The Kyoto Protocol: Where did it come from? Where might it take us?


	We've heard and read, this summer, that carbon dioxide is a pollutant gas. Alberta's Bill 32, introduced Tuesday, identities it as a natural resource.

	Carbon dioxide is essential to life. Plants absorb it from the atmosphere and incorporate the carbon component in their growing structure. Animals use plant material as fuel and release the carbon content as carbon dioxide.

	This carbon cycle diagram establishes the sheer magnitude of the carbon cycle.

	Note that plants absorb about 120 billion tonnes of carbon from 440 billion tonnes of atmospheric carbon dioxide annually. A similar amount is released by decay, fires and food consumption by animals.

	Human use of fossil fuels releases about 5.5 billion tonnes of carbon to the atmosphere as 20 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide.