George W. Bush and the Kyoto Agreement
George W. Bush and the Kyoto Agreement
In 1997, the world’s major political figures, Including President Clinton of the United States, signed the Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. (1). While successful negotiation of the Protocol is a positive step for the global environment, it is only a small step. A number of obstacles such as some nations’ economic interests conflict with the Protocol, have to be overcome if the Protocol is to produce real reductions in emissions of greenhouse gases that have begun to influence global climate. The current U.S president George W. Bush, for example, against the agreement based on defending the economic interests of the U.S. Through this conflict with the Kyoto Agreement and searching for the balance between the greatest national economic interests and focusing on global environmental protection, George Bush’s role on the world stage has been redefined.
The target of Kyoto Agreement was to bind all signing nations to reducing their carbon dioxide emissions. According to most scientists, Carbon dioxide is the most important man-made greenhouse gas, accounting for about two-thirds of the human-derived greenhouse effect (2). The worst-case scenario forecast by scientists is the "runaway greenhouse effect" in which all the factors that cause global warming would eventually override the factors which work against it. Forests, for example, are thought to counter carbon dioxide emissions, because plants recycle carbon dioxide during photosynthesis(3).
There are also fears that if Polar icecaps begin to melt, then organic matter stored in the ice will be oxidized. This could release huge amounts of carbon dioxide and methane. The melting of the Arctic ice cap would also reduce the amount of solar radiation the planet reflects, allowing more heat to be trapped (3). One prediction suggests that if current trends persist, Carbon dioxide levels will double by 2050, air temperatures could rise between 1 and 3.5 degrees C. by 2100. Recent research published in the magazine Nature has suggested this rise could be more like 6 degrees C. in the next century. As the world warms, the average sea level is expected to rise - by between 15cm and 95cm by 2100 relative to 1990 - as a result of thermal expansion of the oceans and melting of glaciers and the ice sheets. The 90s were not only the warmest decade of the 20th century, but also of the millennium. In...