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Kyoto Protocol Comes Into Force
Cally writes "The controversial Kyoto Treaty regulating CO2 emissions finally comes into force today. The BBC has several stories and backgrounders, and notes that international pressure is now mounting on the USA to take action as well, as the scientific consensus is well established. A key question is whether the US economy will benefit relative the rest of the world, with some arguing that new technologies such as clean power generation and energy efficient appliances will provide an economic boost."
So called "Developing nations" dont have to conform to it. China the 2nd largest economy and our #1 economic competitor is a "Developing" nation? That just doesn't make sense.
I'm 24 years old. I don't want to go through the next 50 years of my life living in an international air of worry and uncertainty. I don't want to live in a permanent state of fear, generated by a megalomaniacal American government taking advantage of the majority low IQ populous' capacity for being brainwashed.
I don't want to live like Israel, fighting militant Muslims round every corner. The problem of Muslim extremists exists and needs to be dealt with, not encouraged by invading innocent countries and waging war on people who have done nothing to deserve it. I want my children to grow up in a world free from military oppression and I want a government that understands that the wars of the future are guerrilla ones which can never be won, even if they are waged for noble purposes (which theirs never are).
The world is fu*cked up enough as it is. The food chain has been poisoned so badly the average human is full of chemicals normally found in plastics and toxic waste. I'm sick of global warning and environmental damage to the planet and the fact the all this time the greenies were right. I'm sick of America being the biggest wilful contributor to the pollution of the planet.
I'm sick of an American school system that produces children who are brought up to believe that America IS the world and anything that goes on outside is irrelevant. Children so stupid they think America invented the Internet, computer, motor car, light bulb, telephone etc ad infinitum....
The Internet or it's successor is the future of entertainment and I'm sick of stupid low IQ, ignorant Americans infecting every corner of it with their insular, jingoistic mindsets, their whiny voices and manifestations of their low self esteem driven by the fact that despite it being their turn as the world's super power, no one actually takes them seriously or gives them the respect that the British or the Ancient Greeks got because a superpower best known for producing mass produced crap is never going to get the respect that one who gave the world Shakespeare, culture, philosophy or mathematics will get.
I'm sick of hypocrisy and two facedness. I'm sick of Gangsta Rap and hamburgers, Political Correctness and TV programmes that begin with 'When' and end in 'go bad and attack people'. I'm sick of reality TV and I'm sick of news programmes that are more censored than accurate. I'm sick of tokens, token minorities, token universities, token degrees, token attempts at the truth, tokens. I'm sick of fat people, ugly people, stupid people, gay people, coloured people, female people, whiny people all complaining they don't have the opportunities in life they would like and it must be someone else's fault. I'm sick of women that act like men and femininity being a crime, unless you're a man in which case you're a new man which nobody ever wanted because there was nothing wrong with the old one. I'm sick of people falling over and suing the ground and people watching nipples and suing the TV and I'm sick of coffee cups with 'don't pour over yourself, you may get burnt' on the side to try and counter this.
I'm sick of stupid Americans who don't know the difference between patriotism and jingoism and who think flag waving should be an Olympic event. I'm sick of Americans who cry that people hate them or are jealous of them or who are anti them because someone dares to point out that the America they've been programmed to believe in from birth bears no relation to the one that exists in real life.
alot of money to be made in the buying/trading/selling of carbon emissions.
And then you begin to realize that it would be virtually impossible for the United States to reduce carbon emissions to the levels that Kyoto demands. But wait, the United States can BUY points so that they are in compliance.
So let me get this straight, you want the United States to sign a treaty that would require them to buy "points" from other countries just so they can be in compliance with it?
Reducing carbon emissions is a good idea, using it as the basis for an international extortion agreement is offensive.
Yeah it will make a difference...
When everyone starts starving because we can't power the vehicles needed to transport food to the cities.
ensuring that our children have a decent world left will have some costs.
Yeah, somebody will have to pay the terrible emotional cost of killing all you environmentalist nutcases, so that our children are left with a decent world, free from inane blather.
Think of the Children!
Save the Planet!
Fuck it
I don't smoke. None of my friends smoke. I don't like the smell of cigarette smoke. I hope my kids never start smoking. I don't work for the tobacco industry.
Science has yet to show a causal relationship between second hand smoke and cancer.
While there have been studies that have claimed that second hand smoke causes cancer, they have been shown to be of dubious reliability.
There has yet to be a reputable study that has concluded that second hand smoke causes cancer. You can google for further discussion on this.
Yes, second hand smoke can make your eyes burn. It can cause a runny nose. It can trigger asthmatic reactions. It can elevate blood pressure. It can cause increased heart rate. In suffcient concentration, it can even cause death by asphixiation. But it hasn't been relaibly shown to cause cancer.
Thanks for being such a shiny example of what's wrong aobut America: arrogance, ignorance, absolute selfe-centeredness and short-sightedness.
Global warming is an observable fact. Junk science and propaganda is what the so-called "debunkers" are doing.
The illegal we do immediately. The unconstitutional takes a little longer.
--Henry Kissinger
"We've been hearing this sort of thing for three decades now. Eco distaster is always just around the corner. We are always near the tipping point, close to the point of no return. Horror is "coming!
You are wrong.
The distaster takes time.
30 years is not so long.
The scale is 50-100 years.
But the sad truth is that 30 years have passed and
the effects are comming allready.
We can see it clearly i sweden
A month ago the forrest blew down to the ground.
In a storm. The normal production times 30 blew down to the ground.
This is a total loss for people who lives on the forest.
I predict the following:
US i will se storms this year as never before.
---
Minsk perhaps, or maybe Lenningrad.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
That's a reasonable description of the present-day anti-eugenicist/anti-racist political consensus posing as scientific consensus.
Seastead this.
...until global warming would even start fully kicking in, allowing for a chance to persuade both the US and China into the Kyoto treaty, but you know what? I live in Finland, where anything from 14 to -4 degrees Fahrenheit (-10 to -20 degrees Celsius for us Europeans and whatnot) used to be perfectly normal even during a mild winter. Back in the mid-90s winters used to begin even as early as October, and sometimes there was still some unmolten snow in May.
These past three winters I have been rather disappointed with, and why not? We've only had lasting snow as late as the second week of December the past two years, and I'm quite certain 2002 the snow didn't stick to the ground until the end of November. This past winter has been one of the worst ever winters I've yet to see - February is supposed to be the coldest month of the year, yet it's been 32 to 20 degrees Fahrenheit the whole month, with today being the exception (14 degrees Fahrenheit). In the end of January month the snow almost melted away again.
I don't care_ what's causing this - be it CO2, just normal temperature fluctuation in the course of history or even aliens from planet Yuggoth with anal probes... I want to play it safe with this treaty. I want there to be a future, even though I'm being a cynic and telling myself that if it's not one thing causing us to kill ourselves, it's something else...
But hey, I'm just being a paranoid, right? (Probably a stinkin' bleeding heart hippie eurotrash libertarian, too. </self irony>) I'm just the guy who finds it a little confusing to feel comfortable outside without gloves and a woolly hat - in midwinter with the windchill factor included.
Slightly OT: Today's headline on the local newspaper was about the rightist Christians demanding for some environtalist attitude from the US government. I was wondering when they'd pick up on the faint green attitude in the beginning of the Bible...
I aten't dead.
Notice how both the sponsering Senators were Republicans.* Bush is a Republican and US President. It seems reasonable to use Bush as a synonym for the Republicans.
* One comment regarding this is that as an Australian, I find it amazing how many bills etc. are sponsored by Democrats and Republicans---in Australia, such behavior would probably find you without party support at the next election!
Look out!
Sorry but I cannot help but laugh at all uninformed and generally anti-US/anti-Bush comments posted here.
First the whole treaty is a joke. When you do not include the two most powerful up and coming economic engines (China and India) your just blowing smoke. Worse this treaty only lasts to 2012 when it has to be renewed or replaced. Both China and India have said "NO". Of course the US and a few other countries also say NO.
What the Kyoto treaty will do is shift polluting jobs from one area of the world to another. The idea of trading pollution credits is the only example needed to show how flawed this "treaty" is.
If your intent is to reduce greenhouse gases and such then why leave in such a huge backdoor? Simple money. Certain countries with imploding or decreasing economies can sell their credits for cold hard cash.
My prediction. By 2012 we will have found that most signees never met any of their goals. We will see countries like China and India spewing as much if more greenhouse gases than Europe or the US. We will also see them telling all of us to bugger off.
Look at is this way, the US (led by California) and Europe cannot even agree on what car pollution is acceptable and which is not. Hence Europe favors use of diesel in cars by an amazing percentage more than the US. In fact it is nearly impossible to get diesels past California's regulatory system. If scientist who back California's approach are correct then the European scientist are wrong. They cannot both be right can they? Perhaps they are. Just the fail to agree to each others conclusions. I used this as an example of while the treaty is flawed. There really isn't a set standard except that certain western economies must be handicapped by rules that will not be used on "developing counties". This effectively transfers pollution from our backyard to theirs. Again, where is the savings? Where is the protection? Transferring the harm does nothing to solve the problem.
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.