ÿþ<html> <head> <meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1"> <title>OnlineColumnist®.com: Putin Punishes Georgia</title> <meta name="generator" content="Adobe GoLive 4"> <style type="text/css"> .style3 { height: 69px; } .MsoNormal {} h1 {margin-bottom:.0001pt; page-break-after:avoid; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; font-weight:normal; text-decoration:underline; text-underline:single; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; } .style4 { font-family: Arial; font-weight: bold; font-size: large; } .style5 { font-size: x-large; font-weight: bold; } </style> </head> <body bgcolor="white" vlink="black"> <center> <table cool width="624" height="2719" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" gridx="16" showgridx gridy="16" showgridy> <tr height="79"> <td width="133" height="118" rowspan="2" valign="top" align="left" xpos="0"> <a href="aboutdiscobolos.html"><img height="110" width="62" src="images/discobolos.logo.transp.gif" border="0"></a></td> <td width="7" height="118" rowspan="2"></td> <td width="482" height="79" colspan="2" valign="top" align="left" xpos="140"><img height="75" width="450" src="images/banner.GIF"></td> <td width="1" height="118" rowspan="2"></td> <td width="1" height="79"><spacer type="block" width="1" height="79"></td> </tr> <tr height="39"> <td width="182" height="39"></td> <td width="300" height="39" valign="top" align="left" xpos="322"><a href="aboutdiscobolos.html"><img height="14" width="267" src="images/divisionofNEW.GIF" border="0"></a></td> <td width="1" height="39"><spacer type="block" width="1" height="39"></td> </tr> <tr> <td width="624" colspan="6" valign="top" align="left" xpos="0" class="style3"> <table border="0" width="100%" bgcolor="black" cellspacing="0"> <tr> <td> <table border="0" width="100%" bgcolor="#99ffcc" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="4"> <tr> <td align="center"> <div align="left"> <a href="index.html"><font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular" size="2"><strong> HOME</strong></font></a><font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular" size="2"><strong> &#8226; <a href="articlesindex.html">ARTICLES</a> &#8226; <a href="books.html">BOOKS</a> &#8226; <a href="teflon.html"> THE </a><a href="teflon.html">TEFLON</a><a href="teflon.html"> REPORT</a> &#8226; <a href="mailto:letters@onlinecolumnist.com"> REACTIONS</a> &#8226; <a href="aboutdiscobolos.html">ABOUT DISCOBOLOS</a></strong></font></div> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> <tr height="2"> <td width="133" height="2">&nbsp;</td> <td width="489" height="2576" colspan="3" rowspan="2" align="left" xpos="133" content valign="top" csheight="2573"> <p class="style4">Climate Summit Reality</p> <p><b><font face="Arial,Geneva,Helvetica">by John M. Curtis</font></b><font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular"><b><a href="books.html"><br> </a></b></font><font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular"><b> (310) 204-8700</b></font></p> <p><font size="2" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular"><i>Copyright Dec. 7, 2009<br>All Rights Reserved. </i></font>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </p> <p class="MsoNormal"> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <span class="style5">M</span>arking the first day of the Copenhagen Climate Summit, Monday, Dec. 7, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under administrator Lisa Jackson declared that greenhouse gases and climate changed threatened the health, safety and welfare of U.S. citizens.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Departing from the Bush administration, President Barack Obama s EPA asserts unequivocally that overwhelming scientific evidence prove that manmade greenhouse gasses endanger American lives.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Bush s EPA expressed doubt about manmade greenhouse gases causing global warming and corresponding climate change, attributing it, including verified melting glaciers and polar icecaps, to natural geologic and atmospheric changes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Businesses connected with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce worry that the costs of retrofitting new pollution equipment could cost billions, harming U.S. Gross Domestic Product.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><span style="mso-tab-count:1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>Running out in 2012, the 1997 Kyoto Protocol requires a modern-day overhaul based on reluctance of the United States, the world s biggest polluter, to make the sacrifice necessary to reduce its carbon footprint.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Bold in its day, the Kyoto Protocol, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, required 137 signatories to reduce greenhouse gases [carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and sulfur hexafouride].<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Kyoto required member-states to reduce greenhouse gasses by 5.2 below 1990 levels.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Today s announcement by the EPA forces the regulation of greenhouse gases.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span> The threat is real, said Jackson, referring to the recognized danger of carbon pollution.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span> If we don t act to reduce greenhouse gas emissions the planet we will leave the future will be very different than the one we know today, said Jackson, signaling Obama s commitment to Copenhagen.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><span style="mso-tab-count:1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>Reducing greenhouse gasses requires the EPA to crackdown on individual and corporate polluters, costing business and industry considerable cash to retool.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Since the Supreme Court ruled in Massachusetts v. EPA that the EPA had the authority to regulate greenhouse gasses, it gave the EPA the green light<span style="font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt">.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span></span> This cements 2009 s place in history as the year the U.S. government began seriously addressing the challenge of greenhouse gas pollution, said Jackson, telegraphing that after 12 years of noncompliance the U.S. is finally ready for Kyoto.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Bush administration officials refused to accept the greenhouse gas theory of climate change, now regarded by the new EPA as the gospel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Scientists correlate closely greenshouse gasses with climate change but can t state with certainty whether today s global warming is indeed caused by manmade pollution or the earth s natural cycle.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><span style="mso-tab-count:1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>In advance of the Copenhagen Summit, expecting Obama s dramatic primetime endorsement next week, conservative groups have been marshaling the contrary research to refute Barack s expected endorsement of a new climate change protocol.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Conservatives claim to refute mainstream environmental science but in reality oppose climate change because of its price to the business community.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span> In light of the EPA endangerment findings, the President s appearance in Copenhagen will carry even more weight, because it shows that American is taking this issue very seriously and is moving forward, said Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), Chairwoman of the Environment and Public Works Committee.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Boxer would like the Senate to adopt a House bill that caps U.S. carbon emissions at 17% below the 2005 levels by 2020.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Enforcement could be a problem for the EPA.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><span style="mso-tab-count:1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>Conservatives believe it s not fair for the EPA to regulate CO<span style="font-size:10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt">2</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>pollution like it does hydrocarbons, nitrous oxide, sulfur hexoflouride or other known measurable pollutants and byproducts of internal combustion engines.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Conservatives believe the EPA has a responsibility under the Clean Air Act to regulate measurable pollutants, not<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>carbon dioxide because it s too ubiquitous to attempt to regulate without cap-and-trade legislation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Regulating CO<span style="font-size:10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt">2 </span>singles out businesses unfairly as polluters, when it s a bi-product of respiration by all animal species.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>  An endangerment finding from the EPA could result in a top-down command-and-control regime that will choke off growth by adding new mandates to virtually every construction and renovation project, said U.S. Chamber of Commerce President and ECO Thomas J. Donohu, opposed to regulating greenhouse gasses.. </p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><span style="mso-tab-count:1">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>Obama s challenge at the Copenhagen Summit is to balance reasonable U.S.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>participation against selling American business and the economy down the river.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Expected cap-and-trade legislation, designed to tax carbon polluters, should help the EPA s new mandate to treat CO<span style="font-size:10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt">2 </span>like other known fossil fuel pollutants and carcinogens.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Since the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, the U.N. has sought responsible U.S. participation as the world s biggest industrial carbon polluter.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span> Every positive announcement will improve our chances of staying below the CO<span style="font-size:10.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt">2 </span> <span style="font-size:11.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size:12.0pt">target, </span>said Copenhagen Summit Director Connie Hedgegaard, former Danish environment minister.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span> But we know only too well, we are not there yet, referring to current worldwide commitments to reduce carbon pollution.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes">&nbsp; </span>Since there s a price for civilization, Green groups must control their zealotry with the realities of modern life.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <![if !supportEmptyParas]>&nbsp;<![endif]><bAbout the Author</u><b>John M. Curtis</b> writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news.&nbsp; He's editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of <i><a href="books.html">Dodging The Bullet</a> </i>and <i><a href="books.html"> Operation Charisma</a></i>.</p> </td> <td width="1" height="2576" rowspan="2"></td> <td width="1" height="2"><spacer type="block" width="1" height="2"></td> </tr> <tr height="2574"> <td width="133" height="2574" valign="top" align="left" xpos="0"><img height="172" width="111" src="images/johninframe3.jpg"></td> <td width="1" height="2574"><spacer type="block" width="1" height="2574"></td> </tr> <tr height="1" cntrlrow> <td width="133" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="133" height="1"></td> <td width="7" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="7" height="1"></td> <td width="182" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="182" height="1"></td> <td width="300" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="300" height="1"></td> <td width="1" height="1"><spacer type="block" width="1" height="1"></td> <td width="1" height="1"></td> </tr> </table> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="2" width="597"> <tr> <td><font size="1" face="Arial,Geneva,Helvetica"> <hr noshade size="1"> </font><a href="index.html"><font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular" size="2"><strong> Home</strong></font></a><font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular" size="2"><strong> || <a href="articlesindex.html">Articles</a> || <a href="books.html">Books</a> || <a href="teflon.html">The Teflon Report</a> || <a href="mailto:letters@onlinecolumnist.com"> Reactions</a> || <a href="aboutdiscobolos.html">About Discobolos</a></strong></font> <div align="left"> <p><font size="1" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular">This site designed, developed and hosted by the experts at</font><font size="2" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular"> <a href="http://www.cmeonline.net" target="_blank"><img height="30" width="138" src="images/cmelogoANIM.gif" border="0" align="absmiddle"></a></font></p> </div> <p><font size="2" face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular">©1999-2005 <a href="aboutdiscobolos.html"> Discobolos Consulting Services, Inc.</a><br> (310) 204-8300<br> All Rights Reserved. </font></td> </tr> </table> </center> </body> </html>