Kyoto Climate Protocol Falls Short of Adequate Measures
12/11/97
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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
Headline: Kyoto Climate Protocol Falls Short of Adequate Measures
Source: Rainforest Action Network
Date: 12/11/97
RAINFOREST ACTION NETWORK
For Immediate Release, December 11, 1997
Press Contacts: Mark Westlund -415/398-4404
KYOTO CLIMATE PROTOCOL IS A NICE GESTURE, BUT FALLS SHORT OF ADEQUATE MEASURES
STOPPING NEW FOSSIL FUEL EXPLORATION AND OLD GROWTH LOGGING IS THE CLIMATE
CHANGE SOLUTION
"The Kyoto Protocol confirms that human activities are the root of the
climate change problem, but we are also the hope for a solution.
Industrialized countries must lead the world cutting greenhouse gas
emissions and establishing alternatives to fossil fuels - but it is just as
important that we stop additional logging of old growth forests. The U.S.
must set an example, or else we cannot expect other countries to do their
part. A common sense start would be for the U.S. to lead the call for no
new fossil fuel exploration, and to ban logging in old growth forests."
Kelly Quirke-Executive Director, Rainforest Action Network
The one-hundred-fifty nations, including the United States, that
participated in the Kyoto U.N. Climate Summit agreed on measures to require
countries to cut emissions of industrial gasses that cause global climate
change. Rainforest Action Network (RAN) views this agreement -- called the
Kyoto Protocol -- as a turning point in world understanding of global
climate change. By targeting industrial emissions, the message coming out
of Kyoto is clear: Human activities are the root of the climate change
crisis. However, the Kyoto accord does not set goals equal to the problem.
RAN and other NGOs are calling for an end to new fossil fuel exploration,
and the summit paid little attention to the effects on the planet's climate
of cutting down old growth trees.
Old growth forests provide the environment with a valuable carbon sink,
which counteracts the warming effect by absorbing greenhouse gasses --
including CO2, the gas created by fossil fuel emission. Global climate
change will not only increase the likelihood of floods, droughts,
hurricanes, and sea level changes, but also fundamentally alter our natural
environment. It will be economically devastating as agriculture dries up,
businesses collapse, and entire regions are destroyed by natural disasters.
Scientists figure that about 50% of the climate change crisis we now face
is due to "land use changes" of the past century-including cutting down old
growth forests and converting them into tree farms or agribusiness
ventures. Ongoing deforestation accounts for 20% of the problem addressed
in Kyoto.
Rainforest Action Network works to protect the Earth's rainforests and
support the rights of their inhabitants through education, grassroots
organizing, and non-violent direct action.