[Cyrus]

In 1997, when the world was negotiating the Kyoto Protocol, the U.S. Senate, by a vote of 95-0, passed a resolution that forbade any American involvement in a pact that limited American emissions - "unless the protocol or other agreement also mandates new specific scheduled commitments to limit or reduce grteenhouse gas emissions for Developing Country Parties within the same compliace period".

Although the resolution did not cite China in particular, the testimony made it clear that China, and to a lesser extent India, were the nations everyone had in mind.

China, which currently ranks second in the world’s CO2 emissions, is projected to pass the United States sometime between 2025 and 2030 as the largest emitter of carbon dioxide. In an article titled “The Great Leap” in the December 2005 issue of Harper’s, Bill McKibben argues that it makes more sense to divide the atmosphere by people, not by nation.

China's current annual production of carbon dioxide was 2.6 tons per 1,000 people, while the average was 19 tons in the United States. Even when China passes the United States as the largest carbon emitter, the average Chinese person will still be producing only a quarter as much carbon as the average American.

China's GDP had risen fourfold from 1980 to 2000, while its energy consumption only doubled, showing the efforts by the Chinese government to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions. In notable difference to American's position on the matter, China has pledged to raise its energy efficiency by 20 percent between 2006 and 2010.

We are faced with a tragedy, perhaps the ultimate tragedy in Man's history on Earth. The father of the current president had declared on his way to the Rio de Janeiro parley that eventually gave rise to Kyoto, that "the American way of life is not up for negotiation".

That's what defines a tragedy. An unavoidable, though visible, and theoretically preventable, course of collision with fate. Because China is not the bad guy in this scenario. (Americans aren't either.) As things stand, China's growth is accomplishing some very good things: Chinese people are enjoying some meat more regularly, are sending their brothers and offspring to school, are heating their huts and houses. America is burning nine times as much energy per person so that Americans can air-condition poker rooms, mow half-acre lots, drive SUVs on every errand and eat tomatoes flown in from Chile. (Yes, there are Americans living in poverty and some Americans are losing their jobs to Chinese competition, but this is simply America's shame -- the United States has all the money on the world and has not figured out a way to spread it around better.

So, in about a few years down the road (ten? twenty? sixty? -- it's still "a few years") the sh*t is going to hit the fan. Now, shuffle up and deal.