Module 9- Climate Change Julie Cardillo

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The core ideas behind my diagram begin with people realizing how serious climate change really is. Once people realized this, the nation wanted to reduce climate change. Hence, that is why the UNFCCC created the Copenhagen Accord. The United States sought this accord as a beneficial opportunity for them, as well. However, they needed other countries to support it. The problem was many of these countries didn’t agree with the accord. I mainly wanted to illustrate, in my diagram, how the United States targeted these poor, less developed countries with the use of cables, aiding, threats , spying , and finally bribery. It seemed that money was a huge encouragement to get countries to sign the accord. In my diagram, I showed how the United States threatened Ethiopia to sign the accord by saying, “sign the accord or discussion ends now,” the United States promising to commit to Saudi Arabia’s economic desire to move away from petroleum, and how money was promised to Maldives. In addition, I showed how China used spear phishing to obtain information from Todd Stern. I then illustrate the fact that we now have 116 countries associated themselves with the accord and another 26 intend to become associated with it as well. All of these cables were exposed by WikiLeaks in 2010 and as a result trust was lost. Finally, my diagram mentioned that if people continuously reduce the use of greenhouse gases, then this collective action problem can be solved and we can eventually reach climate mitigation.

Coming from a citizen’s standpoint, I think that it was right for the cables to be revealed to the public because we should have the right to know. The way that the United States approached this caused was selfish and resulted in countries to not trust them. Basically, these countries were bribed and threatened,causing them to sign the accord for all the wrong reasons. I feel that is is a perfect example of the ends justifies the means because it’s almost as if the United States said, “Unfortunately, we have to bribe and threaten you less developed countries, so that you can sign our accord.” I do not think that it was a good idea to gain support by bribes and threats because that was not ethical at all. The United States was more concerned about the fact that they would be benefitted from this, without any consideration for other countries. I have learned that climate change is a huge issue and that nations worldwide should work together towards reducing the emission of green house gases to better the world we live in(collective action). If trust is lost (like the US caused to happen), then this issue will never be solved. Also, climate change is a collective action problem, meaning that this is a problem for every country. I think that the United States is better than this. Therefore,I think that instead the United States should have approached this by informing the countries about reducing greenhouse gases and negotiating fairly; I feel that this would have been successful. If we can all successfully come together to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases, then climate mitigation can most definitely be obtained.

4 thoughts on “Module 9- Climate Change Julie Cardillo

  1. Hey Julie! My name is Katy. I enjoyed reading your post. Your diagram caught my eye when I was looking through all of the post. The clouds and sun theme really showed your creative side. I liked that your diagram centered around the United States need for support. Your diagrams are completely different, however they present the same article. You can view my post here: https://wp.me/p3RCAy-dNr

  2. I think your diagram looks awesome, I think you did a great job on making it. I think the sun and clouds that you used I think it fits with the whole climate change theme. I like how you explained your diagram it helped me understand it better. I like how you argued your opinion of the problem and your suggestions on how we could fix it. The link to my assignment is http://sites.psu.edu/geog30/2016/04/06/christina-liptak-module-9/.

  3. Hey Julie, my name is Lizzy. Your diagram stood out to me because I loved the creative aspect added to it. The way you listed examples for each way the United States sought support was great. It really laid out a nice visual for just how the U.S. used bribery, spying, and threat. I also agree with your answer for #3 about negotiations. I also said in my post that negotiating would have been a much better form of gaining support for this accord. Here is a link to my blog post: http://geog030.dutton.psu.edu/2016/04/06/52792/.

  4. Hi Julie, I enjoyed reading your post and looking at your diagram. If you want to take a look at my post here’s a link http://geog030.dutton.psu.edu/2016/04/06/the-politics-of-climate-change-mod9/.
    Your diagram definitely looks different than mine. I like the creativity. We also differed in what we focused on. My diagram is a little more about the big picture and you focused on specifics. Your diagram gives a really good representation of information the WikiLeaks cables contained, while still linking the specifics to the larger issues. I think our diagrams would work well if combined.

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