Bushwacked planet

I read in Wired that the English are pushing the Bush Administration to sign the Kyoto Accord which is intended to set limits on all of the things that we are doing to our home, Earth, to slow the global warming trend and stave off potential disaster when the Earth decides to do something about the plague we are becoming.  You may gather that I feel quite strongly about this.  It seems that Bush isn’t too keen on this initiative and I am sure it isn’t too much of a surprise given his connections to the oil industry and likely allegiance to Big Industry.  His plan appears to be as follows:

Washington’s aim is to cut the amount of greenhouse gas emissions for
every dollar of economic output by 18 percent in 2012 compared to 2002.
The economy is likely to grow at a faster pace, meaning overall
emissions will rise.

That is a little pointless I think.  By reducing emissions by an amount that you know to be less than the increase consequential to the growth of the economy is paying lip service to the initiative and only delaying the inevitable.  Who is the current administration kidding anyway?

But wait, there is more!

[British Environment Minister Margaret] Beckett said extreme weather events like droughts and floods were
expected to become more frequent and worse, noting that the world had
just experienced the 10 hottest years on record.

"Nothing less than a radical change in how we generate and how we
use energy will be needed," she said, adding that the cost of action
would be far less than the cost of inaction.

Scientists have said that two degrees centigrade of warming is
already expected. They have predicted that above that level the warming
will start to fuel itself, pushing the planet into the unknown as ice
caps melt, sea levels rise and weather patterns change at accelerating
rates.

The World Wide Fund for Nature said over the weekend that disastrous
climate change could kick in within 20 years, leading to possible
species wipeout in the Arctic unless greenhouse gas emissions were cut
sharply.

A report by international experts last week described the climate as
a ticking bomb, and preliminary results of one study said temperatures
could rise by up to 11 degrees centigrade.

Scientists from 30 nations at the meeting will try to define what
constitutes "dangerous" levels of warming, but will not make any policy
recommendations.

After all the abuse we have hurled at the planet in the last few hundred years, we should know better and should take better care of her and the many many creatures we share her with.  The fact that we are liable to cause devastating climate changes and threaten the very existence of life on this planet should add to our sense of urgency.