Air polution and the Inuit

[Qtec]

[ QUOTE ]
Paul Brown in Milan
Thursday December 11, 2003
The Guardian

The Inuit people of Canada and Alaska are launching a human rights case against the Bush administration claiming they face extinction because of global warming.
By repudiating the Kyoto protocol and refusing to cut US carbon dioxide emissions, which make up 25% of the world's total, Washington is violating their human rights, the Inuit claim.

For their campaign they are inviting the Washington-based Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to visit the Arctic circle to see the devastation being caused by global warming.

Sheila Watt-Cloutier, the chairwoman of the Inuit Circumpolar Conference, which represents all 155,000 of her people inside the Arctic circle, said: "We want to show that we are not powerless victims. These are drastic times for our people and require drastic measures."

The human rights case was announced at the climate talks in Milan, Italy, where 140 countries are trying to put the finishing touches to the Kyoto protocol, the first international agreement to reduce greenhouse gases. The backing of Russia, which is hesitating about ratifying the agreement, is required to bring the protocol into force. The US is trying to persuade the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, not to sign the protocol.


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Well you guessed it. Putin will not sign because the US wont sign and if Russia wont sign there will be no agreement.

Thank you GW. /ccboard/images/graemlins/confused.gif

Q

[eg8r]

You got it wrong. Now you are trying to put Bush at fault when Putin is the man making the decision. Putin has been at odds with US before he could do the same thing here if he chooses.

It is Putin's call here. Sorry Q.

eg8r

[Wally_in_Cincy]

<blockquote><font class="small">Quote Qtec:</font><hr>Thank you GW. /ccboard/images/graemlins/confused.gif

Q

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Clinton would not sign it either. For good reason.

There is no proof of global warming.

What are these people bitching about anyway? What's the evidence? Are their igloos melting?

[eg8r]

Well, the Inuits will have some new backup data. According to Space.com Mars might be undergoing global warming. Here is the article (http://space.com/scienceastronomy/mars_ice-age_031208.html) . I wonder how true the global warming is for Mars, they certainly have not proved it here on Earth.

eg8r

[Qtec]

[ QUOTE ]
Pouring cold water on Kyoto

By David Bamford
BBC correspondent in Washington

Bush administration officials and members of the Republican-led Congress are in general uncomfortable when asked to discuss global warming.
They know that US policy is at odds with most scientific experts on the issue, ever since President Bush pulled the US out of the Kyoto process soon after taking office in 2001.

The US position is flying in the face of a broad consensus of world opinion that urgent collective action is required to reduce industrial emissions that add to global warming.

President Bush and Congress also know that to support legislation obliging US industrial plants to reduce emissions - as Kyoto demands - would be a vote loser, because it would mean cutting production, increasing unemployment and raising energy bills.

The most recent attempt by Kyoto process supporters to introduce a Senate bill failed in October.


Some US opponents say the UN-backed conference process is a cover for shifting power away from the US

The draft, called the Climate Stewardship Bill, was dubbed "Kyoto Lite" by its detractors.
It was co-sponsored across party lines by Democrat Joe Liebermann - one of next year's presidential election hopefuls - and Republican John McCain.

Critics of the bill argued that it would have reduced US GDP by $106 billion and raised energy costs by at least 30%.

'Hoax'

Among those who regularly speak up vociferously against global warming legislation is James Inhofe, the Republican chairman of the Senate environment committee.

Mr Inhofe is representing the US position at the UN conference on climate change in Milan this week.


He has gone so far as to describe the whole concept of industrial global warming as a hoax perpetrated by politically mischievous environmentalists .
He quotes findings of a study by Dr Willie Soon and Dr Sallie Baliunas, of the Harvard-Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics, that determined the 20th century was neither the warmest, nor the century with the most extreme weather within the past millennium.

They conclude global warming is a natural phenomenon on which modern-day industrial emissions have no significant impact.

It is a view that fits neatly with the majority view in Congress that US industry need do nothing at all about global warming.

Some US opponents to Kyoto also argue that the UN-backed conference process is little more than a cover for shifting political power away from the US.

As evidence, opponents of Kyoto quote French President Jacques Chirac - something of a bogeyman figure among Republican conservatives - who they say once described the Kyoto treaty as a key step on the path to "global governance".


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Some people are concerned, some people are paranoid!

Q