So, if Europe could be thrown into a new ice age by the melting of Greenland's ice sheet ...?

Question

do you think the European Union should boycott US products and services or perhaps take other actions against the US to get the president to sign the Kyoto Accord? Once the ice melts off Greenland, Europe could go into an ice age in as little as ten years.

The information about Greenland's melting ice sheet and Europe's resulting ice age was presented in Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth."

I don't know how other countries would feel about the US if they felt we'd made their countries uninhabitable. (I'm going with the fact that the US is the top CO2 producer in the world.) I imagine they'd be enraged.

I'm particularly interested in answers from Europeans. I know a lot of the Republican US citizens will say, "Global warming is just a 'theory.' " What do you say?

Answer 1

The Unites States puts out about 25% of the worlds polution, but only has about 5% of the worlds population, so Europe is not equally to blame, by any means. They signed the Kyoto project, and hopefully the future leaders of the U.S. will, that is if Americans are not dumb enough to elect someone else from the oil industry. And yes, I think the rest of the world should have the right to use sanctions against the U.S. for abiding by the polution standards set by the rest of the world, after all this is GLOBAL warming we are talking about, no one is safe from it's effects.

Answer 2

It did tick me off when the US did not sign the Kyoto agreement, because that was so arrogant. I have lived in America for 25 years, and still can't believe the wasteful ways people engage in. Not too many are concerned about conserving energy, reducing pollution etc. The US is a throw-away society, where in Europe we are taught at a young age not to be wasteful. People there don't have TV and lights on when nobody is in the room. Kids walk to school, take a bus or streetcar. Most families have just one car because of excellent public transportation, besides parking and gascosts are a lot higher than here. Most people walk when they run their errands, as stores, banks, postoffice are more clustered and in every neighborhood. That also makes for a slimmer population, since most Americans seem to live in their cars. This doesn't exactly answer your question, but the point is, we are all in this together, and if Europe can do it, why not the US ? Nobody should be so arrogant as to think that they can just do what they want. And for the American government to pretend that global warning does not exist...that about takes the cake.

Answer 3

I don't know if boycotting our goods would help much but whatever pressure they can bring to bear on the US would be appreciated by this US citizen. The US should be a good global citizen and sign Kyoto but I'm ashamed to admit that we haven't and it doesn't look like we will until a new president can be elected.

Answer 4

What about China? They are even more environmentally ill than the US.

Answer 5

Europeans are to blame as well, so we are all in this together.