Re # 611:
Kyoto is a bit off-topic, but the reason why 98 US Senators voted against it when Clinton proposed it was because the conditions of the Kyoto Protocol would impose different requirements on differnt countries. Basically the whole Kyoto Protocol was an attack against the US. We would have the strictest of conditions, which would have had a greatly detrimental impact on this country's economy. China and other developing countries, which spew out tons and tons of industrial waste and have very weak environmental protetcions, would have few restrictions placed on them. The US probably has the strictest environmental controls of any place on the planet. And thus far, I am still not convinced that 1. Global warming is FACT, 2. That it is necessarily a bad thing, 3. We are causing it by our actions. During the 1970s scientists and "experts" said that by the first quarter of the 21st century we would be witnessing an oncoming ice age. Now they say it's a warming trend. Which is it? Meteorologists can't even accurately forecast the weather more than 5 days in advance, so how the hell can climatologists tell us what it's going to be in 10 years? It's ridiculous. I encourage you to go to www.junkscience.com. I think you would find it enlightening.