One would think that countries that committed to the Kyoto treaty are doing a better job of curtailing carbon emissions. One would also think that the United States, the only country that does not even intend to ratify, keeps on emitting carbon dioxide at growth levels much higher than those who signed.

And one would be wrong.

The Kyoto treaty was agreed upon in late 1997 and countries started signing and ratifying it in 1998. A list of countries and their carbon dioxide emissions due to consumption of fossil fuels is available from the U.S. government. If we look at that data and compare 2004 (latest year for which data is available) to 1997 (last year before the Kyoto treaty was signed), we find the following.

Emissions worldwide increased 18.0%.
Emissions from countries that signed the treaty increased 21.1%.
Emissions from non-signers increased 10.0%.
Emissions from the U.S. increased 6.6%.

Wow, just shows how the media can distort things. The BBC are always harping on about the U.S. not signing.

I am sorry, but I do not agree on you entirely here. For one, there is only one link to base the findings on (which was also only listen upon reader request) and for two, "Traue keiner Statistik, die Du nicht selbst gefälscht hast" and last but not least, for thre: the figures end in 2004. Thus nothing really of "value" to me. Sorry just MHO