The Kyoto Protocol: The Failure Of The Kyoto Protocol

The Kyoto Protocol was a valiant effort that bound developed countries to decrease their domestic emissions to 5 percent below the 1990 level by 2012 in order to reduce global CO2 emissions. Most industrial countries fulfilled their goals on paper. However, global CO2 emissions actually increased by 58 percent (Mystrick).Although many claim the United States’ refusal to sign the Kyoto Protocol was the reason for its failure, the mechanisms of the protocol likely would have rendered it unsuccessful either way. Only already-industrialized nations were responsible for reducing emissions. In general, these nations did not produce real and responsible plans for emissions reduction. Instead of finding ways to change their industries and consumption patterns, the countries merely outsourced their production to third-world nations. Nothing within the protocol itself could stop this fallback to human nature. The Canadian prime minister described the Kyoto Protocol as having ‘very few teeth…’ There were no real penalties for not meeting the stipulations (Le Page). People need simple and measurable action plans. Without being given a plan for combating climate change, most people end up doing nothing, despite knowing that they should be helping the

Carbon dioxide removal essentially allows people to fix the problems they created by re-manipulating the environment. According to Christopher Preston’s report titled Ethics and Geoengineering, geoengineering will lead naturally to creating ‘designer climates,’ or manipulating the Earth’s climate patterns to benefit some regions. It could manifest itself in shifting precipitation to dry parts of Africa, or creating areas of Russia more suitable for agriculture. However, manipulating the environment would raise important questions about who gets to make the decisions, and what the decisions are based on. Undoubtedly, splits would form in the scientific, social and political