My diagram provides a visual representation of the cause and effect relationship of how WikiLeaks cables revealed the manipulation of climate accord by the United States. This climate accord pertains specifically to the Copenhagen accord, which the United States sought to eliminate opposition of through scandal and unethical means. Their approach had an end goal of wanting to make major improvements regarding climate change and the environment. With a mission to mitigate climate change, an unofficial document, the “Copenhagen accord” was created in 2009 as a result of the Copenhagen climate change summit. One of its goals was to decrease greenhouse emissions. The United States wanted support from other countries for this accord, and so they sought dirt on nations opposed to it. Other countries were persuaded to agree with this document through money and several unethical ways. Today, 116 countries have agreed to this accord, and since 26 have said that they would also like to associate with it, then the total comes to 140 countries. There are several issues that are associated with negotiations regarding climate change. One is finances, and the other is trust that countries will keep their word. Several of these points were not included in my diagram, but they are definitely important and key to the entire issue regarding the Copenhagen accord. I chose to include the most important aspects of the situation.

This issue is definitely relevant to today’s society because climate change and the environmental standing of our world is a pressing issue that needs to be addressed. As explained in Module 9, a huge factor into why we have this dire need to fight climate change is due to the use of fossil fuels that is creating this problem. The use of fossil fuels is unsustainable, because when we burn fossil fuels for industry, not only is energy released, but matter released ends up in the atmosphere. Some of this matter is known as greenhouse gases, which were a main topic of the Copenhagen accord. Because this issue faces difficult consequences for the environment and for many forms of life, it has become an important topic of discussion. So, although it was unethical for the United States to use improper ways to promote the accord, it may have been overall beneficial for our world in that it increased awareness of climate change and the actions we can take to improve the problem. I believe that there could have been better ways to get support for the accord, including room for negotiations. It seems as if the United States was a bit pushy with their method of gaining support and eliminating opposition, so they could have considered making negotiations with others.