As the world’s brass convenes at the Palais des Congrès to save the environment and eat the endangered narwhal, it’s worth noting that the responsibilities agreed to in a past Montreal-based, Earth-friendly convention aren’t quite being lived up to by a certain renegade nation to the south.

Signed in 1987, the Montreal Protocol called for the complete phasing-out of methyl bromide, a gas used as a pesticide. In addition to depleting ozone, methyl bromide has also been linked to numerous ailments, including cancer and neurological and reproductive damage. The EPA lists it as a Toxicity Category I Compound, their most deadly ranking. Though use has been significantly reduced, the past two years have shown steady increases in use as the Bush administration, influenced by its corporate friends, repeatedly applies for exemptions to the treaty and refuses to set a new end date on methyl bromide use.

Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Claudia McMurray claims Bush has a “fervent desire and goal” to stop methyl bromide use, but is quick to point out that that doesn’t mean that “each year the numbers would automatically go down.”

» Scott Saxon