Originally published January 8 2006
U.S. may have to seek alternative to Kyoto Protocol
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Newsday.com explains why the Kyoto Protocol may fail, as the rift between developed and developing nations has proven difficult to bridge.
The UN summit on climate change going on in Montreal was billed as the next step in advancing the controversial Kyoto Protocol to limit production of greenhouse gases.
But it could be the beginning of the end for Kyoto.
The flaws in the climate treaty, cited by both the Clinton and Bush administrations for the U.S. refusal to participate, are becoming starkly evident.
But even if the Kyoto protocol dies, the crisis it was meant to address won't go away.
And the United States has an obligation, as the biggest emitter of greenhouse gases today, to pitch in to come up with better solutions, instead of simply rejecting bad remedies.
Global warming leading to destructive climate change is a reality.
But how to limit the emissions of greenhouse gases - such as carbon dioxide - the prime cause of global warming, has become a conundrum with few apparent long-term solutions.
The biggest Kyoto flaw now is clear: China and India and other developing nations going through rapid industrialization are exempt from any limits under the protocol- and they are consuming far more energy, and producing far more greenhouse gases than anticipated when the protocol was drawn up.
In a short time, they are expected to equal and even surpass the United States in greenhouse gas emissions.
Yet they reject limits with a simple argument: Developed nations have no right to tell developing nations not to duplicate the environmental damage they themselves caused in the process of becoming rich.
The burning of fossil fuels that produce CO2 and the deforestation of vast tracts of land that act as sponges to absorb it are seen as keys to their development.
So the solutions may lie in technology and efforts to develop alternative energy sources.
The expansion of nuclear power to create a hydrogen-based economy is often cited and must be considered.
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