Theos-Talk Archives (September 2001 Message tt00245)

Hi Michele,

Thanks for that link. Just went and had a look. I think the interviewer,
Hume, simply made a mistake when he said only Romania had signed the treaty.
I reckon The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)
have a better idea who has signed their own treaty - and they say 39
countries have signed and they provide the list (ie the link I gave in my
last mail).

But in spite of Brit Hume's mistake, more important is Senator Lieberman's
reply, because it also accurately reflects the way in the Bush
Administration is perceived by the other major nations in the UN around the
world. . . . And importantly, because what he is talking about, and what
the major industrial nations of the world are talking about, apart from the
USA, has more ramifications for the welfare of humanity on our planet than a
dozen Bin Laden's.

As for the vote of 98-0 in the Senate, there seems to be some confusion as
to whether it was a vote against the treaty or not, according to Leiberman.
But i think people should go and read your link for themselves.

I have put some of that interview below.

all the best,

...Peter



LIEBERMAN: . . . . President Bush has begun to follow a unilateral foreign
policy that has separated us from our allies. And we're the major force in
the world; whatever we do will have an effect.

But the policy that the president is following, for instance, on global
warming, is isolating us and is a genuine failure of leadership, and is also
irresponsible in the sense that we are the major source of the problem
because we're the most developed nation in the world. Right now in Bonn,
they are negotiating terms consistent with the Kyoto Protocol, and we are
disadvantaged, the United States, because our representatives are not at the
table as part of those negotiations.

HUME: But, Senator, doesn't it tell you something about the Kyoto Treaty
that one nation, Romania, has ratified it and not a single other one has for
all their protestations?

LIEBERMAN: No, it doesn't.

The Kyoto Protocol was a process that was -- I was there in Kyoto. It was an
incredible experience. You're trying to get every nation in the world
essentially to agree that we're all part of a problem. We're emitting these
gases that are warming the planet that threaten, according to scientific
consensus, to do something that's not been precedented in human history. And
it will have very, very dire consequences on the way our children and
grandchildren and their children live. So everybody's got to try to be part
of a resolution.

In Bonn, they're negotiating the details of the protocol that was agreed on
in Kyoto. And there's every indication that, beginning in the next year,
particularly in 2002, the major nations of the world, particularly our
allies in Europe, and I believe our ally in Japan, will begin to ratify the
Kyoto Protocol. As the folks -- as the leaders of our allies said to
President Bush in Genoa this week, their public, the people of Europe and
Japan, will demand it. And I actually think ultimately the people of the
United States will demand it, because they know this is a real problem that
we ought to solve.
=================




> -----Original Message-----
> From: Michele Lidofsky [mailto:officerjenny@mindspring.com]
> Sent: 23 September 2001 20:26
> To: theos-talk@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: Re: Theos-World - Kyoto
>
>
> Peter Merriott wrote:
>
> > 39 countries have in fact ratified the treaty, of which Romania
> is one, but
> > the majority of these are not the main generators of greenhouse gases.
>
> Hi Peter -
>
> I last got my info from an interview conducted end July 2001 of Sen.
> Joseph Lieberman by Brit Hume:
>
> http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,30206,00.html
>
> Perhaps in their remarks they were referring to the fact that most
> _industrialized_ nations have not ratified the treaty. Strange.
>
> Michele
>
>
>
> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
>
>
>