To your right, the Rainbow Warrior arriving in Bali (photo credit, Reuters), where over 10,000 state and non-state participants from close to 190 countries are meeting to discuss post-2012 efforts to avoid the disastrous effects of climate change awaiting the world. Post 2012, that is, post-Kyoto. Hearing a playback of GW Bush on the radio this morning after “unsigning” the Kyoto Protocol, saying that American economic interests came first, one would think Kyoto and the Bali conference are of no consequence to the US. Though the tenor of administration comments have changed somewhat, the US says it is still "not ready” for mandatory emissions caps. Instead, the Bush administration began talks in September with other “major economies” to discuss voluntary caps. While some might say he’s at least doing something, and, according to some reports, the Lieberman-Warner climate change bill seems likely to pass in the Senate at least, many argue that Bush’s alternative negotiations work to undercut Kyoto and long-term UN-led efforts to address global warming. Indeed, the US, which is the world’s greatest producer of greenhouse gases, is the only major industrialized nation not to accept the Kyoto Protocol’s binding emissions cuts. US refusal is ostensibly based on the fact that less developed major polluters like China and India are not bound to make the same cuts as developed nations, but it does little to encourage them to limit emissions, even voluntarily.For the second time since GWB took office, I’ve been proud of Jacques Chirac, despite my dislike of his domestic politics: Chirac said “non” to Iraq, “oui” to Kyoto, and “you’re intolerably irresponsible on this issue” to Bush.
(Tip: see 1 of the furriest Bali demonstrations below)
