While I was reading Speth’s, Red Sky at Morning, his mentioning of the United States emitting the most greenhouse gases intrigued me. It made me think about how much damage we, as an individual country, have done over the past century and how that relates to the call for action today.
The question hanging in the air is how much should each individual country do to reduce emissions? Since the United States has been emitting a substantial amount of greenhouse gases for an extended period of time should they have to reduce emissions faster? Furthermore, since developing countries have emitted less should they be able to emit more so they can establish themselves as a developed nation? The solutions to these problems are complicated and ultimately there is no one way this can be answered. However, in my mind I think the best way to solve this problem is to evaluate how much emissions an individual country is outputting and develop goals based on that value. Despite the fact that a developing country was not involved in the initial industrialization period and did not get their chance to emit substantial amounts of gases does not mean that they should be able to now. I understand the unfairness that some countries might see in this, but if major developing countries are given free range the amount of emissions in our atmosphere could be deadly. In order to help these developing countries along, the United States needs to be an example. We need to apologize for the harm we have caused to the world and commit to rectifying ourselves. I would hope that if the United States started making environmental progress other countries would follow. I say this because the United States is a major world leader and also has a way of making things look enticing. However, we are currently not doing this and have yet to even sign the Kyoto Protocol. Hopefully with Barack Obama in office more can be done to change the way the United States is acting in this regard, but our fate is still lingering in the air.
Hey Ariane,
ReplyDeleteAfter reading this chapter I did a bit of research on the Kyoto Protocol and felt like sharing it. I am sure that you are well aware of this, but I found it extremely interesting that the protocol only applies to industrialized nations. Even though India and China have signed the agreement they do not have to abide by it. Also, when I saw that the United States has yet to sign this, I was angry. I know that the protocol has its flaws and that might have been part of the reason why we didn't sign it, but nonetheless we need to do something and signing that agreement would have been something. Without the United States on board how much will the rest of the world accomplish? Why would anyone else want to do anything if the number one emitter is sitting back? I think it is time for a new protocol. One that takes into account developing nations as well as political and economic realities.
Also, I wanted to give you this link.
This organization called ClimateInteractive has designed climate action simulator software that models changes in emissions and how global CO2 levels will respond. http://forio.com/simulation/climate-development/index.htm.
I don't know if you have seen this before, but I found it to be really awesome.
Kathleen! Thanks for the additional research. You're getting a good picture here of some really important issues! Kyoto was flawed and imperfect but still a first step. That's why Copenhagen was so important. It was time for the US to join and for the collective to grapple with the thorny issues you raise above in your post: who gets to emit what, what kind of rights to developing countries have? etc. These are really key points- so key that they have been sticking points for Copenhagen thus far. I think it has to do with reenvisioning developing nations' pathways to development. The need to leapfrog over us- straight to clean energy, efficient cars, houses, lifestyles, and we need to play our part in getting them there.
ReplyDelete5/5 on post #2 ;-)
and thanks for the extra research! I'll use the link in class!