US just being climate change 'moron'

The Canadian government finally came to its senses after five years trying to weaken the Kyoto Protocol. Canada now recognises that ratification is of benefit to industrialised nations.

With Canada to the north, Mexico to the south, and 97 other countries around the world having ratified the Kyoto Protocol, the US is surrounded, outnumbered and out of step with international action on climate change.

But Australia is still blindly following the US lead and will become equally isolated with New Zealand and most of its other Asia Pacific trading partners having already ratified the agreement.

Australian businesses, like their US counterparts, will be cut out of the opportunities that joining the Protocol would provide.

With New Zealand and Canada ratifying the agreement, it will become internationally binding law as soon as Russia ratifies - a move expected to come in 2003.

The Kyoto Protocol will become law when a minimum of 55 countries have ratified the agreement covering at least 55 percent of 1990 level greenhouse emissions from industrialised countries. New Zealand and Canada's ratification brings the total to 99 countries, covering 40.9 percent of greenhouse
emissions.

This is a great move by New Zealand and Canada, but these countries must adopt implementation plans that are not too lenient on industrial polluters.

The Kyoto Protocol is only the first step. We have to begin reducing greenhouse gas emissions immediately, and implement even deeper cuts as rapidly as possible if we are to prevent dangerous climate change.

You can help stop climate change by joining our campaign against E$$O - the world's biggest climate criminal.

Note: Google reports almost 1500 occurences of the phrase "Bush is a moron" on the internet. The most recent high-profile utterance of the phrase was by a top aide to Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien. The aide was under pressure from the US to resign, presumably for saying aloud what everyone else was thinking.