The following is from the Sierra Club of Canada, at http://www.sierraclub.ca/en/node/244
President Putin happy birthday and a ratification too!
Ottawa – The Sierra Club of Canada will present a birthday cake to Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Russian Embassy, 285 Charlotte St., 11 a.m., Tuesday, October 7, 2003. The presentation is being made in conjunction with a world-wide action sending Mr. Putin birthday cards by email.
Canadians can send a eCard at www.foeeurope.org/happy birthday_putin.
Environmentalists around the world are urging Mr. Putin to ratify the Kyoto Protocol and thereby put the climate change treaty into force.
“We want Mr. Putin to know we wish him well and remind him how important it is for Russia to ratify the Kyoto Protocol,“ said Elizabeth May, Executive Director of the Sierra Club of Canada.
The world is waiting for Russia to ratify the Kyoto Protocol, the only international treaty to tackle dangerous climate change. Despite its ratification by 117 countries in the absence of a commitment by the United States, Entry into Force of the Protocol depends entirely on Russia. While Putin has declared on several occasions that Russia will ratify the treaty, its failure to do so is delaying desperately needed action to cut global greenhouse gas emissions. For the Kyoto Protocol to come into force at least 55 countries representing 55% of global emissions must ratify. At present, the emissions from the 117 countries that have ratified amount to only 42% of global emissions. Russia’s 1990 emissions were 17% of global greenhouse gas emissions.
Sierra Club of Canada members will present a cake featuring a map of Russia complete with melting cap of ice cream symbolizing the impact the rapid increase in global temperatures is having in the Arctic of both Canada and Russia.
“We hope Mr. Putin will follow the lead of Prime Minister Chrétein and the leaders of Europe and take responsibility for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The time for negotiations is long passed and now it’s time for action!” said Andrew Dumbrille.
“We want Mr. Putin to know we wish him well and remind him how important it is for Russia to ratify the Kyoto Protocol,“ said Elizabeth May, Executive Director of the Sierra Club of Canada.
Don't get me started on the Russians and Kyoto!
Note that "Russia's" emissions in 1990 were 17% of the global total. Actually, that was the emissions of the old Soviet Union, which collapsed a year later in 1991.
The Soviet Union was a very inefficient industrialized nation. Their energy consumption per unit of production was many times that of the West. When their economy collapsed in 1992, their CO2 emissions fell off the table, and have never approached even half their previous levels.
Well, wouldn't you know it... but by the most remarkable coincidence, the Kyoto Protocol bases permissible carbon emissions caps for various nations on a 1990 baseline, a level of emissions that Russia is well below today and will probably never reach again. So Russia is now sitting on a huge pile of Carbon Credits that they are desperate to monetize. Not only would Kyoto give them a tremendous advantage because they would not be constrained by carbon caps, it would actually allow them to make money off of their past economic collapse.
Lemons into lemonade, and all that...
So when Russia mis-reports temperatre data from it's vast interior, as they did when they reported the same data for September and October 2008, just before a US Presidential Election, they are promoting the "science" of Global Warming and putting money into their own pockets. And when they send icebreakers into the arctic and report back on retreating and thinning icepack, that nobody else has been able to observe, they are standing to make a profit from those findings.
And the Sierra Club is right on board with that effort, as well...