The Kyoto Treaty

On February 16, 2005 the Kyoto Protocol went into effect for the 141 countries that signed it. The coalition of the willing to ratify the protocol agreed reduce greenhouse gases 5.2% below their 1990 levels over the next decade. The coalition does not include the world's largest consumer of energy from fossil fuels and worst polluter, Us. Australian Prime Minister John Howard put it this way in Canberra. "Until such time as the major polluters of the world including the United States and China are made part of the Kyoto regime, it is next to useless and indeed harmful for a country such as Australia to sign up," I'm not sure which we should be ashamed of more, being called one of the "major polluters in the world" or being lumped in with China in our un-environmental stance.

Aside from the fact that this is yet another blemish on the United States's image in the world because of this administration's "you're either with us or against" foriegn policy (see also Human Rights), it may also set back some of the very industries that opponents of the "treaty" say it would negatively affect. Remember the jump that the Japanese auto industry had on US auto makers when it came to fuel efficient cars during and right after the oil embargo of 1973? Well, the same thing may happen now (despite Bill Ford's efforts) when it comes to new technologies in the automotive industry necessary to comply with the emmission reductions of the protocol.

I understand that the protocol is not a sole solution to global warming. I personally don't see how China and India are considered developing nations and Botswana is not. But the administration saying that the Kyoto Protocal would cost "millions of jobs" sounds a little grave, unless of course we are so stuck in our ways that we can not progress at the same rate as most of the rest of the industrialized world. Maybe this "loss" could be more of a change in millions of jobs from the assembly lines of the fossil fuel dependent to those of alternative energy and/or hybrid technologies. It will have to happen someday, even if the United States occupies the entire "Middle East". Why turn our nose on yet another International agreement?

Funny that this picture of Our Secretary of the Interior riding a snow mobilein Yellowstone National Park made it to the NY Times home page the day after the Protocol was enacted.