international climate talks 2001
World governments met in Bonn for the international climate talks in July 2001. The talks took place against a backdrop of new scientific evidence that confirms what most have suspected all along, that the threat of climate change is even worse than was previously thought.
Public opinion polls around the world show overwhelming public support for positive action to combat climate change, and the European Union has pledged to go forward and ratify the Kyoto Protocol, the only international treaty to protect the climate. But on the other side stands the United States, George W. Bush and his corporate sponsors like Esso, Texaco, Chevron and the other oil companies, the coal industry, and the other US corporate polluters who put Bush into power and now expect some payback.
Earlier in 2001 President Bush rejected the Kyoto Protocol as 'fatally flawed' leaving the Treaty and humanity teetering on the brink of catastrophe.
With the Europeans and most of the rest of the world on one side, and the US, Australia and Canada on the other, the spotlight is now on Japan. The Kyoto Protocol can be brought into force without the United States, but only if Japan agrees to go ahead. Japan will have to choose between doing the right thing and going forward with ratification of the Protocol that bears the name of its ancient capital - or siding with the US, Esso and the rest of those who don't seem to give a damn about our future.
