marklynas.orgPutin's Kyoto let-down 06 October 03
Russia has been stalling for months now on whether to ratify the Kyoto Protocol. Since the US pulled out, the Protocol cannot come into effect until Russia (worth 17% of 1990 emissions – the total needed is 55%) ratifies. Whether Putin is stalling to negotiate a better pay-off for Russia’s spare emissions credits, or genuinely doesn’t think global warming is a problem still remains unclear. When opening the recent Moscow Climate Change Conference, Putin made some unfunny remarks about how a warmer climate would mean that Russians could spend less on overcoats, much to the disgust of assembled delegates and scientific experts. The worrying thing is that Putin may actually believe his joke, if the ‘experts’ who surround him are anything to go by. Andrei Illarionov, an adviser to Putin on economic affairs, has called Kyoto “discriminatory against Russia”. It seems the Russians are basing their decision 100% on economics and 0% on global warming, which is all rather depressing given the searingly hot summer and devastating forest fires we’ve just suffered in the northern hemisphere. In desperation, Friends of the Earth has opened a page where you can email Putin and beg for ratification.
Comments
David Lee
February 1st, 2005 at 03:34 PM
This story in wired (http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,66424,00.html) is both fascinating and scary. according to a global experiment using the distributed computing power of 90,000 personal computers, the worlds temparature is set to rise up to 20 degree Fahrenheit in the next 50 years. Prior climate simulations have used “nothing close to the kind of computing power” available said one of the key scientists on the project, Myles Allen. This after having to listen to the typical nonsense of the flat-earth deniers of climate change on this morning’s Today programme – when they discussed the challenges facing the UK government now that they have admitted that they will miss the climate change targets set by Kyoto. Julian Morris director of the Institute of economic affairs was a complete fool. in his argument that climate change was nothing to worry about and what we should really be doing is opening up ‘free’ markets for a better world… how much longer will the Today programme and the media in general continue to have people like this on who totally skew the debate. the vast majority of scientists accept that climate change is happening and the runaway climate change is a real possibility. Lets have a grown up debate, not the rantings of fools like this.