Spirituality and Ecological Hope

Fostering Ecological Hope

Today from Margaret Swedish:

France has come up with an interesting idea to put pressure on the Kyoto Protocol scofflaws, those nations that won’t cooperate in the international treaty to reduce greenhouse gas emissions — like the US.

Tax their imports.

Oooooo, that’s the pocketbook — that hurts.

Said Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin:

Europe has to use all its weight to stand up to this sort of environmental dumping.

The NY Times printed the Reuters story in the front section yesterday, a good thing, though I imagine there are some French-hating Republicans in Congress who are none too pleased at this display of French irritability about our deteriorating atmosphere and lack of US action.

Britain’s Tony Blair is practically begging the Bush administration to take some meaningful action.

Meanwhile, back in the US, our carbon emissions continue to rise, so you can see how those voluntary incentives are really working. 

This from Reuters today:

Since 1990, which is the base year under the international Kyoto global warming treaty, the EIA said, US greenhouse gas emissions have increased 17 percent from 6.113 billion metric tons.

We have some work to do.  The new Democratic-led Congress will have some work to do come January.