More ‘reporting’ from Reuters:
“OSLO, Feb 18 (Reuters) – Environmentalists fete John Kerry as a possible saviour in a stalled battle against global warming if the Democratic front-runner topples U.S. President George W. Bush in the November election. “Kerry has probably been the greatest champion of climate change issues with (Joe) Lieberman in the U.S. Senate,” said Jennifer Morgan, director of the WWF environmental group’s climate change programme. European governments, among the strongest backers of the U.N.’s stalled 1997 Kyoto protocol meant to limit global warming, would welcome a shift towards Kerry’s environmental policies after years of trans-Atlantic feuds with Bush…Bush stunned the world in 2001 by pulling the United States — the globe’s biggest polluter — out of Kyoto, arguing the plan was too costly and wrongly excluded developing nations… Kerry… has berated Bush for ditching Kyoto rather than seeking to renegotiate. Kerry now talks of taking part “in the development of an international climate change strategy to address global warming” — music to the ears of many Kyoto backers who view climate change as the biggest long-term threat to life on earth. Kerry has also campaigned for green issues like better fuel efficiency in cars or against plans for Arctic oil drilling. By contrast, Bush did not use the word “environment” in his 2004 State of the Union address. But a Kerry presidency would be no magic environmental wand. Kerry judged in 1997 that Kyoto would be unacceptable to the U.S. Senate and now reckons it is too late for Washington to sign up for the first round of cuts under Kyoto, in 2008-12. The protocol aims to curb emissions of gases like carbon dioxide (CO2) spewed by factories and cars and blamed by scientists for blanketing the planet and driving up temperatures, bringing more droughts, floods or typhoons…”