Here is further proof that the enviro-radical-left-kook-fringe’s environmental policies and positions are bad not only for the economy but also, ironically enough, for the environment. Looks like Bush wasn’t so stupid after all not signing that farse of a treaty the “Kyoto Golbal Warming” Treaty.
From Today’s Wall St. Journal Editorial Page: (subs req)
The Kyoto environmental protocol committed nations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. By this standard, the pact’s biggest fans, the Europeans, are failing. And what about the U.S., the global villain for withdrawing approval of the accord in 2001? It’s doing very well, thank you.
Let’s go to the latest numbers from the European Environment Agency in Copenhagen. Most European countries have seen an increase in greenhouse gas emissions since signing Kyoto with great fanfare in 1997. No fewer than 13 out of the 15 original EU signatories are on track to miss their 2010 emissions targets — by as much as 33 percentage points, in the case of Spain.
Or consider Denmark, home of the EU’s environmental watchdog. Rather than reduce levels by 21% as the accord stipulates, Denmark has so far notched a 6.3% increase in emissions since 1990, the base year used in Kyoto. The likely gap between its Kyoto commitment and its emissions levels projected for 2010 is 25.2 percentage points.
And how did the evil capitalist United States do who didn’t sign the treaty and take Al Gore’s adice?
The Bush Administration has continued a longstanding U.S. policy of pushing states, municipalities and private industry to reduce emissions that actually lower the quality of air and water. The U.S. thus saw a modest decline in greenhouse emissions of 0.8% between 2000 and 2002, according to data from the U.S. Department of Energy. Overall since 1990, American greenhouse emissions are up 15.8%, but this still puts the U.S. far ahead of many of its European and Asian critics. And this despite U.S. economic growth (and increasing energy demand) that has far exceeded Europe’s.
And out socialist neighbors to the north always quick to criticize the U.S. has egg on its face as well:
Alas, no one is talking about reducing the amount of hot air produced by politicians. At the U.N.’s environmental summit in Montreal last year, EU Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas of Greece spoke grandly of Europe’s continuing leadership in the reduction of greenhouse gases. Prime Minister Paul Martin of Canada, another Kyoto diehard, chimed in that America lacked a “global conscience.” For the record, Greece and Canada saw emissions rise 23% and 24%, respectively, since 1990, far above the U.S. rate.
Can we now “move on” and quit having to hear about how the U.S. does more than any other country in ravaging the environment from the whacko greens- many of whom have never left the upper West Side and Pacific Heights?