Documenting United States History

508 CHApTEr 22 | a ConSerVatiVe tenor | period nine 1980 to the present TopIC II^ |^ an end to history’s end^509509

$200 billion a year. That’s above and beyond the payroll taxes we’re collecting. Ten

years later, it’s about $300 billion. Every year, the situation gets worse.

So you can imagine what will be happening if we don’t do anything. You know,

Congress is going to show up, and somebody says, “We’re $200 billion short.

Where are you going to get the money?” Well, you can tax somebody to get the

money; you can get rid of the benefits that you promised; you can cut other pro-

grams; or you can keep borrowing debt. That’s why I think we’ve got a problem.

George Bush, Public Papers of the President of the United States: George W. Bush, Book 1,

January 1 to June 30, 2005 (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 2009), 135–136.

prACTICIng Historical Thinking

Identify: Summarize Bush’s concerns about social security.

Analyze: Are Bush’s concerns about social security similar to the concerns for citi-

zens that he expresses in his presidential nomination acceptance speech on “com-

passionate conservatism” (Doc. 22.10)? Explain.

Evaluate: Compare Bush’s justifications for this reform with Lyndon B. Johnson’s

Great Society (Doc. 20.7). To what extent do Johnson’s justifications parallel Bush’s?

Document 22.14 united nationS, kyoto Protocol

on emissions

2008

In 1997, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, under the aus-

pices of the United Nations, generated the Kyoto Protocol to achieve a leveling of green-

house gases and decrease global warming. Over 190 nations agreed to the protocols,

but the United States Senate never ratified the treaty.

Climate change is increasingly recognized as one of the most critical challenges

ever to face humankind. With the release of the Fourth Assessment Report of the

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the international scientific

community has significantly advanced public understanding of climate change

and its impacts. In this report, the IPCC concluded that “warming of the climate

system is unequivocal, as is now evident from observations of increases in aver-

age global air and ocean temperatures, widespread melting of snow and ice and

rising average global sea level.” The conclusions of the IPCC report made the case

for action against climate change stronger than ever before.

Climate change is a global problem that requires a global response embracing the

needs and interests of all countries. The United Nations Framework Convention on

Climate Change, which came into effect in 1994, and its Kyoto Protocol that came

23_STA_2012_ch22_489-522.indd 509 17/04/15 11:34 AM