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Monday July 23 5:03 PM ET

Seattle Adopts Kyoto Limits, Scolds Bush By Chris Stetkiewicz

SEATTLE (Reuters) - Seattle officials on Monday said the city would meet greenhouse gas reduction targets in the 1997 Kyoto Protocol (news - web sites) and blasted President Bush (news - web sites) for pulling out of the international treaty.

``We are sending a message to the federal administration that it is time to act, just like the rest of the world,'' Mayor Paul Schell told a press conference.

Dubbed the Emerald City for its lush urban forests and boasting some of the greenest power and waste programs in the nation, Seattle pledged to beat the Kyoto goal to cut carbon dioxide emissions by 7 percent from 1990 levels and try to cut three times that much.

Largely through conservation and purchases of wind power, Seattle will meet rising local electricity demand without spewing more greenhouse gases over the next decade and will offset its entire emission load by planting trees, reducing road traffic and recycling industrial waste and heat.

The mitigation would cost city-owned utility Seattle City Light about $3 million a year, a tiny fraction of the half billion-dollar annual budget, officials said, rejecting Bush's assertion that the Kyoto treaty would wreck local economies.

The United States is the world's biggest polluters and the only major power to pull out of the Kyoto treaty, although the remaining signatories on Monday agreed to adhere to the targets anyway at a meeting in Bonn.

``It's a scandal that the White House won't step up to (the issue) and Seattle has to,'' said City Councilor Jim Compton.

Seattle has a decidedly green advantage over the rest of the nation, drawing most of its electricity from hydropower dams strung across raging rivers slicing through the U.S. Northwest.

And in fact those very dams fuel sharp criticism from environmentalists for blocking migrating salmon, including several endangered species.

Still, praise rolled in from various green groups for Seattle's efforts to go ``climate neutral.''

``Seattle Mayor Paul Schell is providing the environmental leadership that is so obviously lacking in Washington, D.C.,'' said Daniel Lashof, head climate scientist at the National Resources Defense Council.

Local residents, including many vocal environmentalists, voted heavily against Bush in last year's presidential election, though the statewide Washington ballot gave only a narrow victory to former Vice President Al Gore (news - web sites).

Schell said he had not talked directly to Bush but noted that Bush's Environmental Protection Agency (news - web sites) Administrator Christine Todd Whitman (news - web sites) had expressed an interest in local conservation programs during a recent visit.

Schell hopes to marshal support from other U.S. municipalities before taking Seattle's arguments directly to the White House.

Beyond addressing local demand for green policies, Seattle officials also see themselves on the front line of the global warming debate, with big potential environmental threats right in their own backyard.

Two years of drought have drained the region's reservoirs, rivers and mountain snowpack to dangerously low levels, forcing a temporary shutdown of a dozen hydroelectricity-powered aluminum smelters, pitting farmers against salmon in a battle for precious water and disrupting power supplies up and down the west coast.

``The cost of not acting could be extraordinarily high. At its current pace global warming will reduce the region's snowpack by 50 percent over the next 50 years, threatening drinking water, irrigation and hydroelectric supplies,'' the city said in a statement.

Seattle residents and companies have responded to a call for water and power conservation during the drought, helping hold down utility rate hikes, the city has said.

-- The (shifting@political.climate), July 24, 2001

Answers

What idiots. Even if global warming were based on human activities (not likely) there would be no way to reverse the trend (if thjere is a trend) within 50 years such that Seattle's snow pack would not melt away.

More and more people, more and more cars, more and more houses. Who are you going to tell they can't have any more children (India, Africa??) or cannot have any more cars (China??) or houses (Mexico, Brazil??). What is it about people and their useless symbolism?? What blithering idiots.

-- libs are idiots (moreinterpretation@ugly.com), July 24, 2001.

"Seattle scolds Bush"! Wow, that sounds serious. I'll send Bush a quarter so he can call someone who gives a shit.

-- (Paracelsus@Pb.Au), July 24, 2001.

Useless symbolism? We are leaders in recycling and in energy saving here in Seattle and the northwest. We have clean air to breat, unlike many other areas of the country.

-- Cherri (jessam6@home.com), July 24, 2001.

Yes, Bill Gates just built a semi-underground house that probably is very energy efficient. Of course you can buy mucho efficiency for $100 million. How many Mexicans could he sustain for $100 million? Or, for that matter, how many Mexicans could he sustain on the property taxes alone?

-- (Paracelsus@Pb.Au), July 24, 2001.

Cherri:

We have clean air to breat You breat clean air; will be there in the near future and breat some myself. *<)))

Actually, Cherri is correct. I remember when the red smoke from the copper refinery in Tacoma used to circle Rainer. Made for some nice photos. Then the smell from the pulp plants in Seattle was awful. Now if they could solve the traffic problem [believe me it is worse than LA].

Best Wishes,,,,,,

Z

-- Z1X4Y7 (Z1X4Y7@aol.com), July 24, 2001.

Hey libs are idiots, if you can't fix it within 50 years, you shouldn't bother fixing it at all! Yeah, that's brilliant!! Who did you say was an idiot?

-- (the kids @ will. love it!), July 24, 2001.

"I'll send Bush a quarter so he can call someone who gives a shit."

Don't waste your quarter, acccording to a poster on another thread he has already told the people he doesn't care what they think. He was appointed by corrupt judges, so he doesn't have to answer to the people.

-- (dumbya the dictator @ american. banana republic), July 24, 2001.

The Kids:

I don't know where he got the number 50 y. I just listened to the same model makers that are predicting global warming and the number they have is 100 to 200 y [based on the Kyoto agreement]. That, of course, assumes no natural changes in the environment and that the only cause of warming is emissions. Are they correct; who knows; I don't.

Since cutting emissions will cost big bucks [which aren't there in the government after the tax cut and not in a declining economy] the question remains; how do we invest to overcome the assumed problems?

Do we cut the economy and emissions or do we invest in technologies that will permit us to continue to produce food and protect our coasts. That's where the debate is going.

Best Wishes,,,,

Z

-- Z1X4Y7 (Z1X4Y7@aol.com), July 24, 2001.

I forget. Is global warming caused by capitalist pigs or the NWO or socialist-Totalitarian states like the former East Germany that run polluting factories 24-7 just so they can point to an increased output of poorly made crap that nobody wants? Doc, can you help?

-- Lars (larsguy@yahoo.com), July 24, 2001.

Lars:

Based on the technical information [this is complex and lengthy] it is caused by Indiana. If we eliminated Indiana, the problem would be solved. When the Republicans lose control of the House next year we may get some movement. Still there a lot of Republican votes in Indiana. We will probably need to wait till Bush loses in 04. *<)))

Best Wishes,,,,,

Z

-- Z1X4Y7 (Z1X4Y7@aol.com), July 24, 2001.

If the Dems would ever get their head out of their PC ass, they would nominate Sen Evan Bayh (Dem, IN) and the White House would fall like a ripe plum into their grubby fingers.

Hoosiers are self-sustaining. We have our own energy sources (coal and natgas and pig manure). We grow our own food and don't suck our water off someone else's land.

Being handy with tools and weapons is a rite-of-passage. The blue states need us; we don't need them.

-- (larsguy@Purdue.Ag Station), July 24, 2001.

We have our own energy sources (coal and natgas and pig manure)

You have to breath the pollution from all of those energy sources.

-- Cherri (jessam6@home.com), July 25, 2001.

the kids @ will. love it!,

That's my point - if global warming is a truism, it cannot be fixed in 50 years, and the mayor is an idiot to suggest such.

-- libs are idiots (moreinterpretation@ugly.com), July 25, 2001.

I also live in Washington, we are having abnormal cooler temps, gardens are sufferring. I think it's caused by global cooling. Too many little trees planted on arbor day by those pesty little kids.

Somehow we have educated too many people that have no common sense, now they are running things. Cleaner air yes global warming bull.

-- wayne johnson (cwj1180@kvalley.com), July 29, 2001.