Encyclopedia of Environmental Science and Engineering, Volume I and II

THE TERRESTRIAL SYSTEM 1145

The Kyoto accord,^6 negotiated in 1997 in Kyoto,

Japan, requires industrial nations—with varying targets—

to reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases which trap

heat and result in global warming below their 1990 levels,

in the five years from 2008 to 2012. As of Feb. 16, 2005,

the date the agreement took effect, 35 nations planned to

cut their emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse

gases.

However, in the United States, which generates a fifth of

the world’s greenhouse gases and which formally rejected the

Kyoto pact in 2001, a growing number of companies regard

mandatory reductions as inevitable. In keeping with the spirit

of Kyoto, Michael G. Morris, chief executive of American

Electric Power, the largest electricity generator in the United

States and a top emitter of CO 2 , has pledged a 10% reduction

in those emissions from its plants by 2006, rather than resist-

ing the agreement’s philosophy. Nations with rapidly growing

economies, like China and India, which approved the agree-

ment, are not required to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in

Kyoto Phase One—even though together, they already account

for 14 percent of the world’s total. “For the European Union,

the target is an 8 percent reduction below emissions levels in

1990. But the Germans went beyond that and agreed to a more
      ambitious target of 21 percent because they expected windfall
      gains by shutting down polluting, coal-fired power plants in the
      former East Germany. (It now seems likely to fall somewhat
      short of that.)”^5 The Kyoto Protocol encourages trading carbon
      dioxide emissions credits, some of which may be earned from
      reforestation projects which absorb CO 2 from the atmosphere
      and others from the use of cleaner technologies.^5

REFERENCES

1. American Scholar, Spring, 1968.


2. Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth, S.I.U. Press, Carbondale, I11.
   1969.


3. P. Vellinga, Declaration of the Ministerial Conference on Atmospheric
   and Climatic Change—Noordwijk, The Netherlands, Nov. 6 and 7
   (1989).


4. Editorial Note (1997)—R.B.F. Prediction.


5. M. Landler, The New York Times, Mixed Feelings as Treaty on Green-
   house Gases Takes Effects, February 16, 2005.


6. See Appendix, Table 12, of this volume.

R. BUCKMINSTER FULLER (DECEASED)

Southern Illinois University

TEACHING OF ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES: see ENVIRONMENTAL

EDUCATION

C020_001_r03.indd 1145C020_001_r03.indd 1145 11/18/2005 11:08:14 AM11/18/2005 11:08:14 AM