Earth: The Sequel: The Race to Reinvent Energy and Stop Global Warming (Hardcover) (click here)
KYOTO GOALS - These amount to an average of five per cent against 1990 levels over the five-year period 2008-2012.
Kyoto Protocol expires within The Barak Obama Administration, the change in USA Climate Crisis initiative can be a huge boost for the USA economy that will stop and reverse the trend in CO2 emissions.
There is a primary goal for the USA regarding Climate Change to focus on leadership while setting an example of excellance.
The USA must be a signator to Kyoto Protocol, but, it doesn't stop there. If we are to 'example' to the world we need to 'be where they are' and that is coalescing around values already recognized globally.
Realizing Kyoto expires in 2012, the USA must stop the trend of increased global emissions by taking responsibility for its' huge carbon dioxide emissions. It can BEGIN to do that by recognizing high emissions of CO2 as 'TOXIC' and CLASSIFYING it under The Clear Air Act and New Source Review (click here). In actuality, this is a human rights issue where deadly and adverse climates result from high CO2 levels. There is NO NEED to restudy the problem as the IPCC (click here) has already established 'the truth and facts.'
Within in The Clear Air Act and New Source Review there can no longer be allowed the 'status' of UNATTAINABLE. Either emission standards are met or the plants are SHUT DOWN to provide for NEW CONSTRUCTION of plants and factories that CAN MEET the new standards. IT CAN BE DONE, the federal legislation just has to 'go there.' The rest will take care of itself. They are Capital Investments that Republicans like to 'pocket' rather than 'invest' in the future of their own children. It is all very doable.
Once the USA has 'in place' the vital legislative tool to 'handle' emissions, the global standards can be set for 'beyond Kyoto 2012.' In all honesty, if the USA achieves its ambitious agenda for CO2 emissions control, the reversal will happen without disaffecting other countries. The PROBLEM always is that subsequent USA administrations can 'under cut' advances made by the Obama Administration and begin to cause a global problem again. It is up to the USA to 'set an example' and work with all other Kyoto nations to achieve their goals as an 'insurance policy' against future failure by any subsequent USA administration.
One area of International Protocol that is chronically neglected for the control of emission standards is that of 'POINT SOURCE' controls rather than 'regional' allotments. There are some 'interesting' views internationally of how 'emission sources' are identified and controlled, but, none as aggressive and 'correct' as the 'Point Source Standard' of the USA.
I sincerely believe once the USA sets its goals to controlling 25% of the carbon dioxide emissions globally, the trend will stop and reverse within this administration's influence and within its current 4 year tenure. THEN with 're-election' and continued mandate for a total of 8 years tenure by Obama we may very well see a return to freezing in the Arctic Ocean rather than a further degradation of the icefields and the ice ocean INSURING habitat for The Polar Bear. It is ambitious, but, doable ESPECIALLY considering a vital economy for the USA surrounds a change in 'infrastructure' for its work force that focuses on environment responsibility. I don't believe this is going to be all that UNACHIEVABLE for the prolonged neglect it has been given for decades and gross disregard by the Bush Administration.
Ex-Soviet bloc leads rises in CO2 emissions: U.N. (click here)
Mon Nov 17, 2008 7:34am EST
...It said the biggest recent gains were by nations of the former Soviet bloc, whose emissions had risen 7.4 percent since 2000 to 3.7 billion tonnes after crashing in the early 1990s with the collapse of former smokestack industries....
...The 2006 dip of 0.1 percent from 2005 was caused mainly by a fall in U.S. emissions to 7.0 billion tonnes from 7.1 billion tonnes in 2005, helped by factors including rising oil prices and a mild winter that cut demand for heating....
Hyundai Petrochemicals Daesan 2 cracker and power plant in South Korea burns residual fuel oil and emits greenhouse gases. It is the world's 11th largest power plant. (Photo courtesy Hyundai Engineering Co Ltd)
...For the smaller group of industrialized countries that ratified the 1997 Kyoto Protocol (click here) setting reduction targets, emissions in 2006 were about 17 percent below the Protocol’s 1990 base line, but they still grew after 2000.
The pre-2000 decrease stemmed from the economic decline of transition countries in Eastern and Central Europe in the 1990s.
"The biggest recent increase in emissions of industrialized countries has come from economies in transition, which have seen a rise of 7.4 percent in greenhouse gas emissions within the 2000 to 2006 time frame," said Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, UNFCCC....
Poland's Belchatow is the largest coal-fueled thermal power plant in Europe. (Photo courtesy Elektrownia Belchatow)
