Module 9: Climate Change

Module 9 Diagram

2. In the diagram above I outlined the social and environmental aspects of the cables associated about the Copenhagen Accord. The Copenhagen Accord resulted from the collective action that was the UN Summit on climate change. I explain that through the need of fossil fuels for energy, manufacturing and transportation the amount of greenhouse gas emissions created led to global warming. This global event led to the need for a collective action from the major countries of the world. However, the United States did not agree with some of the ideas presented during the summit which led to some unethical actions on the part of the U.S. The Copenhagen Accord is a collective action the U.S. created to combat fossil fuel usage, greenhouse gas emissions and global warming. The UN wanted to charge the major countries that are responsible for greenhouse gas emissions a large sum of money along with forcing those countries to change their manufacturing practices. The U.S. decided to create the Accord in order to ensure these major changes did not happen by taking a different route. Many countries did not want to support the Accord because they were already supporting the UN’s plan. This led to U.S. officials offering promises of aid from $32 billion from the Accord. When offering this aid didn’t work, the U.S. threatened to cut aid to the countries. The U.S. also used spy tactics to learn more information about each countries involvement with global warming. Eventually most countries that supported the UN bill decided to support the Copenhagen Accord as well which will help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and help the world fight global warming.

3. I agree that a collective action needs to be mitigated in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and help fight against global warming. The events associated with the Copenhagen Accord led to political boundaries being crossed. I think that many private political conversations should be released at least a few years after the event occur. The leaks of these documents should not have even happened because those documents should have been released by the government. What the leak shows is that the government was trying to cover up the details of how they got support for the Accord. I think that how they received support was not entirely wrong. Although many of the actions were taken in an anthropocentric manner, the actions were partially ecocentric as well. The main purpose of the Accord was to benefit the U.S. so that manufacturing practices would not have to drastically change, but there is still funding associated with the Accord so that countries can lower greenhouse gas emission in the fight against global warming. The threats of cutting aid are not uncommon and are hardly considered unethical anymore as funding cut threats are always used in situations where support needs to be gained. Honestly, if the country that wants the aid isn’t willing to support an economically beneficial plan that also fights global warming, then that country doesn’t deserve funding. The use of spying to discover information is unethical because the U.S. does not have the right to meddle in foreign affairs that aren’t associated with national security. Offer countries aid for their support of the Copenhagen Accord is warranted because that is the real purpose of the Accord. Overall, the U.S. government should have handled the situation without the use of spying, and actually focused on a collective action instead of anthropocentric means of getting the support they wanted.

2 thoughts on “Module 9: Climate Change

  1. Hi, my name is Jiye Choi. i’m junior studying energy engineering.
    I like how you draw diagram with social aspect and enviornmental aspect!.
    I agree that the action US took is both anthropocentric manner and ecocentric matter.
    Even if it was for climate change, I think US made some ethics problem. I’m not totally blame what US have done but I believe there were better ways.
    http://geog030.dutton.psu.edu/2016/04/08/learning-activity-jiye-choi/
    here is my post if you want to check out

  2. Hi,

    My name is Humna and here is a link to my response: https://wp.me/p3RCAy-emQ.

    Our information was very similar, with the biggest difference being the point of view you wrote it in. For example, you did not mention developing nations directly at all.
    I also wanted to let you know that I really liked the way you distinguished your social aspects and environmental aspects.

Leave a Reply