The Canadian government has indicated that it likely will withdraw from the Kyoto Protocol by the end of the year.
That’s fine, but what alternative is Canada offering to put in its place?
Kyoto was flawed from the beginning. It never worked, in that few of the signatory nations met the carbon dioxide emission targets they had committed to. And even if it had worked in that sense, it wouldn’t have worked in the sense of having any meaningful impact on climate change.
Carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere are about one-third higher than they were before the Industrial Revolution. At its best, Kyoto would have only slowed the increase in the rate of increase.
If we are to avoid climate catastrophe, we need to do more than that. We need to neutralize the effects of the elevated levels of carbon dioxide. We need geoengineering.
South African Nobel laureate Bishop Desmond Tutu has criticized Canada’s waffling on Kyoto.
Climate change is an important issue in Africa, with droughts in Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya putting millions of lives at risk.
Given that Canada and the other industrialized nations do not want to pay for the effects of the global pollution they are causing, perhaps Africa should consider finding its own solution.
One low cost approach to geoengineering that has been proposed would be to introduce sulfur particles into the upper atmosphere, mimicking the global dimming effect of a large volcanic eruption.
To avoid too many localized changes to weather patterns, it would be necessary to introduce equivalent amounts to the atmospheres of the north and south hemispheres.
The Organization of African States could do this by requiring jet aircraft flying to, from and within Africa, and across the equator, to use high sulfur fuel.