U.S. pushes to remove global-warming references from disaster talks
The U.S. delegation to an upcoming global conference on natural disasters is pushing to have references to global warming removed from the U.N. action plan to be ratified there. The document cites global warming as one factor among many leading to “a future where disasters could increasingly threaten the world’s economy, and its population.” U.S. delegation head Mark Lagon said that he doesn’t want the “controversy” over global warming to “distract” the conference. On one side of the debate are the 25-nation European Union, which supports the Kyoto Protocol, and the developing countries that stand to be most battered by the natural disasters in question. On the other are the U.S. and Australia, the only two developed nations to spurn Kyoto, plus Canada and, um, Iran.
