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The Kyoto Protocol was negotiated in December 1997. Fiji had acted the first, the fastest and the most furious;
she signed on 17 September 1998 and ratified the Protocol on the exact same date. The European Union (all 16
countries) ratified it in 2002, the Philippines in 2003, Russia in 2004; for the last 20 years, the US, along with ally
Australia, has adamantly refused to ratify it. The Yankees say ‘No Deal.’ Big Deal!
If the US refuses to be a winner against climate change, can the rest of the world be left behind? If the Yankees
doubt global warming, all they have to do is ask the old folks; there is much to learn from folk wisdom. If you’re
listening.
Now apparently there is expert wisdom; there is much to learn from expert wisdom. If you’re reading. Today, 3
February 2007, the news from a United Nations study
confirms global warming. I first read it in the American
Chronicle by email; go to Google and there are more
than 2,000 pieces of news of it; the one I like most has
it and says it best right in the headline (Oliver
Burkeman, 2 February, guardian.co.uk/, cited by
buzzle.com): ‘The scientists spoke cautiously but the
graphs said it all.’ Walk softly, but carry a big stick.
Still, the US will dismiss that UN report, unless perhaps
Poet Laureate Robert Frost recites that poem to the
President of the United States in front of a multitude. I
have a dream.
To counter this one intercontinental snub of the Yankees,
let us consider this one intercontinental crop of the
Indians. I am tempted to call the whole thing The Indian
Protocol, because it was in India where a science group
had made the first moves, a private group took up the
challenge, and farmers joined hands to develop the
world’s first climate crop for rainfall-challenged farms in
the semi-arid tropics of Africa and Asia, not to mention
America. That crop was sweet sorghum. That science
group was the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), a non-profit, non-political
international center of excellence in agriculture and 1 of 15 centers of the Consultative Group on International
Agricultural Research (CGIAR). That private group was Rusni Distilleries Pvt. Ltd. The result: The world’s first
commercial sweet sorghum-based ethanol distillery, and it began operating last October in Andhra Pradesh, a
state with 76 million people, among the most economically challenged Indians. Potential, beginning to be realized.
The Indians alone grow sorghum in 9.3 million hectares, about 1/4 of the world’s total of 40 million ha. Potential, yet
to be realized.
The Yankee Dawdle