USA dictates its will to world, but not to nature: icing-up of America started

Terrible natural disasters have befallen the USA, that fell a victim of its own unreasonable politics. When there seems to be no obstacles on the way of the only superstate, the nature interferes with the problem. The US states of Missouri, Kansas and Oklahoma have faced an emergency situation – President Bush declared them the disaster area because of snowstorms and icing-up.

Over 400,000 houses have been de-energized in the states of Missouri and Kansas, shelters for homeless people are closed in Oklahoma. The majority of schools have been closed as well, the traffic is blocked. The population is deprived of heat and hot meals.

Several victims have been already fixed among the population. Millions of dollars are already necessary for liquidation of the disaster consequences. Meanwhile, the disaster gradually seizes other states as well, Florida, South and North Caroline suffer from heavy showers and floods. And it is only the very beginning – more serious consequences of the global warming are coming to the USA. The warming in Russia brought rains and warm weather at the time when we expected traditional hard frosts (the temperature records have been broken in February). But the situation in the USA is even graver owing to its geographical situation.

However, Washington seems to be ignoring the problem. The USA has refused to participate in implementation of the Kyoto protocol signed by 150 countries, including America as well. Moreover, the USA also proposes an alternative of its own. Last week President Bush declared the ecological measures designed for reduction of the greenhouse gas emission.

In response, as ORT Russian television informs, Head of the ecological expertise department in the RF Ministry for Natural Resources Amirkhan Amirkhanov said, “the problem was being settled on the national level in Russia. The problem is global, efforts of many countries are to be combined to achieve a result.”

EU Environment Commissioner Margot Wallstrom made a more categorical statement: “Bush’s propositions will not reduce the greenhouse gas emission, but make for its increase.”

As for the Kyoto protocol, participation of the USA, the most industrially developed country in the world and main producer of greenhouse gas, is crucial in settlement of the problem. The world community will not succeed with the problem without the USA. President Bush says, the country treats the ecology problem seriously, that is why it plans to introduce tax privileges for farmers “investing in forest plantations” and so on; but the statement seems to be rather funny.

At the same time scientists say, the global warming will continue for the next hundreds of years – it is impossible to stop it now, as the amount of greenhouse gases is already past the critical level. The sea level is gradually rising because of glacier thawing. The atmospheric temperature will increase by 3-10 Fahrenheit degrees, at best. In the future people may die, like dinosaurs. Or there will be no more temperature rises and falls at all.

The people are capable of slowing down the process, by reduction of organic fuel consumption, particularly. Experts say, the reduction of 20-30% is quite feasible.

But the American people seem to be rather naive, as they consider homo sapiens to be the God on the mighty top. Freedom and pleasures everywhere. Such attitude could be rather pardonable for the era of a so-called Renaissance only.

Sergey Stefanov PRAVDA.Ru

Translated by Maria Gousseva

Read the original in Russian: http://www.pravda.ru/main/2002/02/22/37451.html