All along Kevin Rudd has said that if he is elected as Australia’s Prime Minister, One of his first acts will be to sign the Kyoto Protocol.
Kevin 07 has won the election as of last night!
The entire modern world (excepting the US and Australia) signed the Kyoto Protocol years ago, some of which signed over a decade ago, and they’ve spent that time implementing changes to their lifestyle and energy generation and usage to reduce their carbon footprint and their ecological impact.
Australia, on the other hand, has done just about nothing on a national level. Now don’t think I’m disregarding the noble efforts of hundreds of thousands of Australians who embraced this truth long ago, despite our governments’ complacency, because those people are the one’s who approached Kevin 07 in shopping centre’s on the subject of climate change; those are the people who urged a Midnight Oil singer into parliament, and a Triple J science presenter into senate.
We’ve got some catching up to do!
Well said Afeasf A. I had a good laugh out of that. Please feel free to elaborate on your answer!
Kyoto is a flawed agreement in that major polluters (China, India, Russia) are exempted from emissions targets. And look at their environments!! Many signatories classed as "developed" are struggling to attain targets, but it is also well in the past, and a new treaty is being pursued that hopefully will address deficiencies, including what to do with currently exempt polluters. Rudd has said he will forge ahead with this.
For us, well, do we stop selling our resources to China etc? It seems hypocritical to bleat on about signing Kyoto and then still sell polluting fossil fuels- so maybe something will happen there with resultant impact on economy and jobs. Plus we will all pay MAJOR increases in essential services like electricity and gas as the companies pass on the costs of meeting targets (or probably just paying a pollution tax, which won’t solve the problem!). Prepare for big increases perhaps in costs of fossil fuels- ie petrol! This will, of course, impact on cost of living, and so we may find wages and inflationary pressures impacting on interest rates as well. Hopefully though unions will hold back on wage claims, and ask members to do their bit for the planet (ie make do with less).
Welcome to the greenies world…. but, presumably, anyone who voted green/labor realised these would be the consequences and will be happy to make sacrifices, like slightly lowering our standard of living as we move to a more sustainable way of living that does away with the excessive materialism of the Western world. Or at least they should be…
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#1 by wormwar1 at February 25th, 2010
The Kyoto protocol is meaningless drivel. It has resulted in nothing.
FACT
References :
#2 by a bush family member at February 26th, 2010
Kyoto is bad for the earth. It causes more pollution in the world.
5 minute video about climate change:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgVDugSuPOo
The Kyoto treaty is nothing but a welfare program for 3rd world countries. It closes "clean" factories in countries with good enviromental laws (like the U.S.) and creates new "dirty" factories in countries with bad pollution records (like China ).
Communist China and India don’t have to follow the treaty but they are able to sell their pollution credits to clean countries in Europe. Because of the Kyoto Treaty, many European companies could not operate without purchasing pollution credits from 3rd world countries. And if those same European companies were located in China or India then the companies would be able to pollute as much as they wanted to.
Kyoto Treaty is seriously flawed, India and China have already replaced the U.S. as the most polluted countries. Studies show that toxic air from China is already entering Western United States each year. Those pollution particles include lead, mercury, and arsenic.
China even has areas that are named "cancer villages" because they have the highest cancer rates in the world. The majority of people in China live in small villages. There they are constantly exposed to toxic chemicals that are not allowed in the big cities. Shockingly, many Chinese plastic products shipped to America have been found to contain dangerous chemicals that are banned in the U.S.. Several major cities in the U.S. are working at banning the selling of children’s toys containing those chemicals. Those cities are setting up product testing programs to help make sure small children do not later develop cancer or neurological disorders.
The Kyoto Treaty that Gore wanted the U.S. to sign would have been an economic disaster for the U.S.. The U.S. would have had to follow the Kyoto Treaty even when "developing countries" would not have had to limit green house gas emissions. Gore’s wants would have caused unemployment rates to skyrocket across the U.S. by moving U.S. jobs to so called "developing countries" (China, India, Brazil, South Korea, Mexico, etc..)
Thankfully, all voting Democrat and Republican senators agreed that the U.S. should not join any Kyoto Treaty that "would result in serious harm to the economy of the United States". 95 out of 95 voting Senators agreed that the Kyoto Treaty was bad for America.
References :
China sells pollution credits to Spain for $375 million
http://www.worldwatch.org/features/chinawatch/stories/20060123-1
#3 by Afeasf A at February 26th, 2010
wormwar, Bushfamily member: Exxon Mobile thanks you for your loyalty…Evolution doesn’t stop, and the Kyoto is a part of it. It’s a concept called PROGRESS that many people have trouble conceiving…Bushfamilie’s argument implies that it’s too late to save the climate so we might as well go all out. And I thought I was a pessimist…he needs to realize that much of the pollution is indirectly a result of American investment going overseas and taking advantage of the less strict environmentle laws in China and India…Coke and Pepsi are responsible for many chemical related deaths in both countries…as well as American investors.
References :
#4 by t i a h <3 at February 26th, 2010
It will mean that alot of jobs will be gone including producing coal energy and other companies that contribute to climate change, which will have to shut down, as signing the kyoto protocol makes you agree to.
References :
#5 by queenie at February 26th, 2010
Kyoto is a flawed agreement in that major polluters (China, India, Russia) are exempted from emissions targets. And look at their environments!! Many signatories classed as "developed" are struggling to attain targets, but it is also well in the past, and a new treaty is being pursued that hopefully will address deficiencies, including what to do with currently exempt polluters. Rudd has said he will forge ahead with this.
For us, well, do we stop selling our resources to China etc? It seems hypocritical to bleat on about signing Kyoto and then still sell polluting fossil fuels- so maybe something will happen there with resultant impact on economy and jobs. Plus we will all pay MAJOR increases in essential services like electricity and gas as the companies pass on the costs of meeting targets (or probably just paying a pollution tax, which won’t solve the problem!). Prepare for big increases perhaps in costs of fossil fuels- ie petrol! This will, of course, impact on cost of living, and so we may find wages and inflationary pressures impacting on interest rates as well. Hopefully though unions will hold back on wage claims, and ask members to do their bit for the planet (ie make do with less).
Welcome to the greenies world…. but, presumably, anyone who voted green/labor realised these would be the consequences and will be happy to make sacrifices, like slightly lowering our standard of living as we move to a more sustainable way of living that does away with the excessive materialism of the Western world. Or at least they should be…
References :
#6 by JohnDoe at February 26th, 2010
Loss of jobs, higher taxes, lower standard of living, technological stagnation.
oh yeah..lets see you compete with us in the global market place with the kind of draconian measures the Kyoto Protocol – America was smart not to ratify – entails.
You will all lose big time. Wait and see. And worst of all, it will have been for nothing. Man-made global warming is a hoax. And ill tell you i told you so once the avg. temp starts to drop all over the world with the same amount of Co2 emissions in place.
References :