Canada and Australia - Comparing Environmental Policies in 16 Countries - page 156

details. As the parties negotiated the protocol eventually was signed at
Kyoto, Australia had some second thoughts. Perhaps limiting greenhouse
gases would cramp its industry. Business groups were negative and environ-
mental groups were positive. Opponents got help from the United States.
The ultra-conservative American Frontiers of Freedom Institute, based in
Washington, DC, cosponsored a conference in Canberra that sought to
derail the Kyoto negotiations. The Business Council, the Minerals Council,
and the Aluminum Council said that the government should only sign a
climate change protocol if all countries would accept the “differentiation”
model. Surprisingly, the Labor Party, now in opposition, also announced
that it supported key aspects of the policy. Despite all the criticism from
Europe and others abroad and the environmentalists at home, once at Kyoto
the new Australian demands were accommodated. Its quota was increased
to a positive 8%. In other words, while everyone else was making reductions,
Australia was entitled to an increase. Moreover, it could count increases in
its forests as credits for carbon sinks and participate in emissions trading.
Like virtually every government around the world, Australia was
shocked when President Bush announced his outright rejection of the
Kyoto Protocol. Nevertheless, this dramatic action offered a way out for
the Howard government, which promptly announced it would join the
United States in rejecting the protocol. The prime minister said it would
be “silly” to ratify it without the biggest emitter in the world. At the time
it seemed possible that other industrial countries like Canada would join
in refusing to sign the protocol. Howard seemed to enjoy his status as the
US partner in rejecting Kyoto. Two years later he contributed troops to
invade Iraq with the Americans, further strengthening the trans-Pacific
bond. When his successor as prime minister, Kevin Rudd, immediately
signed the protocol upon being sworn in, it seemed like a new day for con-
trolling global warming worldwide, but over the next few years, support
waned from its European champions and the efforts fell from favor.
Horrible wildfires throughout the county in the first two months of
2009 seemed to confirm the danger of global warming. The death toll
reached 210. The fires followed extreme drought. Australia is often prone
to years and years of drought, but this was worse than ever. On February 7,
labeled Black Saturday, temperatures reached 46 degrees Celsius (115°F)
and winds were over 100 kilometers an hour. Four hundred different fires
broke out. People died while trying to evacuate and died while huddled in
their homes. Fires afflicted towns as well as farms and ranches. Although