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| Greens Concede Kyoto Will Not Impact 'Global Warming' |
| Friday, December 17, 2004 |
By Marc Morano
CNSNews.com Senior Staff Writer
December 17, 2004
Buenos Aires, Argentina (CNSNews.com) - After a
relentless attack on the United States for opposing
the Kyoto Protocol, environmental groups concede the
international treaty will have no impact on what they
believe to be impending catastrophic global warming.
Despite the fact that green groups at the U.N. climate
summit in Buenos Aires called President George Bush
"immoral" and "illegitimate" for not supporting the
Kyoto Protocol, the groups themselves concede the
Protocol will only have "symbolic" effect on climate
because they believe it is too weak. Kyoto is an
international treaty that seeks to limit greenhouse
gases of the developed countries by 2012.
"I think that everybody agrees that Kyoto is really,
really hopeless in terms of delivering what the planet
needs," Peter Roderick of Friends of the Earth
International told CNSNews.com.
"It's tiny, it's tiny, tiny, it's tiny," Roderick
said. "It is woefully inadequate, woefully. We need
huge cuts to protect the planet from climate change."
But just because Kyoto may end up having little or no
impact on the climate, that did not stop Roderick from
blasting President Bush for the White House's
environmental policies.
Roderick cited "deep psychological reasons" as to why
the Bush administration opposed the Protocol.
"[Bush] comes across as not caring," Roderick said. "I
am sure he does care in his own life personally about
many things, [but] I think also that he is scared, he
is fearful, he is fearful about wanting to continue in
power.
"Somewhere in their hearts [the Bush administration
doesn't] seem to care about the future of the planet
and I think that is bad news for the world," Roderick
added. "It is obviously deep psychological reasons, as
to why individuals would feel that way ... [Bush]
seems to have a vision of the world which is not
recognized by millions and millions of people around
the world."
Kyoto: 'Symbolic importance'
While Roderick dismisses the potential impact of the
Kyoto Protocol, he believes the treaty is vital for a
reason that has nothing to do with climate change.
"[The Protocol] is important more in the political
message and the inspiration it is giving people around
the world. People can say 'yeah, our politicians do
care -- they are not just interested in power and
their own greed and in their own money. They do care
about the future of the planet,'" Roderick explained.
"How inspiring it would be for the leaders to get
together and say 'yeah, we are going to do this, we
are all in this together. That's, I think, the sort of
symbolic importance of Kyoto, not the the sort of
nitty-gritty commas and dots in the text [of the
Protocol]," he added.
Roderick believes a global climate emergency can only
be averted by a greenhouse gas limiting treaty of
massive proportions. "We are talking basically of
huge, huge cuts," said Roderick.
The most positive description of the Kyoto Protocol
centers on it fostering the spirit of cooperation in
the international community, according to Roderick.
"The best thing that can be said for it, is it's the
first time that with the exception unfortunately of
the United States, that the international community
has said, 'We need to get together on this and we need
international action.' That's the really important
thing of Kyoto," Roderick said.
Kyoto: 'Important architecture'
Greenpeace International agreed that the Kyoto
Protocol should only be an entry point for controlling
greenhouse gas emissions. Jessica Coven, a
spokesperson for the environmental group, told
CNSNews.com that "Kyoto is our first start and we need
increasing emissions cuts.
"We need all types of actions, but Kyoto is the
important architecture for how we are going to move
forward to curb the problem [of climate change],"
Coven said.
"Global warming, as its name suggests, is a global
problem and we need an international framework like
Kyoto," she added. And despite the Protocol's limited
impact, Coven said President Bush's decision not to
support the treaty is "immoral."
The Inuit Circumpolar Conference, the Arctic group
that announced their intention this week to seek a
ruling from the Inter-American Commission on Human
Rights against the United States, "for causing global
warming and its devastating impacts," also denigrated
the global warming treaty.
"The Kyoto Protocol, although again achieved with
great difficulty, doesn't even go near to what has to
get done. It is not anywhere near to what we need in
the Arctic," said Sheila Watt-Cloutier, chairwoman of
Inuit Circumpolar Conference.
"Kyoto will not stop the dangerous sea level rise from
creating these kinds of enormous challenges that we
are about to face in the future. I know many of you
here believe that we must go beyond [Kyoto]," she said
during a panel discussion.
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posted by Jay Are @ 10:02:00 AM   |
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