Do You Mind Not Smoking CO2 We're Eating & it's Not Very Prius of You

3Ceco.com AMERICAS - On December 2, 2007, the new Prime Minister of Australia, Allen Ruud, decided to start his first morning in office with coffee, Vegemite on toast, and capped it off by signing the documentation to ratify the Kyoto Protocol on climate change as his first act after being sworn in. The coffee and Vegemite we can not confirm. But Kyoto, yes.

In one brief stroke of a pen Ruud left one illustrious club to join another. By ratifying the climate change treaty he split with the United States, now the sole country not to get behind the global initiative, and joined a league of nations intent on at least recognizing the existence of global warming.

Australia, as former U.S. Vice President Al Gore points out, had a national election based on the issue of the environment as it has had to come to terms with a their own record droughts which are affecting crops and other live stocks that in part have also contributed to the global food crisis.

By becoming a Kyoto signatory, Australian's placed themselves firmly in the camp working to address climate change and stem the flow of CO2 emissions into the atmosphere just as new reports show that warming events are occurring faster then originally predicted as structural failures of Artic ice shelves are on the rise and melting continues to increase.

As we shift our focus to look at climate change as a global matter as opposed to dealing with CO2 issues by recycling at the personal level, the new 'duck & cover' mantra that was the hallmark of the Cold War, getting under a desk might protect you from a thermo-nuclear explosion the same way driving a hybrid Prius helps now.

As is the case with not smoking cigarettes, driving a Prius is the right thing to do and a personal example of leadership in halting carbon emissions and global climate change, but is there a health benefit to quitting if America, China, and India are in the room smoking away on CO2? And might as well throw Canada is there too with their tar sands.

As Thomas L.F. puts it, it could be a 'burn up, choke up, heat up, and smoke up ' situation if we don't find greener energy alternatives.  Upshot, hiding under a desk did keep us from blowing each other off the map during the Cold War. Maybe the Prius dining section is a good place to start. How does an 8 o'clock reservation sound? Will that be CO2 or non?

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