In my paper, I plan to explain why the United States and other nations cannot get along when it comes to environmental issues. I plan to break up the paper into three sections that contains what global warming is and how it effects the world, the United States problems and conflicts with other counties about this subject, and my own conclusion based on the information I have found.
Global warming is a serious issue in today's society. World powers such as the United States, Japan, Canada, and Australia can usually see eye to eye with each other about global warming. Other countries, either less developed or more climate aware, do not agree with the countries that are more industrial, because they want strict regulations on air pollution that the more developed countries do not want. The more industrialized countries complain because they say that in order to keep the world going at a safe and orderly pace, they cannot have a change the lifestyle that we are used to today. Both sets of countries know that the amount of greenhouse gasses need to be lightened, but cannot come up with a viable solution.
In order to understand what the countries are talking about, one would have to know why the earth is warming and what exactly is causing it. Greenhouse gasses are what is causing the earth to retain more heat. Greenhouse gasses "that have increased over the industrial period are carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N20), and chlorofluorocarbons CFC-11." (2-453) The increase in these gases has caused global warming and it continues to rise today. Factory smoke stacks, car emissions, forests burning, and energy usage that burn fossil fuels produce the highest percentage of the gasses that harm the Earth and continue our warming trend. (5-1) For example, the United States, for the nine month period of January to November 2000, "had the warmest nine month period since records began in 1895." because we use the most fossil fuels and put out the most greenhouse gasses (6-1). This was all caused by the growing industrial age that we live in today.
Why do greenhouse gases produce global warming? "Infrared active gases (IR), principally water vapor (H2O), carbon dioxide (CO2), and ozone (O3), naturally present in the Earth's atmosphere, absorb thermal IR radiation emitted by the Earth's surface and atmosphere". (2-453) The greenhouse gasses stop the flow of infrared waves out of the Earth's atmosphere. When the atmosphere is warmed it emits IR radiation, with a portion of the energy acting to warm the surface and the Earth's atmosphere. As a result the average surface temperature of the Earth is higher than it would normally be without the atmospheric absorption and re-radiation of IR energy. This is known as the "Greenhouse effect". The predictions of the future of these greenhouse gasses being in our atmosphere is based on how much we put into the atmosphere and how much is consumed. One thing is for certain, there are still large controversies on how much of these gasses that are let into the atmosphere are by natural or man made processes. (2-453-454)
One of the only known things on Earth that consumes CO2 is plant life. The industrial nations cut down and consume more trees then they can reforest. Also, toxins and pollutants kill plant life in the oceans like algae. This is a major reason for the abundance of CO2. The amount of CO2 in the atmosphere went "from about 280 PPM in the preindustrial age to about 364 PPM in 1997…" (2-454) The amount consumed is far less that the amount that is put into the atmosphere.
One of the major reasons that the rest of the world is unhappy with the United States is that we produce the most greenhouse gasses on the planet. The reason for this is our large amounts of factories and inadequate transportation. Chart one shows the amounts of greenhouse gasses as related to the other parts of the world in 1998.
Chart 1
The United States understands that they are making to many green house gasses but feel that they need to in order to survive. The United States is doing little to prevent global warming. It is not doing as much to prevent it as much as it is to prepare it for the inevitable. "In New Jersey… the state government has begun an aggressive program of buying out property owners whose homes or business are in vulnerable flood planes."(4-2) In New York City they are teaching public school children about global warming so that they may conserve energy and be environmentally conscious. (4-2) These are little, insignificannot
things that they doing to try to keep energy levels down, but they are failing miserably. If you ask the U.S. if their doing a good job in trying to reduce pollution they will tell you yes they are. They can teach kids in school about the dangers of wasting energy (seeing if there are even awake or paying attention), but they won't put higher standards on factory and car emissions.
In order to help reduce these gasses in the U.S. and around the world the United Nations have held conferences to try to establish an environmental treaty. There was a proposed treaty, which was called the Kyoto Protocol. (5-2) This treaty explained that certain countries were to cut "their greenhouse gas emissions by 2012 to at least 5 percent below emissions in 1990. So far, no industrialized countries have ratified the pact." (5-2) There were to many provisions the United States could not uphold. They could not put their industrial revolution on hold, even if it was for the sake of the environment. No one can seem to agree on this treaty, so this conference ended with little progress.
Most countries could not agree on certain parts of the provisions of the treaty. Prime example, "The European Union and the United States remain far apart on key provisions, including the amount of credit a country can get by investing in climate- protection projects abroad and how much credit towards emissions cuts could be gained by using forests to absorb carbon dioxide." (5-2) Many environmental campaigners were mad because countries would only have to save forests to receive credit for emissions goals and not by lowering pollution made by cars and burning fossil fuels. The United States wanted to take credit for not cutting down as many trees, but failed to lower standards for factories. They told the UN that they were doing their part, when in fact they were doing very little. This would be a reason why they called another Conference of the Parties three years later. This conference was known as Cop 6. (5-2)
"Conference delegates have been meeting at the Netherlands Congress Center in The Hague for two weeks…in an effort to hammer out detailed rules for implementing a climate change treaty negotiated in Kyoto, Japan, three years ago." (3-1) There were still disagreements about what each region was to do about these greenhouse gasses. The main issue is "whether governments should focus on adapting to an inevitable future, or on efforts to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions and thus to try to change that future, if only in a marginal way." (4-2) The United States only wanted to prepare for the future, not prevent it. Everyone was hoping that the United States would see that their view was wrong and give into the majority of the worlds' view. If the United States gave in, other countries that backed them would follow suit.
Many other nations are very unhappy with the United States and the way they handle the environment. "The United States remains obsessed with the idea that it can use the dollar to buy itself out of trouble. U.S. plays dirty at the climate summit." said a commentary in South Africa's daily mail and guardian. (6-1) Also, French minister Dominique Voynet said, "United States proposals had been unacceptable but held out hope for the Kyoto process."(6-2) He also stated that he would hope that the United States knows that Houston, Texas is five times as worse as Paris, France in the global gas situation. (6-2) There were also comments that the reason why the committee's meeting, before Cop 6, ended was because of the United States. They said that the "U.S. insisted that grasslands and forests should count in carbon sequestration" and that was the major reason why talks ended. (6-1)
Scientists brought up many interesting facts for all sides to hear at this conference. They were particularly trying to reach the ears of the United States in order to reach a compromise with them. One of these facts was that these gasses will change the climate so severely that we will have droughts, heat waves, and severe thunder storms. (6-2) This is all due to the average temperature increases. This would also effect sea levels because of the polar caps melting. Coastal regions would be in danger because of a four-foot increase in one hundred years. (4-3) Another fact that was brought up was that the United States does not know the difference between "climate variability" and "climate change." The scientists said that change was man-made and that variability was nature taking its course. The United States had their scientist ready to back them up by saying that there was a gradual warming of the earth a thousand years ago, followed by five-hundred years of colder ages. So that seemed like it might be nature is taking its course just like it did before. (1-2)
The talks had ended though, with the agreement to meet again sometime next year. The opposing side could not come to an agreement with the United States and the other big countries. Countries like Saudi Arabia backed the U.S. because of the fact that they purchase so much oil and goods that keep their country going. Frank Loy, who is under the secretary of state for global affairs said, "The United States is not in the business of signing up to agreements it knows it cannot fulfill. We don't make promises we can't keep." (3-6) This assumes that the United States knows it cannot win this battle and someday will have to fold to the UN. This would be the reason why other countries do not like the way that we handle our environmental issues. We are stubborn and hard headed in our ways, even though we are destroying our Earth. The World Wildlife Fund stated about the United States that "Their insistence on exploiting almost every loophole in the Kyoto Protocol stalled the painfully slow progress of the last three years." (3-6) They said that we should have not walked away and stuck with negotiations.
The whole point is that the UN and the European Union is trying to make is that we burn to many fossil fuels and cannot keep greenhouse gasses out of the atmosphere. The only thing the UN wants is for the big, industrial countries, like the U.S., China, Japan, and Australia, to put more regulations on transportation and energy usage. The United States needs to conserve more energy and use better means of public transportation. We produce the highest amounts of greenhouse gasses and should take more of the blame for the damage we cause. The main reason why other nations have conflicts with the United States is we do not take any blame. We are big babies that take and do not give. We should do our part in conserving energy, using less fossil fuels, regulating standards for factory emissions, and use better public transportation or the world will keep diminishing slowly.
Works Cited
1. Horner, Chris. "Scientists Continue To Assail Climate Treaty." http://www.globalwarming.org/cop6horner.htm
2. Fellows, Hall, Killeen, Ledley, Schwartz, Sundquist. "Climate Change and Greenhouse Gasses" Vol. 80, No. 39. 28 September 1999 p. 453- 475 http://www.agu.org/eos_elec?99148e.html
3. Fuller, Jim. "Ministers Unable to Reach Agreement at Climate Change Conference" 25 November 2000. Http://globalchange.gov/news/hague_conference_2000_11_25.html
4. Johnson, Kirk. "Global Warming Moves From Impassioned Words to Modest Deeds." New York Times 19 November 2000 http://www.nytimes.com/2000/11/19/science/19CLIM.html
5. Revkin, Andrew C. "Effort to Cut Warming Lacks Time and Unity." New York Times 24 November 2000 http://www.nytimes.com/2000/11/24/science/24CLIM.html
6. Zengerle, Patricia. "World Powers Trade Charges on Climate Talks' Failure" 26 November 2000 http://dialynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20001126/ts/environment_climate_dc_28.html
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