Paul (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} fremantlebiz) wrote,@ 2007-12-04 08:10:00 |
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The Kyoto Protocol and I
I suppose most adult Australians who are interested in Australian politics will have heard of the Kyoto Protocol. It was a United Nations initiative formulated out at a environmental gabfest in Kyoto in 1997, however people had been dithering with its principals since at least 1992.
Kyoto is in Japan. I knew that at least - well sort of.
Yesterday the new Australian Prime Minister Mr Rudd was sworn in by Australia's military Governor General. This means that Mr Rudd can now get on with running the country, but he'll still have to behave himself or else the Governor General will be obliged to sack him on behalf of the Queen.
The first bit of action the PM did once he was off the leash was to declare ratification of the Kyoto Protocol. He committed Australia to an agreement which the Howard government had vigorously resisted since 1997.
I for one have not been up to speed on the implications of this initiative. I guess I should have been. There's been plenty of mention of the words "Kyoto Protocol" in the media over the years, but I'm still remained fairly oblivious. After all, there are plenty of treaties and agreements which are never ratified. Ignorance for me has been bliss.
But now Mr Rudd has thrown us in at the deep end I decided I had better learn to swim. This morning I found a sort of learners question and answer page on the Kyoto Protocol at the BBC website. Click here and you can instantly be as knowledgeable as me.
From what I can tell, the idea is to reduce the emission of so called 'greenhouse gasses' by insisting of sustainable clean-development mechanism, particularly involving major industrial processes, and reducing the negative reactiveness of their outputs with the environment by a measurable percentage.
While not the original intention of the Kyoto Protocol, there has been considerable spinoff encouragment for entrepreneurial schemes whereby a few rich people in rich countries become richer and most people in poor countries become poorer. The intended result is that the wealthy will still be able to maintain their environmentally unfriendly lifestyles well into the future by creating an illusion that they've been making sacrifices.
One of the ways this has already been initiated is with so called carbon credit schemes. These seek to establish a sort of pretend form of currency which to be traded back and forth according to how much and where any big industry wants to pollute the environment.
For example, if the federal minister for climate change, environment, heritage and the arts decides that he wants to allow more clearfelling of the pristine wilderness in Tasmania for a pulp mill to digest, then all he has to do is have the particular company organise the acquisition of sufficient carbon credits traded from somewhere else and it's open slather. The forest gets flattened, people are employed at the mill to generate woodpulp to export to Japan and China to make packaging. The big bonus is that the most cooperative political party gets Tasmanian timber worker votes in the next election.
The carbon credits can also be generated from promised smoke and mirror activities such as planting juvenile trees on newly created wastelands. We seeing speculation with this in Western Australia already with some retailers offering to plant a tree somewhere if a quantity of merchandise is purchased from them. Presumably the idea is to have customers sponsor the generation of sufficient carbon credits so that they can be sold off by the retailer for a handsome profit to environmental destroyers anywhere on the planet. Eventually there'll be no more plastic CDs, we'll have to download carbon credited electronic versions of music from Apple.
Such schemes are not the intent of the Kyoto Protocol. However, it seems possible Rudd government's ratification will mean the end of life as we know it.
It seems likely that every single consumer item we acquire is going to substantially increase in price. In the first instance this will lead to inflation, but the bubble will burst and we'll have a significant recession. The only people who won't suffer will be the politicians and those at the top of the carbon credit pyramid schemes.
I checked out the UN Website and did a search on Kyoto Protocol. It came back with thousands of hits - pretty confusing - many relating to the self-interest of various signatories.
However I did learn that in May this year UN officials were concerned that "a successful mechanism of the Kyoto Protocol that encourages investment in sustainable development should not be confused with a host of private schemes for trading carbon-emission credits." So obviously they are already aware of the concerns I've mentioned.
Perhaps the Rudd government should engage in a warts and all public awareness campaign so that we ordinary Australians are better informed about what we've suddenly become committed to.
In concusion, I had a look at the website for the city of Kyoto. It is in Japan after all. They get nearly 50 million tourists visiting each year. Amazing! That's a lot of cute souvenirs for some entrepreneurs to manufacture - and a lot of Tasmanian woodpulp for packaging.
On the plus side the local municipal authority seems on the ball, with many new ideas for improving their environment emerging every month. Click here so see their list. In comparison, some of the civic authorities sprawled around Western Australia's urban metropolis seem quite lethargic.
© MMVII Paul R. Weaver.
About the writer
Check out each month's subject index on the Calendar Page for my "common-man" monologues about survival in 21st century Australia – plus a little history occasionally. An original essay is added most days as part of an undertaking to write a couple of million words.
I suppose most adult Australians who are interested in Australian politics will have heard of the Kyoto Protocol. It was a United Nations initiative formulated out at a environmental gabfest in Kyoto in 1997, however people had been dithering with its principals since at least 1992.
Kyoto is in Japan. I knew that at least - well sort of.
Yesterday the new Australian Prime Minister Mr Rudd was sworn in by Australia's military Governor General. This means that Mr Rudd can now get on with running the country, but he'll still have to behave himself or else the Governor General will be obliged to sack him on behalf of the Queen.
The first bit of action the PM did once he was off the leash was to declare ratification of the Kyoto Protocol. He committed Australia to an agreement which the Howard government had vigorously resisted since 1997.
I for one have not been up to speed on the implications of this initiative. I guess I should have been. There's been plenty of mention of the words "Kyoto Protocol" in the media over the years, but I'm still remained fairly oblivious. After all, there are plenty of treaties and agreements which are never ratified. Ignorance for me has been bliss.
But now Mr Rudd has thrown us in at the deep end I decided I had better learn to swim. This morning I found a sort of learners question and answer page on the Kyoto Protocol at the BBC website. Click here and you can instantly be as knowledgeable as me.
From what I can tell, the idea is to reduce the emission of so called 'greenhouse gasses' by insisting of sustainable clean-development mechanism, particularly involving major industrial processes, and reducing the negative reactiveness of their outputs with the environment by a measurable percentage.
While not the original intention of the Kyoto Protocol, there has been considerable spinoff encouragment for entrepreneurial schemes whereby a few rich people in rich countries become richer and most people in poor countries become poorer. The intended result is that the wealthy will still be able to maintain their environmentally unfriendly lifestyles well into the future by creating an illusion that they've been making sacrifices.
One of the ways this has already been initiated is with so called carbon credit schemes. These seek to establish a sort of pretend form of currency which to be traded back and forth according to how much and where any big industry wants to pollute the environment.
For example, if the federal minister for climate change, environment, heritage and the arts decides that he wants to allow more clearfelling of the pristine wilderness in Tasmania for a pulp mill to digest, then all he has to do is have the particular company organise the acquisition of sufficient carbon credits traded from somewhere else and it's open slather. The forest gets flattened, people are employed at the mill to generate woodpulp to export to Japan and China to make packaging. The big bonus is that the most cooperative political party gets Tasmanian timber worker votes in the next election.
The carbon credits can also be generated from promised smoke and mirror activities such as planting juvenile trees on newly created wastelands. We seeing speculation with this in Western Australia already with some retailers offering to plant a tree somewhere if a quantity of merchandise is purchased from them. Presumably the idea is to have customers sponsor the generation of sufficient carbon credits so that they can be sold off by the retailer for a handsome profit to environmental destroyers anywhere on the planet. Eventually there'll be no more plastic CDs, we'll have to download carbon credited electronic versions of music from Apple.
Such schemes are not the intent of the Kyoto Protocol. However, it seems possible Rudd government's ratification will mean the end of life as we know it.
It seems likely that every single consumer item we acquire is going to substantially increase in price. In the first instance this will lead to inflation, but the bubble will burst and we'll have a significant recession. The only people who won't suffer will be the politicians and those at the top of the carbon credit pyramid schemes.
I checked out the UN Website and did a search on Kyoto Protocol. It came back with thousands of hits - pretty confusing - many relating to the self-interest of various signatories.
However I did learn that in May this year UN officials were concerned that "a successful mechanism of the Kyoto Protocol that encourages investment in sustainable development should not be confused with a host of private schemes for trading carbon-emission credits." So obviously they are already aware of the concerns I've mentioned.
Perhaps the Rudd government should engage in a warts and all public awareness campaign so that we ordinary Australians are better informed about what we've suddenly become committed to.
In concusion, I had a look at the website for the city of Kyoto. It is in Japan after all. They get nearly 50 million tourists visiting each year. Amazing! That's a lot of cute souvenirs for some entrepreneurs to manufacture - and a lot of Tasmanian woodpulp for packaging.
On the plus side the local municipal authority seems on the ball, with many new ideas for improving their environment emerging every month. Click here so see their list. In comparison, some of the civic authorities sprawled around Western Australia's urban metropolis seem quite lethargic.
© MMVII Paul R. Weaver.
About the writer
Check out each month's subject index on the Calendar Page for my "common-man" monologues about survival in 21st century Australia – plus a little history occasionally. An original essay is added most days as part of an undertaking to write a couple of million words.
