Kevin Rudd, Prime Minister of Australia, needed to demonstrate a quick break with his predecessor and wanted to make one that also would show he is not going to blindly follow the US, as he often accused his long time political opponent John Howard of doing. So as soon as he won he said he will sign the Kyoto Protocol, and on December 3rd he officially signed onto the document. At first I had said "he officially signed onto the agreement," but that is not entirely true. Rudd, does not agree with the Kyoto Protocol and said he will not accede to any limits beyond what he proposed, not will Australia pay any proposed fines for non-compliance with the accord.
Since Rudd won and said he will be signing the protocol Australia has been applying diplomatic pressure on the US to sign on as well. Fortunately George Bush has shown some restraint and not buckled under pressure... yet. OK, so at this point I could take the low road and declare Rudd a typical, hypocritical politician and declare that the debate is over.
However, his hypocrisy goes deeper than simply signing the Kyoto protocol and pressuring the US to do the same, while saying he will not be held to the carbon dioxide limits imposed. Rudd has also gone on record for saying he supports a massive pulp mill project. Proving that he is either a moron or really thinks carbon dioxide is the only pollutant in the world... which would make him a moron... especially since part of his pledged support was to not protect old growth trees from being harvested to support the mill. He also must be willing to commit additional water resources to the project in a country battling with a decade long drought.
So we have him agreeing that global warming exists, but indicating that only carbon dioxide causes it. Deforestation must not be a possible cause in his mind, he also conveniently ignores the massive amounts of water vapor emitted by paper mills. Plus the other sources of pollution, not the least significant is the truck traffic in and out of the plant. Add to that the water runoff caused by deforestation means rain will runoff instead of being absorbed into the aquifer can ruin the land despite the best land management intentions, once the trees are gone the land is vulnerable.
The problem, and my eventual point, is that people are so caught up on the myth of global warming that they are forgetting that there are other forms of pollution that pose serious threats to the planet.
Not that I mean to pick on my Aussie friends... but more insanity from down under regarding mythical global warming and farsical carbon offsets...
Global warming is devloping a cult-like following where people feel obligated to link everything that is happening to global warming... amazingly without proof. Because the global warming cult is faith based, they believe in it therefore it must be so, to the great relief of those perpetrating the fraud who are relieved of the burder of having to provide any proof to support their incredible claims.
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