Climate Goals

George W. Bush professes to want to halt global warming. However the refuses to do much about it, either in his bully pulpit or through legislative action.

This is surprising because, by the time Bush graduated from Harvard Business School in 1975, it was clear that one of the most robust findings in the psychological literature was that behavior was powerfully influenced by setting specific and hard goals and having people assess their progress toward these goals. This is true of the individual, the group, and the organization.

The young Mr. Bush must have learned this at the Harvard Business School. Why does he ignore this time tested insight?

If President Bush really wants to ameliorate the crisis in global warming then he needs to set tough goals for our country -- it not enough to sit on the sidelines and talk about the need to set goals or merely urge us "to do our best." That is a recipe for failure.

Sent to New York Times