Taking your hope where you can find it, Part Two

Russia has endorsed the Kyoto Protocol on global climate change, agreeing to its call for reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.

Russia's Cabinet on Thursday endorsed the 1997 agreement and parliament is expected to ratify the document by the end of the year. Without Russia, there would not be enough signatories for it to come into effect worldwide.

"Russia's green light will allow the climate train to leave the station so we can really begin addressing the biggest threat to the planet and its people," said Klaus Toepfer, the head of the U.N. Environment Program.

Russia's decision was welcomed by the governments of Germany, Italy, Britain and Japan, and by the European Union, which have been among the agreement's most energetic backers.

The hope is that Russia's approval will provide a strong impetus for progress during the next round of climate talks, which intend to go beyond the "first step" Kyoto represents to negotiating deeper cuts as well as bringing in developing nations such as China and India. They don't have specific targets under Kyoto largely because their outputs of greenhouse gases could grow and still be under the reduced targets for industrialized nations.

The darkside here is obvious: The US, which in 1990 accounted for 36% of the world's CO₂ emissions, has refused to join the treaty because, Shrub claimed, it was "unfair" to his corporate contrib - er, industrialized nations because of the lack of targets for developing nations. The fact that almost the entire rest of the industrialized world doesn't agree doesn't faze Mr. "Mistakes? Can't Think of Any."

I say "almost" because there is one other significant holdout: Australia. In the wake of Russia's announcement, Opposition Leader Mark Latham, who stands to become Prime Minister if the Labor Party emerges victorious in elections this Saturday, urged ratification, calling global climate change "a big issue for Australia."

However, current Prime Minister John Howard refused, claiming that ratification would put Australia at a disadvantage.

"The difficulty by ratifying, through ratifying under the present conditions, is that countries like China and Brazil and Indonesia would not be subject to the emissions targets we'd be subject to," he told a Melbourne radio station.

"Therefore it would be more attractive for industry to invest in those countries rather than Australia and that would take investment and also jobs out of our country."

The fact that this amounts to a confession that corporations are interested solely in profit and don't give a damn about the environment or the future beyond the next quarter's bottom line seemed lost on Moe, just as it is on Shrub, who favors the fantasy of "voluntary reductions."