The Rest of the World Has Turned Green... and the U.S.of A. is still Blushing

The Kyoto protocol, headed by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is a diplomatic effort to join countries all over the world in the fight against global warming. It's objective aims at reducing greenhouse gases which contribute to this frightful environmental threat. As you can see from this map, we are the only country that has outright disagreed with the effort, while Kazakhstan is still lagging.
The key for this map is as follows:

• green - signed and ratified
• yellow - signed, ratification pending
• red - signed, ratification declined
• gray - no position

The treaty states, "The objective of the Kyoto Protocol is to achieve "stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system."

This past November, 2007, the Kyoto protocol required 36 countries to reduce greenhouse gases to levels specified in the treaty. This is ACTIVE progress towards a better Earth... will someone please tell me why America is not only annoyingly inactive in this effort, but actually counteractive with their refusal to join the Kyoto protocol. If the Bush re-election wasn't enough to make you jump ship, now may be the time to get in line for a long term visa.

According to a press release from the United Nations Environment Programme :"The Kyoto Protocol is an agreement under which industrialized countries will reduce their collective emissions of greenhouse gases by 5.2% compared to the year 1990 (but note that, compared to the emissions levels that would be expected by 2010 without the Protocol, this limitation represents a 29% cut). The goal is to lower overall emissions of six greenhouse gases - carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, sulfur hexafluoride, HFCs, and PFCs - calculated as an average over the five-year period of 2008-12. National limitations range from 8% reductions for the European Union and some others to 7% for the US, 6% for Japan, 0% for Russia, and permitted increases of 8% for Australia and 10% for Iceland."

--GreenBean

--all quotes excerpted from WikiPedia