Kyoto is silly

The Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, that is.

To brutally oversimplify, greenhouse-gas emissions = energy use = economic activity.... To produce fewer emissions now your one choice is to shrink your economy, i.e., become poorer.... No nation is going to voluntarily impoverish itself, however noble the cause. What's more, Kyoto exempts developing nations, which are expected to vastly increase their energy consumption and thus their emissions. In short, Kyoto if implemented would mean economic chaos for no net improvement. Ain't gonna happen, as even Kyoto's fans are beginning to concede.

A more realistic approach [than frivolous use of the supplies we now have] is to say, OK, we're going to burn this fuel and cope with whatever dire result, but let's put the stuff to good use while we've got it. That means distributing improved technology to use energy more efficiently and pollute less. Amazingly, just such an approach was agreed to last year when the U.S., Australia, China, India, Japan, and South Korea formed the Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate, which may go down as Dubya's saving grace after having screwed the pooch in Iraq.