skip to main |
skip to sidebar
What is the Kyoto Protocol?
The Kyoto Protocol on Climate Change is an international treaty on global warming.
Countries which ratify/approve/sanction this protocol are committed to reduce their emissions of carbon dioxide and five other greenhouse gases (Carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and three halocarbons used as substitutes for ozone-damaging chlorofluorocarbons. All of these gases are blamed for the greenhouse effect).
161 nations came together in December 1997 at Kyoto, Japan to conclude on an agreement to save the planet from global warming. Out of these, 141 countries have ratified it, legally binding themselves to reduce their emissions of these six greenhouse gases by 2012.
The objective is the "stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous interference with the climate system which affects all mankind - that is you, me and your future seeds"
But there are those who oppose this treaty. The two major countries currently opposed to the treaty are the USA and Australia (surprised?), based on the public statements of both governments. They skeptically think that the Kyoto is a scheme to either retard the growth of the world's industrial democracies or to transfer wealth to the third world in what they claim is a global conspiracy initiative.
So what did they do?
A few weeks ago on July 28, 2005, on the sideline of an ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) meeting at Vientiane, Laos, the USA, Australia, together with China, India, Japan and South Korea unveiled their own six-nation pact - using their own written so-called constitutions - and came up with the "Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate".
The pact allows these countries to set their goals for reducing greenhouse gas emissions individually, but with no enforcement mechanism. Supporters of the pact see it as complementing the Kyoto Protocol whilst being more flexible whilst critics have said the pact will be ineffective without any measures to enforce it - similar to a toothless tiger.
For your information, China, India, Japan and South Korea - together are responsible for 48% of the world's greenhouse gas emissions.
Some say that such an alternative pact to the Kyoto has serious ulterior motives (more like protecting their own economic progress from being impeded).
Environmentalists who have gone through the Vientiane pact highlighted to us that the agreement does not identify any concrete goals to reduce global warming. It does not set any emissions targets for countries and cannot even be called a pact by itself. (As compared to the Kyoto Protocol, each country had an individual reduction target and together to achieve the world-wide reduction of 5.2 percent.) They say, it is more of just a vision statement.
"[The Asia-Pacific pact] is no substitute for agreements like the Kyoto Protocol and we do not expect it to have a real impact on climate change," the European Commission's environment spokeswoman Barbara Helferrich told BBC News.
The reply from these six nations is that this November in Adelaide, they would be able to commence efforts to detail the cooperation and consensus on advanced technologies as the means to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. Whatever that means, nobody knows. Hmm...hmm. Let's wait and see this November whether this is going to be a real thing or just hot air.
Whatever it is, the world leaders must never put individual nation's agenda before the preservation of planet Earth. The whole world need to act positively and constructively in unison together - instead of "playing Chinese Tai Chi" - or face the wrath of an increasingly unstable environment.
Note:
The official website of the Kyoto Protocol = http://www.cop3.org/
Hurricanes and storms are the in topic in every news feed. From the religious militants to the politicians and scientists all will have their say. The anti-US militant released a video and proclaimed with all the self righteous stand that God's judgement is on America. The scientists and environmentalists blame it on the couldn't careless attitude of man's regards to mother Earth. Maybe, we shouldn't blame anyone else but ourselves. Like the saying goes that when we point the blaming finger at someone, four of our own fingers are pointing back to ourselves.
Today's paper said, that the global warming all over the world is melting the ice at the Arctic at an unprecedented rate and it is frightening. The exponential deterioration of the melting of the Ice Caps is going to affect everyone in the whole world, whethere we choose to ignore it or not.
Scientist say, the sea ice in the Arctic is melting faster this year than last year and the air temperatures in the region are also rising. This melting trend has spread throughout the Arctic region. The average air temperatures covering most of the Arctic from January to August this year as compared to the temperatures over the last 50 years has risen by more than 3 degrees C. Look out, all those who stay along coastal areas (that means quite a large percentage of the world population). Beware, be alert, be warned - disaster is at the door.
With all the tracking technology, we do fool ourselves and think that we are one step ahead of nature's fury - with the ability to predict, with all the models and minibars.
Tell that to the 34 elderly people drowned in New Orleans who did not find the opportunity to leave. Tell that to the 24 people in Texas who were burned when they did leave. People carried along their most precious treasures and possessions when they cramped the highways only to find that the highways were actually death traps and that traffic crawl was reduced to zero.
Engineers will keep repairing the levees and drawing exponential graphs for 100 years flood levels. But this Katrina and Rita is treating their 100 year data like some light drizzle. Rainfall caused by the storms were more like one in 1000 years (1000 year flood/storm) and much much more beyond all available data up todate.
What is the use of repairing all the levees then if they are going to break again?
How do you explain to the citizens that man-made levees can no longer hold the fury of nature - expecially to the evacuees who are the old, the sick, the stubborn, women in labor, babies in incubators, toddlers in schools.
We were told that hurricane Rita is a Category 5 storm.
What does this mean?
Simply, storms are divided into 5 categories.
Category 1
Winds from 119 - 153 km/h
Some damage to trees, mobile homes and other unanchored structures
Category 2
Winds from 154 - 177 km/h
Roof, door and window damage as well as damage to larger trees. Light coastal flooding.
Category 3
Winds from 178 to 209 km/h
Mobile homes destroyed, roof failure, trees drowned. Flooding along the shore and inland.
Category 4
Winds from 210 -249 km/h
Extensive damage to building exteriors and to lower floors near shore. Flooding farther inland.
Category 5
Winds more than 249 km/h
Flood damage to lower floors of buildings near shore. Many buildings flattened by wind.
As long as we can remember, prophetic environmentalists and scientists have warned about the co-relationship between climatological crashes and an uprising of violent storms such as hurricanes and tornadoes.
What we are experiencing, with two Category 5 storms within a period of four weeks is not something to be taken lightly. The climate is changing and man is partly if not wholly responsible. Our daily activities that causes global warming is affecting the future of the sustainability of Mother Earth.
During the Katrina, the waters at the Gulf of Mexico was found to be 3 degrees higher than normal. A localised hot spot created an acceleration for changing a normal storm into a freak atomic storm.
It was actually recorded that overall there are no increase in the number of storms. In a study published in the journal Nature a survey of 4800 hurricanes in North Atlantic and North Pacific for the past 56 years reveal that there was no increase in the total number of hurricanes. BUT the power of the hurricanes, measured in terms of wind speed and duration - had jumped 50% and increasing year after year. The storms are getting stronger and they last longer.
Lets take the warning of Global Warming seriously before it becomes too late. All the peoples and nations of the world should contribute their technologies and personal awareness/will to overcome this Glasshouse warming effect and establish national policies to prohibit contributions to mass global warming.
Cheers.
Posts
