MR BUSH TURNS GREEN

by RAY FLEMING
IT'S always said that one picture is worth a thousand words and this week President Bush proved that the old adage remains true. His visionary decision to designate a chain of uninhabited islands off Hawaii as a US National Monument has brought praise from almost every quarter of the United States and more widely. The islands span 140'000 square miles of the Pacific (twice the size of the Britain) and are home to some 7'000 precious land and water creatures. Mr Bush is regarded as the least “green” of any recent American president, so why did he decide to authorise the single largest act of conservation in US history? The answer, apparently, is that in April he saw a 65–minute documentary about the area which showed the dangers that were facing the archipelago's fragile marine eco–system if it was not protected. The film was made by Jean–Michele Cousteau, son of the renowned late Jacques Cousteau, who said that afterwards the President congratulated him on it. An interesting question arises. If President Bush is more receptive to visual advocacy than to the written or spoken word, what chance is there that he might be persuaded to see Al Gore's new film about the need for urgent action on global warming and climate change? It would be tricky to arrange but worth the effort to convince Mr Bush that the whole of the planet is at risk from global warming.