Wednesday, December 3rd, 1997
By Lee Poston

Daily Diary Archives

Sinks and Soundbites

IF I EAT ANOTHER LETTUCE AND TOMATO SANDWICH, I'LL JUMP OFF THE ROOF OF THE CONVENTION CENTER!!
Lee Poston Ok, I feel better now. It's just that Kyoto is not an easy town for vegetarians, especially ones who don't speak Japanese. Andrew is thanking his lucky stars right now that he's a "reformed" vegetarian.

We've come up with an easy solution, however. The concierge in the hotel wrote in Japanese on a slip of paper, "I am a vegetarian who does not eat fish or meat. Please fix me a meal without these." Of course, for all I know, it could say "I am an alien from the planet Zyborg who has been sent here to eat your lampshades and steal your livestock!"

Sinks were back in a big way today, with the US, New Zealand, Russia, Canada and Australia -- all long-time supporters of sinks -- insisting they be part of the final text of the agreement. In case you've forgotten, sinks refer to natural processes, activities or mechanisms that removes greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. This can include forests, which are well known for their ability to absorb greenhouse gases. But because new forests absorb more carbon than old ones, this could lead to incentives for countries to cut old-growth forests and replace them with new plantations. As a nature conservation organization, WWF would have a hard time accepting this.

conference The waters are being further muddied, and the chances of a final protocol agreed upon are being weakened, by moves to tap six greenhouse gases for reductions instead of the standard three. The standard three are carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide, while the additional ones are hydrofluorocarbons, sulfur hexafluoride and perfluorocarbons. Still with us? While we think the additional three are important and should be dealt with, they are taking attention away from the Big 3, and especially the worst offender, carbon dioxide. In Kyoto, more is definitely not always better!

We were co-sponsors today of a press conference (they didn't try to kick us out of this one) on the impacts of global warming on wildlife, especially birds. This was organized by our good friend and conservation partner Barnaby Briggs of BirdLife International, based in the UK. We released a report revealing that scientists' worst fears are coming true: with warming temperatures, US birds are arriving earlier, UK birds and amphibians are breeding earlier, and penguin populations are declining significantly. The report also details changes in the distribution of tropical and temperate species of birds, butterflies, flowers and amphibians.

conference Some of the best comments of the day came from John Gummer, former British Environment Minister. Asked about how the media could help spread the word about global warming and counter the efforts of interest groups who don't want anything to be done about global warming, he said, "One thing we can be certain of -- whatever the outcome, the politicians will declare it a success. I know the phrases. I've done it myself... If only the US media could cut through the fog of paid advertising by organizations that should be ashamed of themselves." He also reckoned that the proposal on sinks was a scam: "present US proposals would allow them to significantly increase emissions." As a minister he's seen this kind of negotiation played out before. He described Kyoto so far as, "a conference for those who are fascinated by the various ways people can say "No"." WWF is still pressing for far more positive efforts to promise emission cuts.

Correction
Yesterday's Climate Chronicles reported that Canada was proposing reducing its emissions 3% below the 1990 level by 2010 and 5% by 2015. In fact, the 5% would be on top of the 3% making around 8% cuts. Apologies to our Canadian friends. (But the proposal still has more holes than a Swiss cheese).