Last evening I went to a social bbq type of thing and was introduced to a lovely brunette by some friends. She is an environmental scientist in the government. So I asked her what that entails and one thing lead to the next and soon we were talking about Kyoto.
Now I am no scientist and I like to think I am pretty informed but what she was telling me was unbelievable. I thought I had some general knowledge concerning Kyoto (limited at that) but didn't think I was that out of the loop.
I didn't know that countries or provinces could borrow, trade or buy 'clean credits' if their emissions level were to high to then be in accordance with the levels permitted. In other words if Ontario has a failing emission grade (high emissions), it could buy 'clean credits' from Quebec to put it back in sinc.
I asked this person if such were to happen how does such 'clean credits' make the emissions problem any better. The answer given was that it doesn't do anything to solve the emission problem since 'clean credits' are a charade to make it look as if Kyoto is working and is simply a money grab for those wanting to sell the credits. In other words, emissions will continue at their current levels or worsen while credits can be bought.
Mind you this is an opinion that was given to me by someone who is shopping around for another job since she feels she can't ethically do her job as someone who has dedicated her life to bettering the environment when she feels Kyoto is a sham.
Any thought? Does anyone have a good working knowledge of Kyoto who can explain better than my paraphrasing in support of the arguement or not? Is the everyday person who is environmentally conscious getting the run around concerning Kyoto?
The link below briefly outlines 'clean credits'.
http://www.mapleleafweb.com/features.../kyoto/06.html