Tell the Post the US has to do better in Montreal

Climate Official’s Work Is Questioned By Juliet Eilperin, Washington Post, 5 December 2005

Environmentalists are unhappy with the job the lead U.S. climate negotiator, Harlan Watson, has been doing in the ongoing Montreal talks on how to combat global warming.

Watson has spent the past week in Montreal touting the administration’s record on climate change. He said there is no reason the United States and other countries that oppose mandatory carbon dioxide limits should have to talk about what should be done once the Kyoto Protocol, which aims to cut global greenhouse gases by 7 percent by 2012, expires.

Tell the Washington Post why we are unhappy!
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Mr. Watson refuses to discuss a Kyoto-type agreement because he says the U.S. doesn’t need it. Let’s look at the facts:

+ Global warming exists. The vast majority of scientists and world leaders have accepted this basic belief. Why can’t Bush?

+ U.S. emissions are up. U.S. emissions of greenhouse gases were 13.3 percent above 1990 levels in 2003 — while the EU average in the same period was 1.4 percent LESS.

+ Clean energy fuels a healthier economy. Bush has branded Kyoto as too costly. A recent Business Week article touts that increasing environmental efficiency also increases economic efficiency. Many scientists agree that higher temperatures are causing more powerful storms, and the economic impact of these storms is undeniable even to Bush–just think of Katrina. In addition, a University of California study says that clean energy generates more jobs-per-megawatt than fossil fuels.

+ Action on climate change is essential for international stability. Poor countries and poor people will suffer the effects of climate change the most. By making resources like drinkable water more scarce, climate change threatens to destabilize many states and regions throughout the world. The Observer sites a Pentagon report stating climate change over the next 20 years could result in a global catastrophe costing millions of lives in wars and natural disasters. Currently, 150,000 people are dying every year as a result of health problems caused by climate change, according to the World Health Organization.

Climate protection through a binding, enforceable treaty is the only way to protect our planet and its people.

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