Flat-earthers reject Kyoto

On December 7, the second day of the 12-day Climate Change Conference, U.S. Senior Climate Negotiator Harlan L. Watson announced that the United States would not sign the treaty, saying, “The Kyoto Protocol was a political agreement. It was not based on science.”

The folly of this view was highlighted by the fact that he made the remarks during the same week that Wangari Maathai, the founder of the Green Belt Movement in Africa, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her environmental campaigns.

Global warming is generally accepted as a fact by the vast majority of the world’s scientists. Some say it is due to increased emissions of greenhouse gases. Other scientists say it is a natural effect because the earth is entering a new geological era, a warmer age, noting that over the millennia the earth alternates between ice ages and warmer ages. According to another theory, global warming is part of the natural cycle but man-made factors, specifically increased emissions of greenhouse gases, are accelerating the process.

Whatever the cause may be, global warming is an indisputable fact. The poles are warming and the ice caps are melting. Huge icebergs are breaking off of the ice shelf in Antarctica. One was the size of Jamaica.

With the rise in the sea level, tiny island nations like Tuvalu may disappear beneath the waves.

Other environmental disasters are also occurring. The ozone is being depleted by chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and there is a hole in the ozone layer over Antarctica.

With the breakdown of the protective ozone layer and the subsequent increase in ultraviolet radiation, the incidence of skin cancer has risen dramatically, particularly in the most severely affected populated areas, Australia and the southern part of South America.

According to most experts, the Kyoto Protocol is too little, and almost too late. They say emissions of greenhouse gases must be reduced to much lower levels than those called for in the Kyoto treaty.

Are U.S. government scientists and officials flat-earthers? How can they deny scientific facts?

Well, there definitely are many flat-earthers in the U.S. government, including President George W. Bush and most of his cabinet. However, there certainly are U.S. government scientists and officials who know that global warming is a reality. The problem is that the conscientious ones have been silenced by U.S. administration officials who are pursuing an anti-environmentalist agenda.   

Surely, even the most obstinate members of the Bush administration have an inkling that global warming is a problem. So, why are they rejecting Kyoto?

It seems that one group of U.S. officials believes that they must extract the maximum amount of profits from environmentally damaging industries before taking action, in the belief that there is still time.

Another group seems to be totally indifferent to environmental issues. They do not care about future generations and the fact that they will be leaving them a destroyed planet as their legacy.      

Although the U.S. ruling class is responsible for these decisions, somehow it is not really a class issue, since global warming affects all socioeconomic strata and members of the ruling class will also suffer the consequences. These people do not even care about their own children and grandchildren.

Are we just going to sit silently and watch these people bring on a global eco-disaster? It seems that those who care about the fate of future generations must take preemptive action before these flat-earthers destroy the world.

MS/HG

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MNA