Rupert Murdoch Now Believes Warming A Threat - But Will Not Support Kyoto - AFP

Conservative media mogul Rupert Murdoch said Monday he has had a change of heart on climate change and now believes global action is needed -- although not in the form of the Kyoto Protocol which the US opposes. Murdoch -- whose powerful News Corp. empire includes Britain's The Sun tabloid newspaper and The Times -- called for a new treaty that is acceptable to all countries and brings in emerging economies. "I have to admit that, until recently, I was somewhat wary of the warming debate. I believe it is now our responsibility to take the lead on this issue," Murdoch told a conference in Tokyo.

"Some of the presumptions about extreme weather, whether it be hurricanes or drought, may seem far-fetched. What is certain is that temperatures have been rising and that we are not entirely sure of the consequences," he said. "The planet deserves the benefit of the doubt."

He spoke as an international summit got underway in Nairobi to discuss the future of the Kyoto Protocol, the world's most far-reaching environmental treaty, which requires industrialized nations to slash greenhouse gas emissions. The United States, the world's biggest polluter, and Murdoch's native Australia have boycotted the Kyoto treaty, arguing that is unfair as it makes no demands of large developing countries such as China and India.

"Kyoto was a bad idea in 1997, and it's a bad idea today," Murdoch's New York Post said in a December 2003 editorial as Russia prepared to ratify the treaty and as a result bring it into effect. Murdoch said he now believed a treaty was needed but not necessarily the Kyoto Protocol, which was negotiated in 1997 in Japan's ancient capital for which it is named. "I think that we should certainly have a protocol and probably a new one," Murdoch said.

EDIT

http://www.terradaily.com/2006/061106115439.jt31ue61.html

but doesn't support closing the concentration camps. Where would we put all the jews?

Any protocol is better than no protocol at all while you're trying to develop a new one.

Trading in global pollution credits is not the answer.

to some extent; and taking any responsibility at all would be an improvement. It's a big step, really.

doesn't mean he knows squat about anything, let alone global warming.

is part of the reason this world is going to hell. I wish he'd retire and get out of our way so we can fix what he broke.

"Rupert Murdoch said Monday he has had a change of heart on climate change"

Please note that he did not change his mind, there was no thinking involved.

It's an emotional thing to Murdoch? WTF?

Maybe he had a change of heart and decided to own up to the obvious truth of global warming.

bastards like him only change their minds when there is something in it for them.