Module 9 climate change

Module-9-system-diagram-Gilberto-Aponte-Prats

In my diagram I aim to show the entire process which led to the events we read about for this exercise. We first start with continued use of fossil fuels which has caused an increase in the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. As we know, an excess of these gases inevitably leads to an altered atmosphere in the Earth resulting in a more erratic climate thusly named climate change. Since climate change inherently affects all of the people on Earth, it has caused political action to be taken. This leads to the UN climate convention which aims to raise concerns and ideas which all of the countries that belong to it to start taking action to reduce the carbon footprint in the atmosphere. This leads directly to the Copenhagen accord which was aimed to create an agreement to lower the greenhouse gas use in many countries. Unfortunately, this agreement highly benefited one country, the US, unsurprisingly. But they could not simply just take all action on their own and get the agreement to pass, they needed other countries’ support. Many did not agree with it, so the US resorted to using unethical tactics such as bribery, espionage, cyberattacks and the like to force many of these countries to sign the agreement against their will. They managed to get 146 to sign it, so in a way the goal for the Copenhagen accord was successful, but with the consequence that it fostered a political climate of hostility and mistrust among those involved.

Regarding this topic, I am inclined to give a pass to any action necessary to have any means necessary be taken in order to successfully carry out an agreement which would eventually end in lessened greenhouse gases. This is an incredibly essential topic that others need to comply for the benefit of all, although I don’t really like that the US took more benefits than the rest of them regarding who receives the most benefits. This should be taken for the good of the planet. I do agree that these documents should have been released, us as citizens of this world have a right to know what goes on in it and websites such as WikiLeaks and people like Snowden should be welcomed for the actions they take/took. It is incredibly useful for others to know that the US has been involved in very shady forms of actions because I think most in our country live in this bubble where they pretend that we are somehow superior morally to others when we are responsible for many other problems we face in the world today. We should be conducting climate change diplomacy in a way that there are no obvious beneficiaries to it, but at the same time it must be strict enough that others have to comply with it and go against their best monetary interests. Which is hard to do when fossil fuels are among the most important item in your economy. Countries should propose to all invest in scientific research and technological development for sustainable energies. I think we have not taken as strong of an approach as we could possibly take, both internally and internationally.

One thought on “Module 9 climate change

  1. Hi! My name is Neil Karmaker. you can find my blog post here: https://wp.me/p3RCAy-ek1

    You bring up a good point which I did not consider which is getting the most action done without allowing any other country to compromise the actions. Most countries will not sign any agreements without them getting any direct benefit from the deal. Likewise I agree with you that I oppose the United States getting direct benefits from being able to manipulate other countries.

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