New York City, January 6, 2006

The article by Thomas Friedman, “The New Red, White And Blue”, sent me looking at my files, and what follows here is a series of “talking points” I prepared before the UNFCCC COP4 that was held in Buenos Aires, November 2-13, 1998. That Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, was held one year after the meeting in Kyoto, Japan, where the now famous Kyoto Protocol was readied - in Buenos Aires the intent was to tie the lose ends of the KP.

My talking points were intended for the Israeli delegation and I was hoping that they will be ready to assume a more active position on the subject of the world’s decreased dependence on oil. I had figured that they stood most to gain from such a move because of the clear impact on the security of Israel from the perception - the world economy is dependent on Middle East oil, as well as the impact of the cash flow to the governments of the region.

The Thomas Friedman article tells us that it is never too late to start to do the right thing. He calls for Washington to lead in this endeavor.