Why didn't the US participate in the truce for global warming if they are SO into the environment trend?

Question

More than 50 thousand homes in Sydney turn off the lights for one hour on saturday night, more than 2,000 goverment and non goverment offices, bars and restaurants too. The goal of this was to alert people about global warming.
Other cities like Madrid, Paris, Mexico City and Rome did it too.
You can check the photos int his web page
http://fotos.eluniversal.com.mx/fotogaleria/wfg.html?gal=3255

Answer 1

The scientists represented by the United States government are still debating whether global warming is a scientific issue. They are in the minority.

Though accounting for only 5 percent of the world's population, Americans consume 26 percent of the world's energy. (quoted from the American Almanac).

We have reason to be concerned as the largest consumer of the world's energy. Energy consumption is a contributing factor to global warming.

Answer 2

The way the Kyoto Agreement is set up it puts the greatest penalties on countries like the United States, but ignores countries like China and India.

The leaders of the United States believed that not only was the Agreement not fair, but it was unlikely to success to doing any good about global warming. Questions remained about how much global warming was attributable to human activity and how much was attributed to the increased solar activity.

Trust Winston Churchill when he said, "I'm sure the Americans will do the right thing, after they've exhausted all the other possibilites".

Answer 3

As I understand it, the USA didn't sign-on to the Kyoto Accords because:

China, India, and other developing countries were exempt from the requirements of the Kyoto Protocol because they were not the main contributors to the greenhouse gas emissions during the industrialization period that is believed to be causing today's climate change.

However, China, India, and other developing countries will soon be the top contributors to greenhouse gases. Also, without Kyoto restrictions on these countries, industries in developed countries would be driven towards these non-restricted countries, thus there would be no net reduction in carbon.

The Kyoto Accords wouldn't have just cleaned our AIR... it would have destroyed our economy.

I'm a California Tree-hugging Republican... I KNOW we need to reduce emissions. But Kyoto just was NOT in the US Interests.

Our Ranch is wind and solar powered, heated by wood (no emission) furnace. My brother works at a low-emission coal CO-GEN power plant...

Yet the tree-huggers hear "coal" and see nothing but 19th Century soot and pollution. And the movie "China Syndrome" has falsely terrified the populace to nuclear-power.

Answer 4

The Kyoto Accords are too restrictive and would destroy the U.S. economy if fully implemented. As opposed to every other country that signed them and then failed to follow through, the U.S. didn't lie and said no right at the start.

Also, the jury is still out on whether there is any substantial climate change going on (as opposed to geologically minor fluctuations), and if the climate is changing, whether man is responsible or can affect it.

Answer 5

Ask Al Gore why he uses 20 times the electricity of the average American....

PS...Man induced GLOBAL WARMING is a myth and for every scientist that says it is real, you will get another scientist saying it isn't.

Answer 6

Because Bush doesn't believe in science or in 'global warming'. (It's against his religion.)

Answer 7

Maybe because we didn't hear about it until after the fact. I would have gladly participated, and I'm sure that many other US citizens would have also gladly participated.

Answer 8

USA lies and postures for publicity. When it comes to actually doing the work, they lag far behind.

Answer 9

See another copy of this question. Multiple posting is stupid.
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