Greens Concede Kyoto Will Not Impact 'Global Warming'
By Marc Morano
CNSNews.com Senior Staff Writer
December 17, 2004

Buenos Aires, Argentina (CNSNews.com) - After a relentless attack on the
United States for opposing the Kyoto Protocol, environmental groups concede
the international treaty will have no impact on what they believe to be
impending catastrophic global warming.

Despite the fact that green groups at the U.N. climate summit in Buenos
Aires called President George Bush "immoral" and "illegitimate" for not
supporting the Kyoto Protocol, the groups themselves concede the Protocol
will only have "symbolic" effect on climate because they believe it is too
weak. Kyoto is an international treaty that seeks to limit greenhouse gases
of the developed countries by 2012.

"I think that everybody agrees that Kyoto is really, really hopeless in
terms of delivering what the planet needs," Peter Roderick of Friends of the
Earth International told CNSNews.com.

"It's tiny, it's tiny, tiny, it's tiny," Roderick said. "It is woefully
inadequate, woefully. We need huge cuts to protect the planet from climate
change."

But just because Kyoto may end up having little or no impact on the climate,
that did not stop Roderick from blasting President Bush for the White
House's environmental policies.

Roderick cited "deep psychological reasons" as to why the Bush
administration opposed the Protocol.

"[Bush] comes across as not caring," Roderick said. "I am sure he does care
in his own life personally about many things, [but] I think also that he is
scared, he is fearful, he is fearful about wanting to continue in power.

"Somewhere in their hearts [the Bush administration doesn't] seem to care
about the future of the planet and I think that is bad news for the world,"
Roderick added. "It is obviously deep psychological reasons, as to why
individuals would feel that way ... [Bush] seems to have a vision of the
world which is not recognized by millions and millions of people around the
world."

Kyoto: 'Symbolic importance'

While Roderick dismisses the potential impact of the Kyoto Protocol, he
believes the treaty is vital for a reason that has nothing to do with
climate change.

"[The Protocol] is important more in the political message and the
inspiration it is giving people around the world. People can say 'yeah, our
politicians do care -- they are not just interested in power and their own
greed and in their own money. They do care about the future of the planet,'"
Roderick explained.

"How inspiring it would be for the leaders to get together and say 'yeah, we
are going to do this, we are all in this together. That's, I think, the sort
of symbolic importance of Kyoto, not the the sort of nitty-gritty commas and
dots in the text [of the Protocol]," he added.

Roderick believes a global climate emergency can only be averted by a
greenhouse gas limiting treaty of massive proportions. "We are talking
basically of huge, huge cuts," said Roderick.

The most positive description of the Kyoto Protocol centers on it fostering
the spirit of cooperation in the international community, according to
Roderick.

"The best thing that can be said for it, is it's the first time that with
the exception unfortunately of the United States, that the international
community has said, 'We need to get together on this and we need
international action.' That's the really important thing of Kyoto," Roderick
said.

Kyoto: 'Important architecture'

Greenpeace International agreed that the Kyoto Protocol should only be an
entry point for controlling greenhouse gas emissions. Jessica Coven, a
spokesperson for the environmental group, told CNSNews.com that "Kyoto is
our first start and we need increasing emissions cuts.

"We need all types of actions, but Kyoto is the important architecture for
how we are going to move forward to curb the problem [of climate change],"
Coven said.

"Global warming, as its name suggests, is a global problem and we need an
international framework like Kyoto," she added. And despite the Protocol's
limited impact, Coven said President Bush's decision not to support the
treaty is "immoral."

The Inuit Circumpolar Conference, the Arctic group that announced their
intention this week to seek a ruling from the Inter-American Commission on
Human Rights against the United States, "for causing global warming and its
devastating impacts," also denigrated the global warming treaty.

"The Kyoto Protocol, although again achieved with great difficulty, doesn't
even go near to what has to get done. It is not anywhere near to what we
need in the Arctic," said Sheila Watt-Cloutier, chairwoman of Inuit
Circumpolar Conference.

"Kyoto will not stop the dangerous sea level rise from creating these kinds
of enormous challenges that we are about to face in the future. I know many
of you here believe that we must go beyond [Kyoto]," she said during a panel
discussion.