How Should the U.S. Limit Greenhouse Gas Emissions After the Kyoto Protocol?

March 6, 2009 RSS Feed Print

Is a global treaty like the Kyoto Protocol—or whatever follows the pact that the United States has refused to sign—the path to reducing climate change? Proponents say yes, and it's time for America to show the way. Opponents say only ingenuity and market forces can achieve emissions goals. What do you think? Should the United States sign a binding treaty on greenhouse gas emissions? Or can fair-market forces do the trick? Post your thoughts, and don't forget to check out the debate in the April edition of U.S.News & World Report.

Previously: Omar al-Bashir, Under Arrest?

Tags:
pollution,
Kyoto Protocol,
greenhouse gases,
air pollution

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im doing a debate on this topic and need help with research from both sides of ; if the us should limit greenhouse gas emissions? .... help

katnina of CA 12:11PM October 21, 2010

The global climate has been and will always change no matter what man does. Just another cry "wolf" or chicken little the Sky is Falling.

L Williams of GA 11:00PM April 09, 2009

The whole premise of the US News report seems based on the false (political) premise that man-made CO2 is causing global warming (now called climate change because earth has cooled for the past decade). Given the importance of this issue to the future of our economy and our free enterprise culture that is the only economic system capable of feeding the world is seems dishonest for the magazine to not start their report by making the scientific case (not political consensus) that "science proves “man can and is changing earth's climate. Did US News think it would not be scientifically necessary to justify its premise because US News takes political consensus as science? More than 31,000 scientists have signed a petition that states that signing the Kyoto Treaty or any subsequent treaty that states that man is responsible for or could change the climate of earth is nothing but politics because science proves otherwise - please read the Petition at www.oism.org and the detailed climate research that comes with the petition that is backed up with more than 130 reference research studies. They also make a case for the benefits of increased CO2, a building block of life, which increases food growth as world population increases.

This said, earth’s temperature IS changing as it always has. Please read the NASA report Oct 2000, "Earth's Fidgeting Climate" and you will see that over 400M of the past 600M years the earth's average temperature has cycled between a high band, MODE, most often, temperature of ~72 degrees F and its infrequent low band of 52 degrees F. Earth's temp has dipped to 52 F only three times over the past 600M years and then only briefly. We humans are now living in a low average temperature period of about 54 F, it being some 10M years or so since the "52 F bottom". Earth has been warming for millions of years and will continue to warm (most likely) as earth returns to its mode temperature average of 72F. A chart is available at the NASA site. In parallel Yale University has released a study of CO2 PPM on earth over these same 600M years that shows that CO2 PPM was some 7,000 PPM 600M years ago and has dipped and climbed and dipped until today the CO2 is now about 380 PPM. In no case did CO2 PPM change as a ratio of CO2 change. The NASA and Yale graphs are easy to find on the web – see Christopher Monckton of Brenchley for a graph of CO2 levels and NASA temperature plots on the same graph.

Earth’s heat is derived from the sun. Earth’s temperature is controlled by its orbit around the sun, axis tilt (wobble), its increasing diameter (expanding from original 2000 miles to today’s 8,000 mi. diameter. Main factors controlling earth’s temperature are the interaction of cosmic rays with the earth’s water vapor (the 97% GHG – CO2 being <2.7% GHG) that change the degree of earth cloudiness – hence temperature. Cosmic ray penetration of earth’s magnetic field is influenced by sun spots that reduce cosmic ray activity resulting in more cloudiness and a cooler earth. The sun spots have many different cycles, but best known to man is the 11 year cycle. Dr. Tim Patterson, Toronto, Canada, has tracked these associations for your review. They agree with the Oregon Institute for Science and Medicine study (oism.org). Sun spot activity in 2008 – 9 has been very low, with some months with “zero”, a record that goes back more than 100 years.

Joe Famme of VA 9:16PM April 07, 2009

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