There has been allot of debate recently over why the USA is not signing up to the Kyoto Treaty. This treaty would force specific countries to limit output of green house emissions. While on the surface this appears to be a solid “Good citizen of the world” thing for the USA to do, there are specific issues that would cause drastic economic problems for the country, and you and I.
1) The treaty only applies to specific nations. The treaty, as written does not apply to third world countries such as India, China, and much of the Pacific Rim countries (Vietnam, Thailand etc.) This causes a big problem as these countries are beginning to become very industrialized, meaning that this is where all of the stuff that you and I purchase (shirts, IPODS, etc.) are manufactured. As a result of the treaty, goods manufactured in the exempt countries can be made and continue to be made less expensively than in the USA and countries where the treaty would be enforced. This would cause artificial trade barriers and force even more manufacturing to move outside of the USA. This would lead to a collapse of our economy. In addition, the treaty would make exempt those countries where there are very few environmental controls established. Having travelled the world extensively, I can tell you that China and the pacific rim countries (not including Japan, where extensive environmental controls are in place) pollute our environment much worse than the USA. These countries would be exempt from the treaty. So what good would the treaty really do? Who would the treaty help? Who would the treaty hurt? Just a thought.
There is little debate that there is Gloabal Warming occurring on the planet. But what is causing the Global warming in the first place? Some would say that people are causing it. That the gas we burn in cars driving our kids to soccer, football, vacations, as well as industry in the manufacture of stuff we buy is causing Global Warming. While it may be an easy sell to say that we are causing it, consider the following. In our solar system, there are at least 3 planets (besides Earth) that are increasing in overall temperature at the same rates as Earth? How does one explain that? There are no cars on Mars, no industry, no green house gas producing factories. Could it be that the Global Warming we are experiencing is a phonomena of nature? In the grand scheme of things, our recorded history is a very short window of data to draw upon to make conclusions regarding the causes of global warming.
So if we are not causing global warming, we should still do what we can to minimize the effects of the pollutants we do put into the environment. But to what extent are we willing to do that? Should we effect our economy? Limit the ability to buy the stuff we like to have, do the things we like to do?
One last thought. Al Gore (former Vice President of the USA) recently won the Nobel prize for his work on the environment and his movie “An inconvenient truth”. He travels around the country and world promoting alternative fuel use, the effects of burning fuels and tells us not to drive SUV’s or limit our fuel consumption. Mr. Gore travels around doing this in a corporate jet. To be specific a Gulfstream G5. This airplane carries him and about 6 or 7 of his closest friends and burns more fuel in its twin Rolls-Royce BR710 engines in one cross coutry flight than a family of four burns in an SUV in one entire year. If he really wants to save the planet, why can’t he travel on USAIRWAYS, like the rest of us? I don’t know, I could be wrong, its just my opinion.
