I don’t have much of an opinion on the Kyoto Protocol. It’s certainly a step in the right direction, even if it has its flaws.
However, it’s quickly becoming apparent that Kyoto is turning into a political card trick, a shortcut to being Environmentally Friendly that doesn’t require any more than the absolute minimum of interest in the environment.
Take this article, which raises the point that Canada has large forest areas that could be maintained and used to offset emissions. (For now, let’s not get into the idea that since we have forests, we can pollute more.) There’s just one problem: Forests burn, particularly when you’ve got droughts and insect infestations.
The solution? We’re not going to count the forests any more. They’re not resulting in the math people want, so they’re out of the picture.
Then we’ve got this item about Ontario NDP leader Howard Hampton’s plan for meeting Kyoto targets. And guess what: We can do it without touching your car! We’re going to save the environment, but we’ll make sure your SUVs are still affordable.
Kyoto seems to have fostered the idea that we need to do this much and no more. Meeting Kyoto Targets has become a substitute for environmental action, a set of numbers and formulae that get further removed from reality every time a politician shows he’s willing to take “action”.
It’s like saying you have three smoke detectors in your house, so you don’t need a fire extinguisher in the kitchen; that the dentist said you have great teeth, so you can stop flossing; that your wrist may be broken, but your ankle is fine. It’s Enron accounting, moving numbers around to make them look better without trying to fix them in the first place.
Kyoto is a step in the right direction, but it’s by no means all-encompassing. You want to talk about climate change, well, great. But what about our rivers and lakes? Protecting forests and wilderness? How ’bout we do something about the fact that if I go out biking on a hot summer day, I’m likely to come home coughing?
But it’s become everything to politicians looking to score points from an electorate that’s suddenly concerned about the environment but would rather not make any significant sacrifices. It’s leading to hollow promises based on shallow principles, and the idea that meeting some of the goals of a treaty many nations are ignoring (or similarly paying lip service to) will result in a healthy planet.
It’s not that easy.