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(c) 2008 Simon Rosser

This article is taken from The A-Z of Global Warming deals with the Kyoto Protocol. A major political force which brought global climate change to the fore was born from the Rio Earth Summit in 1992, where an agreement called the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), was agreed. This followed hot on the heals from the release of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s ( IPCC ) first report on climate change.

The Kyoto Protocol as it became known entered into force on the 16th February 2005 and became the first important step in relation to climate change as governments and countries around the world committed themselves to a binding agreement to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.

The road to Kyoto was a bumpy one. After agreeing the UNFCCC, governments realised that action had to be taken to set real reduction targets, and so, in 1997, in Kyoto in Japan the parties to the UNFCCC reached agreement on what later became known as The Kyoto Protocol.

For the protocol to enter into force it had to become ratified by at least 55 parties to the convention, and incorporating a list of 35 industrialised nations. These nations together with the EU, accounted for at least 55% of the total of CO2 emissions in 1990.

A stalling point came however when the USA, having signed up to the protocol under President Clinton, withdrew from the protocol when President Bush was elected in early 2000. Luckily, the protocol was thrown a lifeline by Russia, when President Putin ratified the agreement on November 18th 2004.

The protocol’s main aims required industrialised countries to reduce their emissions of greenhouse gasses by 5% below 1990 levels by 2008-2012. The gasses covered are the 6 main greenhouse gasses, namely;

- Carbon dioxide (CO2);

- Methane (CH4);

- Nitrous oxide (N2O);

- Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs);

- Perfluorocarbons (PFCs); and

- Sulphur hexafluoride (SF6)

The agreement attempts to do this by providing for various market based mechanisms to assist countries or individual companies meet their respective emission targets. Emissions caps are put on Annex 1 countries, giving each country an emissions quota, or allowable amount of CO2 emissions. So for example the European Union has been given a target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 8% below 1990 levels. This target can be distributed amongst member states.

In general developed Annex 1 countries have to reduce their CO2 emissions, whilst developing non Annex 1 countries have not had to cap their emissions, but instead will participate in CO2 emission reducing projects.

There are three basic methods open to countries to meet their targets;

Emissions Trading Schemes (ETS)

As explained above, these schemes allow for the trading of CO2 emissions for carbon credits. So, if a country or industry exceeds their assigned amount of CO2 emissions, they would be able to purchase credits from a country or industry that has not. Only a small proportion of global emissions are covered by these schemes, and currently the EU has the largest scheme, the EU ETS.

Clean Development Mechanisms (CDM)

This is a way for Annex 1 countries to earn credits by investing and funding climate friendly projects and technologies in developing countries, thus helping control emissions in these countries.

Joint Implementations Projects (JIP)

Basically these are the same as CDM’s, but with Annex 1 countries investing in climate friendly technology in other Annex 1 countries, rather than other developing countries.

Whilst Kyoto is an incredible achievement it is at present the world’s only agreement attempting to limit greenhouse gas emissions and global warming. There are problems due to the fact that the USA has not ratified the Protocol, and neither had Australia, until literally 3rd December 2007, following government change.

Whist the USA refuses to sign up to the protocol other countries such as India and China, whilst ratifying the Protocol do not have obligations at present to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions on the basis that these countries were not responsible for today’s greenhouse gas levels. However, at the rate these countries are developing, they will soon be the World’s major polluters as they build more and more fossil-fuelled electricity plants to satisfy their energy needs. Indeed it is believed that in June 2007 China overtook the USA as the world’s highest CO2 emitters

It is true to say however that instead of the richest countries reducing their emissions by 5% to 1990 levels, they have in fact increased them by some 10%. It is believed that only four countries, UK, France, Germany and Sweden are on track to meet the targets set.

Recently the UK announced the introduction of a Climate Change Bill making it the first country to set legally binding targets to reduce its CO2 emissions. The Bill will receive royal ascent in the autumn of 2008, and it will set targets to reduce CO2 emissions by 60% by 2050.

What will happen after 2012? Well, UN secretary Ban Ki-moon convened a high level event that took place in New York on 24th September 2007, to promote discussions on ways to move the international community toward negotiations on a new global agreement on climate change. This took place at the UN climate change conference which took place in Bali on 3rd December 2008. The purpose of discussions will be to try and get in place a multilateral framework for action on climate change, already refered to as Kyoto 2, for the period after the Kyoto agreement ends in 2012.

Whist the Kyoto Protocol was a big step in the right direction, it seems that much more needs to be done and far greater cuts made to CO2 emissions to ensure global temperatures Buy Acomplia Online Without Prescription do not rise over critical levels.

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History

Gin Rummy is one of the most popular card games in the world, it is very easy to learn yet incredibly difficult to master. It was the first game my parents taught me to play and I’ve now started playing it again with a vengeance as it’s taking of online in a big way. The extremely clever scoring system lends itself well to gambling however like Poker it’s a game in which you really have to know what you are doing if you want to end the session with a smile on your face. One of the things that makes it most addictive is that you can think you are doing fantastically one minute and then with the next deal you come crashing down, I love it!

Gin Rummy was reportedly invented by Elwood T Baker, a whist teacher from Brooklyn in 1909. According to legend the name was suggested buy his son. Baker was also a Bridge tutor and later gained some posthumous fame for being the victim in an unexplained murder case. It has been said that the game was invented in the then prestigious Knickerbocker Whist Club in New York. The Game of Rummy had been about for a while, Mr Bakers contribution was to prohibit either player from laying out any melds until they are able to go out with the total value of deadwood (unmelded cards) being ten or less. The refining of Rummy’s scoring system achieved by baker has helped make the game much more interesting to play for money.

The un-refined game of rummy has had its roots traced back to the mid 19th century Mexican game of Conquian which was a far simpler win or lose game played for a fixed stake. It was not until the 1930’s that Gin Rummy really started to become popular this being attributed in part to the Depression, when increasingly people had less money to spend on going out and so stayed indoors playing games. Contact Bridge was a lot harder to learn than Rummy and Poker didn’t fit in with family life so well.

What has been noted as another key factor in the meteoric rise of Gin Rummy was its popularity with the new wave of media stars that was developing of Broadway and Hollywood, and the consequent publicity that game attracted itself. Dale Armstrong reported in his book ‘How to Win at Gin and Poker’ that on one occasion, in a desperate effort at rescue, the Burbank Lakeside Country Club’s House Committee was forced to persuade comedian Oliver Hardy to stay out of the card room, where the Gin sharks had been eating him alive for months, to the tune of four figures a week.

So popular was Gin Rummy with the stars that a new variety was born called Hollywood Gin whereby you could play three games simultaneously or even an endless series of them. It has been said that one of the reasons it was so popular with the stars was that it was very fast to play but could, if necessary be left off at a moment’s notice and easily picked up again as soon as the players were free thus lending itself to those working on set having to stand around for long periods waiting for the shoot.

Gin is still a very popular game for young and old alike, in fact its popularity seems to be increasing largely due to the way it plays so well online. It has always been my favorite card game if you’ve not tried it perhaps now’s the time.

Rules

Gin Rummy is a two player game with ten cards dealt to each player. The remaining cards are placed face down by the mat as the stock. The top card is turned face up on the mat to begin the discard pile. Each player alternately starts their turn by taking either the top card of the stock or the visible card from the discard pile.

The basic goal is to get all of the cards in one’s hand in either sequences or series, or a combination of the two. A series is a group of three or four of a kind. A sequence is when three or four cards have two characteristics: they must all be the same suit and the cards must be all in a row (for example: four, five and six of hearts). Until the cardholder has all of their cards spoken for in any of these ways, players continue to draw and discard from the unturned deck. When a player has all of their cards spoken for they lay their hand down in a “gin rummy” and points are awarded for being able to lay down all of the cards at one time (and by the other persons hand). The other way to end the play of the game is to go down early, also known as “knock.” This means that instead of having at least one of the groups be a set of four, the player would have three sets of three and go down for a certain amount of points. If a player is successful at this they win, but they do not earn as many points for the win.

During the play of the game each player has to do several things to buy medicine online have a better chance of winning. First of all, the player has to decide which types of sequences or series they should go after in his or her own hand. Second, the player has to watch the discard pile and remember what cards have been played; the rule is once the card is covered by another card then it cannot be played again (it is not an option to be able to pick up the card later on). Next, and probably the most important, the player has to judge from the first two steps what the chances are of getting the card(s) needed.

A simple game which can become very complex!