Gorbachev backs Kyoto treaty
Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev today urged the US and Australia to sign the Kyoto Protocol on global warming, saying the world’s “reservoir of life” was rapidly shrinking.
Australia and the US are the only major industrialised countries that have not signed the Kyoto treaty, which mandates specific cutbacks in emissions of carbon dioxide and five other gases by 2012 in 35 countries.
“Our reservoir of life is shrinking,” Gorbachev said from the eastern Australian city of Brisbane, where he is heading an international environmental conference. “Before it is too late I think we need to put our environmental house in order.”
Gorbachev said the US had behaved like a ”stubborn animal” over the Kyoto agreement, and urged Australia to show leadership by joining the pact.
Australia’s conservative Prime Minister John Howard is a staunch supporter of US President George Bush, and has thrown his country’s weight behind several US foreign policy decisions.
“That’s even more reason for Australia to sign the protocol,” the former Soviet leader said. “Then that closeness will play a positive role. If that closeness is used only for aggravating mistakes such as the war in Iraq that’s not positive, that’s not useful.”
The 2006 Earth Dialogues conference runs until Monday, and includes presentations by environmental activists from around the world.
Gorbachev said he believed the forum was important to mobilise public support for dealing with global warming.
“World public opinion is now considered a superpower in its own right, and we have a responsibility to make use of this power to drive positive action for a sustainable future,” he said.
Meanwhile, Gorbachev said that the wave of Mideast violence is an example of politics lagging behind the pace of global change.
“More than ever we need to build a strong public consensus in support of peaceful, just and sustainable solutions to the crises which threaten our future,” Gorbachev said in a statement. “The current violence in the Middle East is yet another demonstration of politics lagging behind the pace of global change.
“If the leaders of the world’s most powerful states lapse back and again see military power as a viable means of resolving disputes, then we should not be surprised if other states also consider it a legitimate course. We must stop the violence, and reinstate effective multilateralism.”
Gorbachev’s pioneering program of perestroika, or restructuring, caused the first cracks in the Soviet empire, leading to its disintegration in 1991 and the end of the Cold War.
