Scary thinking on kyoto...

The Ottawa Citizen today has a full-page article on Kyoto by Margret Brady. Most of the article looks at techniques to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. One way is through the use of genetically-modified crops:

Also, in the future, farmers may be able to plan crops that will soak up carbon dioxide or help break down nitrous oxide. Altosaar's University of Ottawa team is working on genetically modifying world crops - such as maize, wheat, rice and cowpea - to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Hey, aren't people who support Kyoto against bio-tech foods?

Of course, no matter what we do, it won't be enough. Here is her conclusion:

"Humans will have to change the way they live," he says [Norman Huner of University of Western Ontario]. "When you consider the emerging economic nations, such as China and India, we haven't even begun to see the enormity of the impact of carbon dioxide emissions of human yet."

Even if all the signatories to the Kyoto accord slash their greenhouse emissions as agreed, the result will be but a drop in the buck in the greenhouse-gas bucket. Scientists are talking about the post-Kyoto period that will require far more drastic measures to have any real impact on the atmosphere.

If Kyoto meets its targets, it will reduce warming by a fraction of a degree, says John Reilly, associated director of MIT's energy and environment lab. The world will need 10 Kyotos by 2050 to have a measurable effect on carbon emissions, he says.

So...we have to change the way we live...and we need 10 Kyotos...sounds like a giant social engineering project, no?