In this week’s print edition, the Rhino’s John Hammer writes about the Greensboro City Council’s debate on whether or not the city should sign the Kyoto Protocols:

It will mean absolutely nothing for Greensboro to sign the pact, unless the council is so out of touch with reality that it would actually try to follow them.

Not an unreasonable assumption. But wait, there’s more:

To follow the Kyoto Protocols, the city would first have to spend thousands and probably hundreds of thousands of dollars to figure out what the city’s energy use was in 1990…..The Kyoto Protocols would have required the US to reduce production of greenhouse gases to 7 percent below 1990 production levels. Signing the agreement says the city is committed to this goal. No one at the meeting had any idea how much that would cost or even how much it would cost to figure out what that 1990 figure is. However, despite the fact that they didn’t know anything about the cost involved, Councilmembers Sandy Carmany, Florence Gatten and Goldie Wells were in favor of signing the agreement.

Here’s a suggestion for the city: Don’t bother. There is no way in hell the city can reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 7 percent below 1990 levels short of doing our laundry on a rock and reading by oil lamp. Hence the Kyoto Fantasy.

Here’s some required viewing for council members.