- I decided to make it clear in my diagram some of the major contributing factors to climate change. It is clear that climate change affects everyone on a global scale. This being said, it all starts from the three main points, fossil fuels, methane emissions, and vehicle emissions being some of the primary causes. From here the diagram continues to explain the more corrupt results more than just environmental damage. While trying to achieve a ‘good’ goal the US participates in shady practices such as spying, threats, and bribery. This information was then leaked to the public along with plenty of other ‘incriminating’ information via WikiLeaks. The Copenhagen Accord was doing a good thing to get countries together to fight back against climate change to reduce emissions and greenhouse gasses. The United States, while clearly being a world superpower, still needs other countries on board to make global policy decisions. They took to these shady actions in order to gather these 140 countries to make a positive effect on the Earth, and to try to fight back against this horrible damage being done which affects all 7 billion+ people on the Earth. It’s a fact that the 140 countries involved in the Copenhagen Accord are the cause of more than 80% of greenhouse gas emissions. It is difficult to make any decision when you have over 100 countries involved, all being impacted and affected by the causes and results in different ways. This is arguably the reason that the United States needed to almost ‘strong-arm’ people into making a decision.
- I think it’s interesting to look at this aspect of climate change. Regardless of the (pretty much one sided) debate, it is interesting to learn about the corruption and actions taken to make regulations. I think transparency is extremely important in any sort of system especially governments around the world. That being said, my opinion of what was done does not lean to either side as I am split. I believe it is a debate of whether or not the end justifies the means. The United States did shady things in order to get other countries on board for what they believed would be extremely beneficial. I believe that had the actions been taken more “in the light” than behind closed doors I would have been more ‘approving’, to so speak, of their actions. A lot of what goes into deciding an opinion of what is right or wrong in this case goes back to Module 3: Ethics. To reference a quote from Module 3, “Sustainable utilization is a simple idea: we should utilize species and ecosystems at levels and in ways that allow them to go on renewing themselves for all practical purposes indefinitely.” I believe that in this case the end does justify the means because of the importance of sustainability. Climate change is a major problem we face not only as a nation but as a collective world, and as a country that is a major contributor to damaging the ozone layer it can be explained that we need to do whatever we can to lessen the impact we make.
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Hi Dylan,
Your diagram is very detailed! I like how you explained the exact causes of the climate shift before you even placed the climate shift in. It is important to realize that these greenhouse gases and fuel emissions are the cause of all of these problems. If we could cut down on these issues, we would not have to worry about policies and greater stresses than we need. I really enjoyed your post great job!
Here is a link to my post: http://geog030.dutton.psu.edu/2016/04/08/chase-sandler-module-9/