An Inconvenient Truth

A while back I saw the movie An Inconvenient Truth and would highly recommend it to everyone. The movie is about climate change and the global warming issues facing us. It tries to convey to the world that if you think that the impact of climate change is far into the future or just a theory or surely we'll be prepared for it when it eventually happens, then you need to wake up.
We are going to face the impact of global warming in the next 50 years or so. The dangerous changes are not many generations away but lurking just round the corner. The term 'Greenhouse' which we all heard as kids is now more dangerous than terrorists like Bin Laden.
Anyway, the movie does not go into the depth of the issue but wants people to acknowledge the fact that we are leaving behind a world that even our grandchildren may not be able to enjoy...

The rapid increase in energy needs, the complete dependence on fossil fuels and the forever increase in emissions rates prompted some effort between the various countries to contain this impact. The Kyoto Protocol was the result. This treaty is the United Nations international treaty to address climate change. It aims to assign and implement emission standards around the world to reduce the emissions of carbon dioxide and 5 other greenhouse gases.

Currently in the world the US is responsible for nearly 30% of greenhouse gas emissions. That is more than South America, Africa, Middle East and India, all put together. And to make it worse the US is not part of the Kyoto protocol. Two consecutive administrations Clinton and Bush accounting for 16 years of power have not taken the Kyoto Protocol to the American senate to get it ratified.

We have all seen the labels 'EURO II', 'EURO III', 'Bharat Stage II' etc on the back of the cars in India. These stickers are nothing but the emission standards that are being put in place by the participants of the Kyoto Protocol. The table of these various emission stages is pretty impressive, these greenhouse emissions can really be brought down. But the US still does not participate. Their emission standards are the weakest in the world. They are so weak that US cars, as is, cannot be sold in Japan and most of Europe and Asia. Japan is right at the forefront of these standards. They are high above everyone else leading the race to curb our greenhouse gases emissions. Europe is behind and India is a little behind than Europe. Europe is at EURO IV and India is at Bharat Stage III which is equivalent to EURO III.