Global Warming; Kyoto Summit

Clearly the greatest problem facing our species is the problem of species survival in the long run. This is not guaranteed, especially given the way we are behaving as ecocitizens.[1].
             The damage we have done to our environment is not permanent. The question is whether or not we have recognized the problem in time to prevent our own extinction. The environmental movement is in its infancy, and the implementation of such programs as the Clean Air Act of 1970 by the US Environmental Protection Agency are the first steps on the road to recovery. Further revision of the Clean Air Act in 1990 and ratification of an international treaty by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) at the Rio Summit in 1992 show further progress along that road. The major hurdle will be getting the US government to force oil companies and large industries to comply with the limits set by past and future treaties. Our laissez-faire system of government stands with weak knees before the powerful lobbyists of the energy consortiums. As long as cheap emission credits are available, the major industrial polluters have no financial incentives to invest in new, c!.
             leaner technologies which are prohibitively expensive.
             On December 11, 1997, delegates from around the world agreed to significantly reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases. The historic international agreement was brokered in Kyoto, Japan, and is known as the Kyoto Protocol. It amounts to the most complex non-military treaty ever signed. Under the agreement, by the year 2008, industrialized nations would have to reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases to between 6% and 8% below 1990 levels.[5].
             The treaty fell short of what some environmentalists hoped for, however. Negotiators were unable to secure a firm commitment from developing nations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Business and labor groups also weighed in against the accord, predicting that the emissions cuts would cripple the United States' economy and lead to unemployment as jobs were transferred overseas.