Milestone Four- Assignment
docx
keyboard_arrow_up
School
Southern New Hampshire University *
*We aren’t endorsed by this school
Course
305
Subject
Geography
Date
Dec 6, 2023
Type
docx
Pages
6
Uploaded by MateAtomSheep28
Melissa Sanchez
Milestone 4
Global Climate Change
06/09/2023
VI. Politics Behind Climate Change
As climate change grows, it has become an international issue due to weather fluctuation.
But it has also become an international political topic to make awareness of the issue rising with
climate change. Now how did climate change become a questioning topic well the UNs began its
efforts to coordinate an international response which was initiated by the IPCC
(Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) to bring climate change into the public eye on a
global scale. By the late 1980s, when climate change became a topic of concern, the UN offered
a neutral forum where rival states might seek agreement. The uneven representation at regional
and international levels reflects that climate change effects are not felt uniformly across the
globe. Many of the troubled countries are tiny, underdeveloped, and politically fragile. By
permitting the smaller countries to have at least some influence in discussions, the UN's laws aim
to prevent the larger countries from fully dominating the discussion. By 1988 The World
Meteorological Organization, also known as the WMO, and the United Nations Environment
Program (UNEP) founded the IPCC, which was the first step toward global consensus (Kitchen,
D. E. 2016).
Governments were supposed to get the socioeconomic, scientific, and technological data
required to formulate climate policy from the IPCC. Since the IPCC reports are both politically
and policy-neutral since they do not advocate for any course of action and because they have the
endorsement of all participating countries' government officials make the decisions of how to use
the data when the IPCC delivers it but by 1990, the IPCC released its initial assessment of the
state of climate change. Anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions are partially to blame for
global warming, according to this ground-breaking study summarizing the findings of scientific
research from throughout the world. The UN was spurred by these startling findings to suggest a
fresh international treaty to address global warming. At the 1992 Rio de Janeiro Earth Summit,
the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was available for
signing (Kitchen, D. E. 2016).
Climate change debates in the United States are being framed by political parties and
interest groups because President George H. W. Bush replied to the government by saying that
the "American way of life is not negotiable" especially after climate change was identified as an
important global concern at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992. This viewpoint is still held by many
people in the US, who are opposed to any kind of regulation or climate action. As discussions
toward ratification of the Kyoto Protocol moved forward, this resistance grew more forceful. A
climate change countermovement that aimed to discredit both the environmental movement and
climate change science emerged as it became evident that the United States would have to
undertake obligatory reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. This movement was fueled by a
groundswell of resistance to the idea of forced emissions cuts (Kitchen, 2016). All this meant
that despite scientists having long recognized the increasing amount of destruction that rising
greenhouse gas emissions pose to both humanity and the environment. Despite this
understanding, until a burgeoning environmental movement eventually succeeded in arousing
worldwide concern in the late 1980s, there had been little political progress toward reducing
emissions. Early climate treaty discussions held by the UN moved along quickly. After the end of
the Cold War, the political route toward an international solution to the issue of global warming
became clearer to many individuals and governments. Powerful corporations, and industrial, and
energy interests have tried to sabotage discussions since those early days of UN negotiations,
however, to counter the environmental movement's impact. They are worried that the expense of
cutting emissions would restrain growth in the economy at a time when China and India are
becoming increasingly competitive alongside their political allies. Over the past 30 years, they
have been a key part of a powerful anti-environment campaign that has been successful in
preventing significant environmental legislation in the US (Kitchen, D. E. 2016).
Therefore, due to powerful aint-environmental campaigns other groups like corporate,
industrial, and energy stakeholders also find environmental legislation an issue because they also
believe that government regulations to control and limit emissions will harm their business and
the economy. They argue that if any law reduces economic competitiveness, billions of dollars
are at stake on global markets and thousands of jobs would be lost. Unsurprisingly, they want to
stop climate legislation from moving forward. In the United States, strongholds like the
American Petroleum Institute, the coal industry, manufacturing behemoths, utility behemoths,
the Heartland Institute, the American Enterprise Institute, the George C. Marshall Institute, and
Koch Industries are lined up on this side of the argument (Kitchen, D. E. 2016).
VII. Conclusion—What Can and Should Be Done?
There are positive and negative influences that lead to the change we see today. Let us begin with
the negative effects of what contributed to implementing a solution to climate change. On moral
Your preview ends here
Eager to read complete document? Join bartleby learn and gain access to the full version
- Access to all documents
- Unlimited textbook solutions
- 24/7 expert homework help
grounds, a lot of environmentalists are against a capitalist approach to addressing climate
change. However, worldwide rivalry for markets, resources, and influence is fiercer than ever,
and any effort to combat the issue of global climate change that is not based on the free market
would struggle to win widespread support. Consider the political outcome and discouraging
effects of the Kyoto Protocol, which will be covered later in this chapter, before believing that a
solution may still be found through the egalitarian pursuit of shared international goals. In
contrast to the developed world, which is unwilling to "go it alone" in the face of growing
economic competition from nations like Brazil, China, and India, developing nations are simply
not willing to sacrifice economic growth while they have not yet reached the baseline level of per
capita emissions required for survival (Kitchen, D. E. 2016). Some positive influences are that
although there is growing scientific and economic agreement that climate change is a concern,
there is limited global political consensus over what needs to be done. The Kyoto Protocol, the
first significant international agreement to address the issue of climate change, was the subject of
discussions that led to its ratification. This case study highlights both the numerous difficulties
and some of the benefits of international negotiations. Pay close attention to how the United
Nations utilizes scientific data to inform policy and contrast it with the steps taken by your own
government.
According to What Can We Do to Slow or Stop Global Warming (2020) some sources that we
can use to stabilize atmospheric temperature and what can currently be done for the climate is we
can switch to renewable sources of energy (such as solar and wind energy) to power our homes
and buildings, thus emitting far less heat-trapping gases into the atmosphere, drive electric
automobiles rather than ones that consume fossil fuels, or we can take public transportation
rather than driving our own cars, we can conserve energy by better insulating our homes and
buildings, and by replacing old, failing appliances with more energy-efficient models, we can
counter balance our annual carbon dioxide emissions by investing in commercial services that
draw down an equal amount of carbon out of the atmosphere, such as through planting trees or
carbon capture and storage techniques, and We can consider placing an upper limit on the
amount of carbon dioxide we will allow ourselves to emit into the atmosphere within a given
timeframe. Therefore, it is necessary to stop all emissions of gases that trap heat or, alternatively,
to create a civilization that removes as much carbon from the atmosphere as it emits to stabilize
the world temperature around its current level. Beyond the individual and family collective
efforts to cut emissions, this objective will need significant societal improvements in energy
technology and infrastructure. Now the governments were supposed to receive scientific,
technical, and socioeconomic data from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
in order to shape climate policy. The IPCC reports are both politically and policy-neutral since
they do not advocate for any course of action and because all the participating countries'
government representatives have given their approval. Governments choose how to use the data
when it is provided by the IPCC. In order to mobilize the world to execute these choices treaties
are made to make sure that nations all around the globe are provided with the results that
researchers provide to governments in order for them to find a solution within their region to
practice them and help reduce the amount of greenhouse gases that are rising the atmosphere
(Kitchen, 2016).
Commentary
I'll present this to my audience using political data and educate them using the most recent
climate change decisions made by Congress and how they might affect them someday, making
them aware of the potential repercussions if the change is not made within the time frame
specified by the Paris Accord Agreement. I'll demonstrate to them both the advantages and
disadvantages of making the appropriate judgments on climate change. Keeping my audience
focused on the facts while engaging them fully in each issue is something I believe is crucial. It'll
assist them in comprehending how to talk to one another and exchanging opinions on how the
effects of climate change may influence people everywhere. It is crucial to demonstrate to
children how decisions made by a small number of people can have an impact on many others,
regardless of where they originate from. This will help them understand that their voices count
and can be heard everywhere.
References:
Kitchen, D. E. (2016). Global Climate Change. Taylor & Francis.
https://mbsdirect.vitalsource.com/books/9781315506630
What can we do to slow or stop global warming? (2020, October 29). NOAA
Climate.gov.
http://www.climate.gov/news-features/climate-qa/what-can-we-do-slow-or-
stop-global-warming
Your preview ends here
Eager to read complete document? Join bartleby learn and gain access to the full version
- Access to all documents
- Unlimited textbook solutions
- 24/7 expert homework help