Re: SB: Re: Carbon Credits & Straw Bale

[Mark and/or Jan Bigland-Pritchard <hyphen@dial.pipex.com>]

Rey Arbolay wrote:
> 
> Excuse me Mark, but did "great" britain ratiffy the
> Kyoto agreement? or any other EU nation for that
> matter? Let me save you the embarrasement and answer
> for you. NO. Not a single EU nation has ratified or
> will ratify Kyoto. How about the last treaty? That is
> right folks the Brazil treayt was also not ratifyed by
> ANY EU nation. So if this is such a great treaty and a
> solution to all of the worlds pollution, why have no
> country ratified? Maybe because it is nothing but
> empty posturing and politicall/legal blackmail. The
> Kyoto protocol establish legal (read monetary)
> penalties for failure to comply with unrealistic and
> unscientific standards. All it accomplishes is to give
> Daimler/Siemens/etc consortiums of EU a way to slow
> down American companies while extorting money from
> american taxpayers while feeling good about
> themselves. All politics are about power.
> 

Let's make one thing clear at the outset.  I do not speak on behalf of
the British government, nor of the EU.  I spend a lot of my time trying
to get my own country's government to live up to its all-too-easy
environmental rhetoric, and it feels like bashing my head against a
brick wall - I don't need to be reminded of their hypocrisy.

But at least in Britain we have managed to maintain our energy
consumption levels pretty constant for about 20 years (without really
trying very hard at all, and while the economy is growing) - and some
other European countries have done rather better than that.

I think we now have a Kyoto-Bonn treaty that will be ratified by the
countries that agreed it - unless of course George II starts really
putting the pressure on Japan.

At no point, however, did I suggest that it is "such a great treaty",
nor "a solution to all the worlds pollution".  It is a hopelessly
inadequate treaty, setting hopelessly inadequate targets for CO2
emissions reductions - and now further diluted by permission of forestry
and agriculture as carbon sinks.  The scientific consensus has long been
that a 60% emissions reduction, at least by the middle of the century,
is going to be necessary for the worst effects of global warming to be
avoided.  Given that most countries will need (at least short-term) to
increase their emissions in order to establish basic living standards
for their people, in practice the developed world needs to achieve far
deeper cuts.  Kyoto is just scraping the surface.  It is a tiny
faltering step in the right direction.  Bush isn't even prepared to do
that.

The standards set by Kyoto are not unrealistic for a country that has
the political will to achieve them.  The conservation, efficiency and
renewables technologies exist.  The transport planning strategies
exist.  It ought to be entirely possible for the US to reduce its CO2
emissions by a measly 7% by 2010 - if the US doesn't have the technology
and resources to achieve this then nowhere does.

Personally I think there's a lot to be said for slowing down US
corporations.  There's also a lot to be said for slowing down Daimler,
Siemens, etc.  I see the power of the big corporations - wherever they
are based - as the primary threat to democracy worldwide.  But they too
could benefit from getting leaner and fitter in the area of energy
consumption.  All that the Kyoto penalties do is make market constraints
slightly more realistic in their recognition of climatological
realities.  If European companies have been a bit more aware of reality
than US ones, and thereby gain a competitive advantage, then the answer
is not to whine like a spoilt child but to get your collective finger
out.

And as a strong element in your country's national myths is the belief
that you can achieve anything, I'm sure you can motivate yourselves.

So why the paranoia?

Mark

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe from the list, send a message to:
   <strawbale-unsubscribe@crest.org>

or for the digest to:
   <strawbale-digest-unsubscribe@crest.org>

Please send any list administration questions to
strawbale-owner@crest.org