Here is a good video of two intelligent guys arguing for the Kyoto Protocol: Thomas C. Heller and Stephen H. Schneider speaking at Stanford in January of 2006. Heller is an economist who apparently was involved in the design of the Kyoto Protocol. Schneider is a scientist who is involved with the IPCC. I disagree with them, but they are not unpleasant to listen to. If you are wondering how anyone could like Kyoto but not be a Gaia worshiper, then these are good guys to listen to.
Watch it for yourself if you have the time. Let me just mention a couple of things that interest me about their talks.
First, they both agree that Kyoto is insignificant. They favor Kyoto because of the symbolism, not because of the environmental impact. One of them (I cannot remember which) compared it to getting the camel's nose under the tent flap. I wish more Kyoto proponents would be this open about Kyoto's true effectiveness. The impression I get from the public is they think it would work if only the United States joined in.
Another observation is that they have strong and similar political stances. They were not very shy about putting down George W. Bush throughout their talks, and Heller even jokes about Texas being the anus of the planet. At the same time, they are completely dispassionate and intellectual about China's behavior. There is a lot of political overlap between those who like the Kyoto protocol, and those who have many other leftist political preferences.
Neither of them addressed what I consider the hard questions for Kyoto, which disappoints me. They must have thought about it, and simply not considered their talk slots long enough. But, for example, they never talk about a world where emissions are reduced enough to really matter; they only talk about the "camel's nose under he tent flap". It looks questionable to me to take CO2 reduction seriously enough to really cap the level of CO2 in the atmosphere. Why take one step down a road, if we are not willing to go far enough for it do do any good?
Overall, I come away wishing I could believe in this dream they and other Kyoto proponents share. They are excited, their eyes are wide, and they have this shared hope and dream. They really want global warming to be a bogeyman, and they really want everyone to rise up and fight against it. It would feel really good to join their crusade.