Take the Kyoto Protocol test ...
Select a description of Kyoto from a set of multiple options:
(a) A Korean car
(b) The treaty that ended WWII
(c) An agreement on carbon emissions
(d) A Japanese banquet dish.
In a recent 'straw' poll of people in Sydney:
- almost half of the people surveyed answered correctly - identifying Kyoto as an agreement on carbon emissions - but close to half of those who answered correctly admitted guessing the response.
- 38 per cent thought the Kyoto Protocol was a treaty ending WWII.
- 14 per cent thought Kyoto was a Japanese banquet dish.
See - Take the Kyoto test.
So only around 26-28% actually knew the correct answer.
So much for K Rudd making Kyoto a prime election issue ...
posted by Concerned Ratepayer at 10:57 AM
1 Comments:
Excerpt from the Australian:
Hostile environment on climate
1 November 2007
Given that many voters falsely believe Kyoto is a Japanese banquet dish, it's little wonder some politicians are tempted to make unrealistic statements on how they would deal with man-made climate change. According to an informal survey of young voters by The Daily Telegraph, after years of intense debate, many voters have no idea what the Kyoto Protocol is. Half of those who chose the correct answer from four multiple choice options admitted they had guessed.
Community ignorance about such a complex issue allows politicians to make wild claims, including the benefits of signing an agreement that does not include countries that will soon be responsible for two-thirds of the world's greenhouse gas emissions. Community misunderstanding is all the more reason for politicians to show real leadership in the national interest.
And it places an added responsibility on media outlets that like to consider themselves at the forefront of the global warming debate, such as Fairfax newspapers, to remain on top of events and faithful to the facts.
Both The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age missed the significance of the Opposition environment spokesman Peter Garrett's claim in their sister paper, The Financial Review, that excluding China and India from a post-Kyoto agreement would not be a "deal breaker" for Labor. Nor did they see the significance of Mr Garrett's joint retreat with Labor leader Kevin Rudd.
The backflip established that, faced with actually having to make the decision, Labor would do exactly what it has spent years criticising the Howard Government for on Kyoto. That is, refuse to sign a deal that did not include the developing economies of China and India.
When The Age and the Herald realised what had happened, they swallowed Labor's smokescreen of a 20 per cent mandate for renewable energy supplies by 2020. Labor's 20 per cent renewable energy target is the same as the one that has just been overturned by the British Government because it is considered unachievable.
Labor's target has been criticised by industry leaders here as too ambitious because of the lack of viable renewable energy options, and the time needed to get approvals to build thousands of additional wind turbines. Labor admits its plan will increase the cost of electricity for consumers, but the quoted $40 a year per household is already looking conservative.
What is needed from both sides of politics is the detail of a credible carbon trading regime so that industry can plan new infrastructure with certainty.
Labor's remaining point of climate change difference to the Government, that it would ratify the Kyoto Protocol, is purely symbolic because Australia already has full status at the UN meeting in Bali in December to decide on a post-2012 global framework.
As the Opposition has stumbled on what should have been its strongest electoral issue, Environment Minister Malcolm Turnbull has also been the Government's weakest link.
Mr Turnbull has yet to recover from the turbulence generated by his decision to approve the Gunns pulp mill in Tasmania. Following the leak of Mr Turnbull's Cabinet submission in which he said the Government should ratify the Kyoto agreement, putting him at odds with John Howard, who says that would be jobs destroying, Mr Turnbull has been bunkered down in his Sydney electorate of Wentworth.
The impact of the pulp mill decision was made clear in Tasmania's local council elections on the weekend. Pro-mill Launceston Mayor Ivan Dean and his pro-mill deputy were toppled and a plebiscite held with the council poll in Hobart showed 76 per cent were opposed to project. How much of the hostility transfers to Mr Turnbull in Wentworth remains to be seen, but as with Mr Garrett, Mr Turnbull has largely missed what should have been his opportunity to shine.
12:47 PM, November 03, 2007
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