World's Top Coal Companies Serve Up Steaming Mound Of Kyoto-Lite

[hatrack]

Australia expects other countries to join a six-nation Asia-Pacific regional initiative announced in Laos this week to cut the greenhouse gas emissions from factories, homes and cars that are changing our climate. And why not? Signatories hold out the promise that the pact has no economic downside and that a fresh reliance on the alchemy of modern technology will deliver more power while reducing carbon monoxide and other damaging emissions.

Too good to be true? Australian Conservation Council executive director Don Henry thinks so. Technology transfers are useful, he says, but voluntary programs like the one just agreed by Australia, the US, India, China, Japan and South Korea are not going to cut greenhouse pollution by the required 60 percent by 2050. "The new pact risks being a lot of hot air," Henry said of the grandly titled Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate unveiled in Vientiane on Thursday.

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Australian Prime Minister John Howard is upbeat about what he tellingly calls a "vision statement" that carries with it no targets, cash demands or penalties for non-compliance. "The vision statement that's been released in Vientiane tackles head-on the need for greater emphasis on new and more effective technologies to reduce the greenhouse emissions from the use of fossil fuels. The fairness and effectiveness of this proposal will be superior to the Kyoto Protocol," Howard said in Canberra.

The world will have to wait until the six partners get together in Adelaide in November to flesh out their "fresh new development" for curbing climate change. Howard said the focus of the meeting in the South Australian state capital would be on finding ways to cut the environmental cost of relying on coal for power generation rather than exploiting solar power and other whiz-bang alternatives to fossil fuels.

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http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/editorials/archives/2005/07/30/2003265683

[Teaser]

1. We are *WAY* behind the curve

in dealing with global warming.

My main hope now is that it's worst effects take place after my son's lifetime. Because it's almost beyond hope at this point that we'll be able to significantly mitigate it's effects.

200 years from now, the human race will wonder why we were dicking around as the planet burned.

[wtmusic]

2. The difference between Howard and Bush

is that Howard makes a token gesture, while Bush brazenly names a law the exact opposite of what it actually is, as in the "Clean Air Initiative".

Not sure which is more insidious.