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Thompson: This column is biodegradable

tylerthompson
Ty Thompson
The State Press

Last Wed-nesday, while 128 nations moved toward serious environmental progression through the Kyoto Protocol, the Bush administration flashed a $5.8 billion promise on research and programs into climate change to distract from America's environmental inadequacies.

Like a testosterone-driven frat boy, the Bush administration knows how to hide its inadequacies with big promises.

Despite international notoriety, most Americans are unaware of the Kyoto Protocol -- a multi-national agreement that imposes limits on the emissions of gases that scientists argue increase global temperatures, melt the ice caps and, in turn, raise sea level.

The American public's ignorance toward the global warming accord is understandable since the United States -- the world's largest emitter of greenhouse gases -- is not a part of the agreement.

Australia, Liechtenstein, Monaco and the United States are the only four industrialized nations yet to ratify the Kyoto Protocol. Australia and the United States refuse to do so despite accounting for over one-third of the greenhouse gases emitted by the industrialized world.

Acting in its customarily unilateral fashion, the U.S. government has denounced the environmentally-minded accord since its inception in 1997, citing negative economic impacts and unbalanced restrictions on emissions for developing industrialized nations such as China and India.

"We have been calling on the United States to join. But the country that is the world's biggest emitter has not joined yet, and that is regrettable," Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary and top government spokesman Hiroyuki Hosoda told reporters last Wednesday at the Kyoto Convention Hall where the commencement of the agreement was celebrated.

But the U.S. government's wariness to accept the Kyoto Protocol is not without complete regard. Critics of the accord point to poor structure and the relative lack of punishment for countries that fail to meet specified quantitative emissions goals as justified reasons not to ratify the agreement.

Under the U.N.-backed protocol, industrialized nations must reduce their collective emissions of six major greenhouse gases during between 2008 and 2012 below the levels of emissions in 1990. For instance, the European Union should reduce its combined emissions by 8 percent before 2012, while Japan should reduce emissions by 6 percent.

Yet despite the agreement's imperfections, the Bush administration's failure to ratify it further reflects America's unwillingness to cooperate with a global community committed to positive environmental change.

"The time has come for climate change to take its place again at the top of the global agenda," said Joke Waller-Hunter, executive secretary of the Climate Change Secretariat, in a U.N. press release.

Ms. Waller-Hunter urged the United States and other major emitters without Kyoto targets to do their part by accelerating their national efforts to address climate change.

"Reducing the risks of global warming will require the active engagement of the entire international community," she said.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change suggests that humanity's emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases will raise global average temperatures by 1.4 - 5.8 degrees Celsius by the turn of the century. The temperature change and emissions will affect weather patterns, water resources, the cycling of the seasons, ecosystems and extreme climate events.

Our actions affect the earth, and this year's weather events have exemplified the power of Mother Nature. The time has come for a unified, global movement toward changing human impact on the environment.

But the movement starts with each person.

Promise to take this edition of The State Press and start the movement. Dump water and baking soda on my picture, and use my face to clean your windows. The newspaper will reduce streaks on your window, and the baking soda is used as a substitute for ammonia-based products. Smearing my face into glass will only add to the experience.

Reduce, reuse and recycle, but remember -- changing the future takes more than a promise.

Ty Thompson is a journalism sophomore. Reduce, reuse and recycle with him at tyler.w.thompson@asu.edu.


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