News on NPR 2/16/05

Morning Edition, as usual, and that is as far as it goes. Been a bad week this week, so not a lot of time for listening broadly to the news... Sigh.

Great story on Kyoto treaty and the reduction of greenhouse gasses. Things seem to be going well (for example, innovation to reduce carbon emissions is ramping up very quickly) in Europe. Seems like most of the world is looking at the US as a spoiler who continues to turn its back on Kyoto. Bush claims the treaty would damage the US economy. The treaty actually goes into effect today. Cool! In addition to reporting on this single event, NPR looked at three countries who signed: Italy, China, and Russia. Italy, along with Germany and Belgium are the most agressive in reducing carbon, and NPR looked into these efforts. Go Italy! Then there was an interview with Chinese officials on Kyoto who said that it is unfair to treat developing countries the same as developed ones. The Chinese did sign, but there is no evidence that they are actually doing much to reduce pollution. Russia signed Kyoto to improve relations with the EU, but they are not actually doing much, either. Hopefully, things will change, but probably not for many years yet.

Tsunami update: Baby 81 has been identified and returned to his parents. Wow, what a story! There were dozens of couples that came to claim him, but genetic tests finally determined who the real parents were. The death toll continues to rise -- today it stands at 220,000, but reports say more people will be found as cleanup continues. Lots of people do not want to move away from the water's edge, because it is their livelyhood, but the gov't in Aceh wants building to begin no closer than 1.5 miles away.

Will the NHL cancel the season? Stay tuned. In other sports news, MLB begins spring training today and the NFL is looking at the first black owner of a franchise. Reggie Fowler is buying the Vikings.