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People are currently paying much attention to the ability of present and future human populations to influence Earth's climate through the emission of greenhouse gases (GHGs) such as carbon dioxide. According to some, such a self-induced change in our physical environment qualifies humans for the distinction of a "superspecies" that has passed a threshold of biological evolution. Some 2 to 3 billion years ago, another organism changed the environment in a very pronounced way: a primitive unicellular organism called cyanobacteria (blue- green algae). These cyanobacteria "discovered" a new energy source that enabled them to develop a photosynthetic apparatus that assimilates carbon dioxide through conversion of solar energy to chemical energy. In the process, a "useless" waste product, oxygen, began to accumulate and gradually changed the composition of the atmosphere. As a result, new, more complex oxygen-consuming forms of life evolved, eventually leading to humans. The algae that started it all, while still flourishing, then became the first link in a very elaborate food chain.
Climatic changes. --- Global warming. --- Energy policy. --- Energy and state --- Power resources --- State and energy --- Industrial policy --- Energy conservation --- Global warming --- Warming, Global --- Global temperature changes --- Greenhouse effect, Atmospheric --- Changes, Climatic --- Changes in climate --- Climate change --- Climate change science --- Climate changes --- Climate variations --- Climatic change --- Climatic changes --- Climatic fluctuations --- Climatic variations --- Global climate changes --- Global climatic changes --- Climatology --- Climate change mitigation --- Teleconnections (Climatology) --- Government policy --- Environmental aspects --- Carbon footprints --- Earth Summit --- Fossil fuels --- Genocide --- Greenhouse gases --- Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) --- Just World Hypothesis --- Kyoto Protocol --- Sustainable energy --- World Bank --- Global environmental change
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Even as the evidence of global warming mounts, the international response to this serious threat is coming unraveled. The United States has formally withdrawn from the 1997 Kyoto Protocol; other key nations are facing difficulty in meeting their Kyoto commitments; and developing countries face no limit on their emissions of the gases that cause global warming. In this clear and cogent book-reissued in paperback with an afterword that comments on recent events--David Victor explains why the Kyoto Protocol was never likely to become an effective legal instrument. He explores how its collapse offers opportunities to establish a more realistic alternative. Global warming continues to dominate environmental news as legislatures worldwide grapple with the process of ratification of the December 1997 Kyoto Protocol. The collapse of the November 2000 conference at the Hague showed clearly how difficult it will be to bring the Kyoto treaty into force. Yet most politicians, policymakers, and analysts hailed it as a vital first step in slowing greenhouse warming. David Victor was not among them. Kyoto's fatal flaw, Victor argues, is that it can work only if emissions trading works. The Protocol requires industrialized nations to reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases to specific targets. Crucially, the Protocol also provides for so-called "emissions trading," whereby nations could offset the need for rapid cuts in their own emissions by buying emissions credits from other countries. But starting this trading system would require creating emission permits worth two trillion dollars--the largest single invention of assets by voluntary international treaty in world history. Even if it were politically possible to distribute such astronomical sums, the Protocol does not provide for adequate monitoring and enforcement of these new property rights. Nor does it offer an achievable plan for allocating new permits, which would be essential if the system were expanded to include developing countries. The collapse of the Kyoto Protocol--which Victor views as inevitable--will provide the political space to rethink strategy. Better alternatives would focus on policies that control emissions, such as emission taxes. Though economically sensible, however, a pure tax approach is impossible to monitor in practice. Thus, the author proposes a hybrid in which governments set targets for both emission quantities and tax levels. This offers the important advantages of both emission trading and taxes without the debilitating drawbacks of each. Individuals at all levels of environmental science, economics, public policy, and politics-from students to professionals--and anyone else hoping to participate in the debate over how to slow global warming will want to read this book.
-Greenhouse gas mitigation --- -Abatement of greenhouse gas emissions --- Pollution prevention --- Warming, Global --- Global temperature changes --- Jingdu tiao yue --- Jingdu xie yi shu --- Jingdu yi ding shu --- Konvensi Perubahan Iklim --- Kyōto giteisho --- Kyoto Protocol --- Kyoto Treaty --- Lian he guo qi hou bian hua kuang jia gong yue de Jingdu yi ding shu --- Protokol Kyoto --- Protokol Kyoto Untuk Konvensi Kerangka Kerja PBB Tentang Perubahan Iklim --- 京都协议书 --- 京都条约 --- 京都議定書 --- 京都议定书 --- 联合国气候变化框架公约的京都议定书 --- Greenhouse gas mitigation --- Global warming --- Abatement of greenhouse gas emissions --- Emission reduction, Greenhouse gas --- Emissions reduction, Greenhouse gas --- GHG mitigation --- Greenhouse gas abatement --- Greenhouse gas emission reduction --- Greenhouse gas emissions reduction --- Greenhouse gas reduction --- Mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions --- Reduction of greenhouse gas emissions --- Government policy. --- United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change --- Environmental protection. Environmental technology --- Human ecology. Social biology --- Sociology of culture --- Government policy --- Réchauffement de la Terre --- Gaz à effet de serre --- Politique gouvernementale --- Réduction --- Global warming - Government policy --- Greenhouse gas mitigation - Government policy
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