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[greenyes] Backlash to Kyoto - It All Depends On How You Look at Things
The exact same thing can look like morning or night depending entirely upon 
how the issue is framed.

We have let this Administration control how so many critical issues to our 
interest has been framed, and this leads inevitably to bad outcomes that we 
can't win.

As presented and again raised in the article below, on the one hand there's 
some abstract treaty, and on the other hand, all of the economic benefits of 
our modern life are in jeopardy.

Another way to look at these things is, on the one hand, the dominant weight 
of evidence indicates that we are embarked on a path that could upend the 
most fundamental climatic givens for our children's lives and certainly our 
grandchildren's days in ways that could make any inheritance meaningless. 
On the other, a specific plan of action directed at minimizing those 
probable future costs would delay the price coming down for full wall high 
density smellorama television for one and a half years, and leave us with 
only 3 instead of moving up to 4 cars per average family for 3 years.

Expressed in that way, things look a lot different.  The executives of those 
"politically powerful interests" have grandkids too!

                                                                    Peter


WALL STREET JOURNAL

Nations Wince at Kyoto Reality

Zero Hour to Reconcile
Economic Pain With
Treaty's Clean-Air Goals
By TAMSIN CARLISLE in Calgary, Alberta, and JEFFREY BALL in Dallas
Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
February 15, 2005; Page A16

With the Kyoto Protocol set to take effect tomorrow, a disturbing 
realization is hitting many of the world's biggest global-warming suspects: 
Trying to meet their obligations to limit global-warming emissions under the 
treaty is proving a political and economic nightmare.

What is confronting many of the industrialized participants is the fact that 
turning their abstract environmental promise into tangible economic policy 
is extremely unpopular with politically powerful interests. Joining the 
Kyoto club was the easy part; now governments have to figure out how to 
divvy up responsibility for the cuts among companies and consumers that 
produce the emissions. Particularly since economies -- and emissions -- in 
many of these countries have grown significantly since the pact was 
negotiated in 1997, the process is producing a nasty political backlash.

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_________________________
Peter Anderson, President
RECYCLEWORLDS CONSULTING
4513 Vernon Blvd. Suite 15
Madison, WI 53705-4964
Ph: (608) 231-1100
Fax: (608) 233-0011
Cell: (608) 698-1314
eMail: anderson@no.address
web: www.recycleworlds.net



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