Climate Change Lip Service

Something that has been making continuous news here in Australia is the climate change summit going on in Bali, Indonesia.  To much fan fare new Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd ratified the Kyoto Protocol and then attended the Bali conference hoping to be a leader on climate change.  Then suddenly the difference between making easy campaign promises and dealing with reality became quite evident.  The Europeans wanted PM Rudd to cut emissions in Australia by 25-40% by 2020 which he refused to do because of the hit the Australian economy would take. 

Rudd would rather cut emissions by 60% by 2050 when he would long be out of office and 95 years old.  Once again another easy promise to make when you don’t have to worry about the consequences of it.  What is ironic about this is that Rudd is taking nearly the same position as former PM John Howard except Rudd gives lip service to the global warming religionists unlike Howard. 

You can’t blame Rudd for playing the lip service game because the Europeans are the masters of it.  The Europeans have been demanding the 40% cuts based off of 1990 levels because they would not have to do anything themselves.  The Kyoto Protocol was agreed upon in 1997, why did they decide to base emission cuts off of 1990 levels when the agreement was signed in 1997?  Likewise why are the Europeans still demanding cuts be based off of 1990 levels today?  Think about it, what happened in 1990?  The Soviet Union collapsed along with the entire industrial based economies of Eastern Europe.

The Europeans have cleverly grouped themselves together into one big European block for emissions targets because Western Europe’s continuing rise in greenhouse gases is offset by the collapse of the Eastern European economies after the fall of the Soviet Union.  If Western Europe was their own block they would not meet the Kyoto Protocol’s requirements because of their rising greenhouse gas emissions.  That is why they are demanding the 1990 level for cuts.  This allows them to continue with their rising greenhouse gases and then play the holier than thou card against the United States.  Canada and Japan foolishly signed the original Kyoto Protocol just to see both of their countries’ greenhouse gases rise and are not able to meet the treaty’s requirements.  That is why both these nations have joined the United States at this conference in renegotiating the treaty’s requirements.    Both these nation’s have woken up and discovered the true intention of the Kyoto Protocol, income redistribution:

“A climate change response must have at its heart a redistribution of wealth and resources,” said Emma Brindal, a climate justice campaigner coordinator for Friends of the Earth.

PM Rudd realizes that the Kyoto Protocol is nothing but an income redistribution scheme, but he is more clever than Howard by paying these people lip service without actually having to do anything.  If the Japanese with their awesome mass transit system, nuclear reactors, and complex recycling sysem cannot meet the Kyoto Protocol requirements, how can Australia?  Canada is probably an even better comparison to Australia due to the similar cultures, governmental systems, and active green movements. Canada despite all the the efforts and money put into the Kyoto Protocol ended up with emissions rising by 16%. 

The Bali conference has now ended with everyone getting their forum to do some America bashing and now they will all fly home in their carbon producing private jets while actually doing nothing to improve the environment.  At the same time a real man made environmental disaster is taking place off the western coast of Korea and the only nation sending assets to assist in the clean up of the oil spill is the United States.  It’s quite telling how no one is talking about that.