Today is Thursday, September 30th, 2004. A day that, in my humble opinion, should be called the Kyoto Day.
The Russian cabinet approves the Kyoto Protocol today, barely a few hours ago, blowing life and even extra strength to the once-zombie international treaty on climate change. With Russia backing the Protocol, a legacy of the Earth Summit, the quorum needed for the Protocol to come into force is met.
This victory, the one that might change the fate of our home and us as a species, is probably one of the most important achievements in human cooperation. With such unison, surely pressure will be mounting on the next President of the United States, whoever it might be, to give Kyoto for another thought.
As this great development happens in Moscow, Lieberman and McCain have been continuously working on a bipartisan effort to push for the Lieberman-McCain Climate Stewardship Act in DC. The act seeks to introduce capping and trading of greenhouse gasses emission which in general is similar to part of the idea in the Kyoto Protocol. I can proudly say that I and a few others have written a snail mail petition to Michigan representatives Carl Levin and Deborah Stabenow to urge them to support the act a few weeks ago via Environmental Defense. So far, though support for the act has been steadily gone up, it still shy a few votes from being passed. The proposal will be brought back to the Senate floor soon for another voting.
While the east coast is stuck with red tape, California reaffirms itself as the most political green caucus in the United States. Earlier, California passed the world’s toughest emission regulation and later claimed to be an global warming free-zone (though I think that term is by far is ridiculous but hey, we got what we want. I’m won’t complain too much on the so-called global warming free-zone.) Under the regulation, cars and trucks need to cut their emission by 25 percent while SUV must cut 18 percent before 2016 and it must start as soon as 2009. The auto industry has called this stupid but I say they have gotten off the hook long enough. It’s time they face the music.
At the same time, San Francisco, one of the hotbeds of US environmental movement, plans to reduce 2.5 million tones of carbon dioxide emission by 2012. It is believed that New York would follow the lead soon. How soon is yet to be seen but nonetheless, the snowball effect is taking shape. With enough momentum, hopefully, the Senate won’t be able to refuse their responsibility to reduce the six greenhouse gasses.
These are exciting time for the advocates of Kyoto Protocol. I myself am very excited. Barely a few years ago, things were gloom right after the US removed itself from the treaty and then calling others to do same. Australia joined the US, Canada almost. But now, it’s time we call the US and Australia to reverse and ratify Kyoto.
The European Union must be commended for having a hand in Russia’s change of heart. Without the EU, it would not be possible for Russia to ratify the treaty and in turn, it would be impossible for the Protocol to come to existence. Possibly, there would be less time for us to act against the mistake of our parents.
The initial stage has now been set. It is a high time to call in the developing countries, especially China en India, to join in the fight. It’s time to rally to world against what might come in the future.
Now is the exact point in time where we must redo what the Russians had done; they repelled Napoleon, resisted Hitler. We must confront the accelerated climate change.
p/s – an advertisement has been running on the TV for quite sometimes now. I first saw it during the Michigan – Notre Dame game. It is one of the coolest ads I’ve ever seen. Make sure to beef up the volume.
