 2008, the world's emitters of greenhouse gases should come together. Nothing is going to happen in terms of substantial reduction unless China and India participate," Bush said, adding "if we want them (India and China) at the table, it is important that we give them the opportunity to set an international goal."

He's stalling. But lead by example hasn't exactly been his policy in the past six years, has it? I'm sure China and India will begin to make steps toward sustainability to appease the crowd, but that move largely runs contrary to their recent economic boom.

Bush could have surprised us all but he dodged the bullet again.