The diagram above illustrates how the United States was able to influence the acceptance of the Copenhagen accord by over 75% of the 193 countries in the United Nations. When dealing with global climate change it is difficult to try and come up with a solution that everyone could agree on. There are a number of different countries who all have different governments with different opinions on the issue at hand. The United States is a large, and powerful nation who single-handedly influenced the opinions of a majority of these countries through the use of bribes, espionage, and negotiations. As you can see I prepared this diagram using a color coded scheme. The yellow blocks represent the Copenhagen accord and who was initially for or against it. The red blocks are used when outlining the problems preventing the Copenhagen accord from being accepted. The blue blocks I added were just a few of the examples of what lengths the United States had to go to in order for them to get the backing they needed for a popular opinion on the accord. Lastly the green block at the very bottom of the diagram shows how effective the United States was at implementing their plans for near uniformity in the decision on the accord. This diagram is just supposed to give the reader a basic understanding of what happened throughout the process and how influential the United States was in all of the this. All of the information provided was required by the State Department cables that were leaked to the public.
The United States has been considered a superpower for quite a long time now. The amount of power and influence the U.S has on other countries was made abundantly clear after the State Department cables were leaked. I don’t believe that the cables which were leaked had any significant affect on the end goals of the U.S so whether or not leaking them was right or wrong does not matter; I at least do not see a big deal with it. However it has shown to the rest of the world that the United States’ tactics are questionable and dishonest. The end result of the Copenhagen accord did have a positive impact on climate change (albeit small) and I would have agreed with how the United States was conducting their climate change diplomacy if it wasn’t in fact for their own selfish intent. On the outside they made it seem like their efforts were altruistic, making it appear that they wanted to ban together with other nations in order mitigate greenhouse gases. Their true intentions were different, they wanted to buy political support and attain leverage. I think it is okay for the U.S to guide other nations and lend support towards a global effort of sustainability or fighting climate change; however they should not continue using the tactics they did in order to achieve their goals. Ethically what the U.S did is still up for debate, yes the ends justified the means but this may not always be the case.
3 thoughts on “Module 9: Pavelko-Fox”
Hi Matthew, my name is Nicolina and the reason I was drawn to your post was your color coordinated diagram. I agree with you in the US’s motives being selfish and not actually genuine. To me, it makes it hard to read things like this knowing that sometimes our government can be very manipulative in getting what they want. Although we now have this scandal and crisis on our hands about our sneaky backdoor negotiations, we are still a superpower with a lot of influence. Like you state and our peers in the comments state, the US will get what they want in the end because they can. I think with or without the leaks, they still would have managed to have gained this almost worldwide support for the accord because of how influential we are. Here’s a link to my blog post http://geog030.dutton.psu.edu/2016/04/08/wikileaks-and-the-repercussions/
Hi my name is David Youn and I study chemistry at University Park. It seems that we do have lots in common in our second paragraph discussion. As a powerful of nation United States is, I think that they would have gotten their way no matter what. However, the tactics they used to allure other nations, I don’t know about that. Also, the greenhouse gas emission has been very consistent, which is very unfortunate after they spent so much money in getting the accord passed.
Hi Matthew, your colorful and consistent diagram brought me in. I sort of agree that U.S. would achieve its goals no matter these are leaked or not. But these leaks created such a credential crisis and it would be very doubtful for future actions as they would be viewed as some sort of plot by other countries especially EU countries. From the political justice view these actions would not work if there are no such secret cables. Here is my blog if you want to check out: http://geog030.dutton.psu.edu/2016/04/08/m9la_wzz5097/
Hi Matthew, my name is Nicolina and the reason I was drawn to your post was your color coordinated diagram. I agree with you in the US’s motives being selfish and not actually genuine. To me, it makes it hard to read things like this knowing that sometimes our government can be very manipulative in getting what they want. Although we now have this scandal and crisis on our hands about our sneaky backdoor negotiations, we are still a superpower with a lot of influence. Like you state and our peers in the comments state, the US will get what they want in the end because they can. I think with or without the leaks, they still would have managed to have gained this almost worldwide support for the accord because of how influential we are. Here’s a link to my blog post http://geog030.dutton.psu.edu/2016/04/08/wikileaks-and-the-repercussions/
Hi my name is David Youn and I study chemistry at University Park. It seems that we do have lots in common in our second paragraph discussion. As a powerful of nation United States is, I think that they would have gotten their way no matter what. However, the tactics they used to allure other nations, I don’t know about that. Also, the greenhouse gas emission has been very consistent, which is very unfortunate after they spent so much money in getting the accord passed.
Here is my link:
http://sites.psu.edu/geog30/2016/04/08/david-youn-module-9/
Hi Matthew, your colorful and consistent diagram brought me in. I sort of agree that U.S. would achieve its goals no matter these are leaked or not. But these leaks created such a credential crisis and it would be very doubtful for future actions as they would be viewed as some sort of plot by other countries especially EU countries. From the political justice view these actions would not work if there are no such secret cables. Here is my blog if you want to check out: http://geog030.dutton.psu.edu/2016/04/08/m9la_wzz5097/