Environmental gas, a Summit.
How many of you are aware of the components of intestinal gas (farts)? And I’m not trying to offend anyone here. Well, the gases released when one is flatulent are essentially, carbon dioxide, nitrogen and hydrogen sulphide. The amount of the latter is what determines whether it is offensive smelling, or not. Well, the World Summit on Environment and Development opened in Johannesburg on August 26th.
65, 000 delegates will be attending the 10 days of talks. Paradoxically, it has been estimated that transporting these delegates by air to the event will dump about half a million tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. This has been equated to the amount that is produced by one million people in India in one year. Gwynne Dyer, a London based journalist thinks this is the most absurd thing about this, the world’s largest ever conference.
A few other points. The conference timing was changed. It was moved up from the first two weeks in September on account of what transpired on September 11th, last year, in order to allow George Bush to attend the closing ceremonies. But apparently Bush’s relationship with environmental movements aren’t all that friendly. (Ask him how he recently proposed to control forest fires in the States.) So, he has decided to ‘fart’ on the rest of the world, and not attend the damn conference. I suppose he wants to remain in the U.S. at this time, as the one year memorial of 9-11 approaches. I guess that is understandable.
One of the main themes of this conference, is whether continued support for the Kyoto accord will be achieved. This accord actually proposes specific national targets for reduction of gas emissions. The accord cannot come into effect until 55 countries have ratified it. Fifty five countries have already ratified, but, since the U.S. accounted for 36.1% of industrial countries emissions, almost every other developed country must ratifty the accord in order to cross the threshold.
Most of the other developed countries (the EU countries and Japan accounting for 35.2% of emissions) already have. Eastern European countries anxious to join the EU will certainly ratify Kyoto. Russia, responsible for 17.4% of emissions, is also committed to doing so. However, the collective total may still fall short of the required 55% threshold. This makes Canada and Australia, both closely allied to the U.S. with large energy sectors, the crucial countries in the ‘game’.
If just one of them were to ratify, then Kyoto would be a reality. Austraila has already ‘kangarooed’ because of their coal exporting industry and Canada is looking a bit unsure.
So, I guess that what it boils down to, is that Johannesburg is really a lot of ‘hot air’ about, well, in this case, I can’t say nothing. To copy my good bredren Mad Bull, it all comes down to polyTICKS, polyTRICKS and my own, polyPRICKS! Let’s just hope they won’t fart around, and allow good sense to prevail. We do need to preserve our environment. Later.
August 28th, 2002 at 2:20 pm Very interesting, Dr D…..One question….how does one keep the hydrogen sulphide content of one’s farts low??….
August 28th, 2002 at 11:01 pm Very interesting, Doc. And you just know that this will not work out, given the Presidents approach to everything in general. He’s a major asshole, his business is producing gas, so how could we expect him to commit to reducing American emissions
Prodigal, didn’t you go to sixth form, or did you fly off early to university? Don’t you remember Fr. Holung. He told you, man. When you eat too much meat, your farts and faeces smell stink. Go vegetarian or vegan, dude… (of course, I haven’t but then I’m not worried about the stench either.)
August 29th, 2002 at 12:19 am Second you on that Mad Bull, though I’m not into red meat, seafood, pork and chicken are quite different, don’t know that I could live without them. Stink fart or no. And yes Mad Bull, Bush seems to be all gassed up!