Snubbing Kyoto: Our Monumental Shame

[Stockholm]

By Laurie David, Laurie David is a trustee of the Natural Resources Defense Council and co-founder of the Detroit Project, a not-for-profit campaign that pressures automakers to produce fuel-efficient cars.

Next Wednesday, in the enormous glass-paneled European Union Parliament building in Brussels, hundreds of men and women will gather to mark the start of a new era. A similar celebration will be held in Toronto, another in Casablanca and others in Tokyo, New Delhi, Rio de Janeiro, Paris, Auckland and Mexico City, among other places.

In each of these cities, people will be celebrating an unprecedented international treaty that's going into effect that day. It is the product of eight years of work and it has brought 141 countries together. It represents exactly the kind of broad global undertaking that idealists all over the world have been striving for since the end of World War II: a massive, worldwide plan to address a terribly pressing problem confronting the entire planet.

The treaty is the Kyoto Protocol, a collective response to the greatest security crisis in the world — global warming.

But one country will not be celebrating. The United States. Even though almost all European countries are on board, and even though Russia is on board and even though China is on board, the United States, in an act of supreme irresponsibility, is standing on the platform watching the train leave the station. (The only other industrialized nations that have failed to join the protocol are Monaco and Australia.)

more http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-david11feb11,0,3954320.story

[Stockholm]

1. This part is the best

"Why won't the United States take part? Because the Bush administration refuses to believe in science and refuses to ask for responsible leadership from its giant corporate backers."

[Extend a Hand]

2. it's even worse than a monumental shame

Maybe we should email the shrub this bible verse:

Rev 11:18
And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth.

I'll bet Revelation is his favorite book.

[nicedream815]

3. maybe im missing something

but whats the deal w/ china signing it, if its an agreement that deals with developed nations.
& does anyone have the complete list of countries?

[phantom power]

5. I'd call China a developed nation.

They sure have a world-class manufacturing infrastructure, and they have a large global impact on CO2 emissions. Any treaty on CO2 that ignored China would be remiss.

Also, they, unlike us, apparently have the vision to sign the treaty. I wonder who is more "developed"?

[muriel_volestrangler]

6. I think their signing is mainly about the Clean Development Mechanism

The Kyoto Protocol establishes the clean development mechanism (CDM) to enable Annex I Parties (listed in Annex B of the Kyoto Protocol) to finance emission-reduction projects in the countries of non-Annex I Parties. These Annex I Parties will receive certified emission reductions (CERs) for doing so. The goals of the CDM are: (1) to assist non-Annex I Parties in achieving sustainable development and in contributing to the ultimate objective of the convention and (2) to assist Annex I Parties in meeting their targets.

http://glossary.eea.eu.int/EEAGlossary/C/Clean_Development_Mechanism

ie rather than cutting down emissions in their own countries, Annex I countries (ie developed nations) can finance projects in developing countries that cut down CO2 emissions there instead.

Annex B (lists the countries with agreed reductions/caps)

complete list of signatories

[Viking12]

4. Even Chuck Hagel (R-Neb) thinks chimps approach sucks

Hagel said the White House needs to more involved on climate change. "We have been out of the game for four years," Hagel said. "That's dangerous." Environment and Energy Publishing, LLC
Greenwire February 9, 2005 Wednesday

[rfkrfk]

7. the states, must take the lead

I suggest that states pass laws that mirror
the Kyoto treaty. {they clearly have jurisdiction to do so}
The majority of states already are keeping a tally
of their state's emmissions.
Every state has their own version of the EPA.
I think it is shameful for the politicians in
supposedly progressive states to deny their
constituents the benefits of the Kyoto treaty.
You have to start somewhere.