The nations of the world are still trying to pass the KyotoTreaty to slow global climate change.
As you might remember, this treaty has been in limbo for years.When President Bush came into power, he announced that the UnitedStates would not sign the treaty, which would have required us toreduce our production of greenhouse gases. The United States is thesingle largest emitter of such gases on earth.
Now Russia is also wavering, and that might mean the treatywon't go into effect at all. To pass, countries that account for 55percent of greenhouse emissions must sign the treaty. To date 119parties have signed on, but they haven't met the 55 percentrequirement.
Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin both argue thatcompliance with the treaty would be too expensive to theirrespective countries' economies. They seem unconcerned about theeventual costs of correcting the environmental damage we areunleashing.
Bush also argues that, although climate change is an urgentproblem, we don't have enough research to say with certainty thatgreenhouse emissions are responsible for global warming.
Perhaps Bush believes young children who disobey their parentsare responsible for global warming. When I was younger, my fatherwould remind me all winter to close the door when I left thehouse.
"We aren't trying to heat the whole outdoors," he would say.<B>
< B>In any case, the Environmental Protection Agencyundermined the president's position last year when it issued areport indicating that oil refining, power plants and automobileemissions are the primary causes of global warming.
The report also predicted that U.S. emissions would increase 43percent by 2020.
When asked about the report, Bush dismissively replied that hehad "read the report put out by the bureaucracy."
Still, if the bureaucracy is right, Bush's plan for "voluntary"emission reductions (as opposed to the mandatory reductions Kyotocalls for) will not prevent potentially disastrous environmentalconsequences.
Kyoto is not a perfect agreement. It's a compromise. Thepresident is right: It doesn't place enough responsibility onnations like China and India, whose emissions are risingrapidly.
But it's a compromise that took years to reach, and it wouldlead to real reductions in pollution.
Then again, maybe we shouldn't push Bush too much. Sure, climatechange could flood our coasts and islands. It could destroy naturaltreasures and eliminate whole species.
But as winter rolls around, I'm hankering for a little globalwarming, and I'm sure I'm not alone.
Plus, it will certainly be good for Muncie property values whenwe become a beachfront community.
Write to Stephen at stevehj@mac.com
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