Carlamere_Climate Change

The diagram starts with the Wikileaks article regarding the Copenhagen Accord. It shows the relationship between the Accord and the main countries mentioned in the Wikileaks report. The United States is a developed country connected to money and threats, spying and leveraging political allies. China is a developed country; like the United States, China also had a hand in spying through a cyber attack on the CIA. This was an attempt to find out what information the United States gathered on their spying activities. The next country is Ethiopia, which is a developing country. Ethiopia a part of political leveraging and threats made by the United States. The developing countries ended up thinking that the developed countries were taken advantage of them because of their political weakness in contrast to the larger more powerful countries. This does not seem like an attempt to reduce carbon emissions between the large and small countries alike; it reads more like a Dean Koontz book.   However, this is the world we live in; doing what is right is never as easy as it should or could be. Even when we can see the problems that we have created and know the steps that are required to slow the process of global warming we find ourselves hampered by the political system and financial greed. These are the reasons that have created the environmental mess that we call our home and will never be the way that we recover from the damage that we have done to our planet.

I like truth even though at times it can be tough to accept, but with the truth comes answers. I am thankful that Wikileaks published this information; we now know at least some of the problems we face as a society, when it comes to changing our actions. We have to start changing society’s mindset; this is done through persistence, transformability, and adaptability. Human action has changed the state of the Earth; this started approximately two centuries ago, during the industrial revolution. Humans affect climate change through mitigation and adaptation. Mitigation causes less greenhouse gas emissions, but also leads to more climate change, which promotes adaptation that creates better environmental impacts. In order to really make a change the first step we have to do is re-engineer our global economy to a low-carbon model that will redirect billions of dollars to counteract the damage we have done to the environment. The second step is for each person to create his or her own action plan on mitigation; by planning where we live might be the biggest factor in the amount of greenhouse gas we emit. Additionally, by choosing low-impact food; by eating less animal-based food for a plant-based diet will lower greenhouse emissions. Lastly, there is always a possibility to buy carbon offsets; however, this can lead to an ethical question. One can make a case that every person should do their part to reduce their carbon footprint and not just buy a credit that allows them to pollute as much as they want (Pennslyvania State University 2016).

CARLAMERE_GEOG030_CLIMATE CHANGE

References:

Pennslyvania State University. Climate Change. 2016. https://www.e-education.psu.edu/geog030.

Module 9- Climate Change Julie Cardillo

climate_change_jlc6217

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.