ARIGATO KYOTO
TENSIONS IN LEBANON
SEX SCANDAL IMPLICATES WHITE HOUSE

When I was in Rome last Sunday, I noticed police blocking streets. A demonstration, I thought. I thought wrong. What was actually happening was that cars were being prohibited in sections of the city. Motor bikes were forced off the road. It was all a response to mounting pollution which had finally been seen as a public health menace.

Increasingly around the world, environmental concerns are changing the way we live.

AND NOW…

As of last night, a new global warming pact went into effect to cut greenhouse cases. 40 nations — minus the United States — had finally acted, or at least are trying to. The Associated Press played it as a dramatic development:

TOKYO (Feb. 15) - Two centuries after the dawn of the industrial age, the world on Wednesday takes its first concerted step to roll back the emission of “greenhouse gases” believed linked to climate change with the enactment of the Kyoto global warming pact.

“The agreement, negotiated in Japan’s ancient capital of Kyoto in 1997 and ratified by 140 nations, calls on 35 industrialized countries to rein in the release of carbon dioxide and five other gases from the burning of oil and coal and other processes.

“Its impact, however, will be limited by the absence of the United States, the world’s leader in greenhouse gas emissions.” met with a mixture of pride and mounting worry that the world’s second-largest economy is unprepared to meet its emission reduction targets.”

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Science/2005/02/15/931957-ap.html

What it means: 34 industrialized countries legally bound to slash pollution causing global warming. The treaty requires industrial countries to cut carbon-dioxide gas emissions by 5,2% before 2012.

EXPERT: KYOTO COMES TOO LATE

So writes Mark Hertsgaard on Alternet:

“At the core of the global warming dilemma is a fact neither side of the debate likes to talk about: it is already too late to prevent global warming and the climate change it triggers. Environmentalists won’t say this for fear of sounding alarmist or defeatist. Politicians won’t say it because then they’d have to do something about it. But the world’s top climate scientists have been sending this message, with increasing urgency, for years now. . .

“The world community therefore must make a strategic shift: it must expand its response to global warming to emphasize not only long-term but also short-term protection. Rising sea levels and more weather-related disasters will be a fact of life on this planet for decades to come, and we have to get ready for them.

http://www.alternet.org/envirohealth/21261/

ALARMIST OR ALARMING?

Much of the reporting came wrapped up in alarmist projections that are downright scary. Here’s Susan Milligan in the Boston Globe:

“By the end of this century, global warming threatens to raise the sea level enough that a heavy storm would send flood waters into Boston’s downtown waterfront, the Financial District, and much of the Back Bay, based on projections in a federally funded report to be released today. The five-year study, commissioned b the US Environmental Protection Agency and completed by university researchers, indicates that the mildest impact of global warming would leave local landmarks such as Massachusetts General Hospital, the Public Garden, the Esplanade, and MIT in a pool of water after a strong storm surge in the harbor.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2005/02/15/study_predicts_city_flood_threat_due_to_warming/

These are issues that should be front and center in the media every day but, unfortunately, you seem to need a news peg or an event like the implementation of the Kyoto Accord to get coverage commensurate with the crisis. It’s hard to calculate the costs of inaction to future generations.

GREENPEACE TARGETS THE USA

Greenpeace blasts the US stand on Kyoto:

“Notably, the largest worldwide polluter, the United States, is not part of the treaty. In 2001, President Bush reneged on his campaign promise to address global warming and withdrew the United States from the Protocol. However, states and regions around the country refused to let Bush block efforts to protect the climate, and have moved ahead with strong action to curb global warming. From limiting global warming pollution to mandating a certain amount of energy needs come from renewable sources like wind and solar - states are moving past the president’s inaction. Last week, Senators McCain and Lieberman introduced legislation that would limit pollution across the country.

“At the same time, Americans are demanding those responsible for global warming pollution be held accountable for their actions. Greenpeace has currently teamed up with Friends of the Earth, and the cities of Boulder, Colorado and Oakland, California to demand two government banks stop financing overseas projects that lead to global warming.