Climate: Kyoto Was Rigged, U.S. Can Help

“Surprise Us, Mr. President” (editorial, July 25) misses the mark. The Kyoto Protocol was rigged against the U.S. The concessions made to Japan and a few other countries would never have been made if the U.S. had stayed the course and insisted on them. There would have been a clamor against the U.S., and the U.S. would have been condemned for trying to water down Kyoto by all those nations that have little or no restriction on their own polluting.

I do agree and also believe that the U.S. will do more to reduce its own emissions, regardless of what the rest of the world does. Remember that the Senate was against the Kyoto agreement by a huge majority. Some of the senators criticizing President Bush voted against Kyoto. Your editorial should have taken the U.N. to task for its frequent, extreme anti-U.S. positions.

(P.S. I am a lifelong Democrat. I did not vote for Bush.)

Hal Feder

Upland

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Your editorial couldn’t have come at a better time, at least from my perspective.

I am the project manager of a unique experiment taking place in a remote, off-grid village in the Philippine province of Aklan, linking renewable energy technology with productive uses that create livelihood opportunities. The main feature is a biomass gasifier that uses coconut shells for fuel. The BioMax generates enough energy to light village homes as well as to power a decorticator (a machine that processes coconut husks into fiber that is made into nets for soil-erosion control), a multi-crop dryer, a grinder and pumps. The BioMax was designed, developed and built by a U.S. company with support from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory of the U.S. Department of Energy.

I hope that the Bush administration will continue U.S. support for BioMax-type initiatives that address the energy, environmental and wealth-creation needs of poorer countries.

Perla Limbaga Manapol

Newbury Park