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President George W. Bush announced yesterday in a nationally televised press conference that he intends to bypass the sanctions of the Kyoto Treaty on Global Warming until an updated, U.S. friendly plan can be introduced.
Bush said the treaty could cause negative economic effects.
“I will not accept a plan that will harm our economy and hurt our workers,” he said.
The Kyoto Treaty originated in 1992 at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, when several environmental experts testified about the depreciating condition of the planet and raised concerns about the melting of polar ice and rising sea levels. The experts pointed to the deteriorating ozone layer and rising pollution levels as the culprit.
Following the summit, scientists and diplomats from several nations met to discuss possible ways to decrease pollution levels worldwide. The Kyoto Treaty, named for the city of its origin, was eventually ratified before the UN in December of 1997. It then called for a worldwide reduction of emissions of carbon-based gases by an average 5.2 percent below 1990 levels by 2012.
Former President Clinton signed the agreement quickly but it was never introduced to the Senate.
President Bush has frequently said the treaty was never fully ratified, in his efforts to dodge the strict sanctions of the treaty. Republicans claim the emissions standards for this year are just too difficult to meet and would require too much money and labor.
However, the European community was up in arms yesterday over Bush’s intentions. German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder is scheduled to meet with Bush today in Washington in an effort to deride the new president’s intentions towards the treaty.
“The chancellor will explain the European position,” the chancellor’s spokesman said on NYTimes.com. “We hope the Americans will change their mind, because we Europeans think we have the better arguments.”
Italy stepped into the fray late yesterday, when Environmental Minister Willer Bordon promised to AP reporters that the European nations would react if Bush continues to fail to comply.
“International agreements cannot be discarded or made secondary to national politics,” Bordon said. “The United States’ rejection of the Kyoto protocol should be denounced, and in a formal manner.”
On the Environmental Protections Agency’s home page, concerns are rising that national and international global warming could change the physical and economic landscape as we know it.
“Changing regional climate could alter forests, crop yields and water supplies. It could also threaten human health and harm birds, fish and many types of ecosystems. Deserts may expand into existing rangelands, and the character of some of our National Parks may be permanently altered.”
