My system diagram focuses around the US involvement with the Copenhagen Accord. However, my diagram starts very wide, talking about all fossil fuels and their emissions. Then we look at how the UN and really the world to a look at the climate change problem in a formal setting at a designated event specific to climate change. The Copenhagen Accord was created at the UN Conference but it needed the backing of a lot more countries and so the US went into secret negotiations in order to convince other countries to support the accord. The first important part to remember about the accord and climate change. The world leaders of every country new at least one thing, the accord would have an effect costing billions of dollars to change hands and a lot of money was at stake with these negotiations. These secret negotiations revolved around the CIA sending out spies to find human intelligence on UN diplomats responsible for climate change. Another thing the US did to try and manipulate support was to send a secret cable to different diplomats. And in China for example a cable was sent from the US in order to look like it came from the National Journal but instead attached a file that contained a “malicious code that would give complete control of the recipient’s computer to a hacker”. This only continued, the Copenhagen accord was really good for the USA and so they were trying to do everything in their power to get it passed through the UN. However, other countries (realizing they could gain money from the US) began negotiating, many of these countries have not had weight behind their negotiations in a long time. Eventually after the US threatened, bribed and hacked it’s way to the finish line, the US paid various countries compensation for support for the Accord.

This was a very different learning activity than any we have done before up to this point. No other learning activity has gotten me to think as much as this one solely on a moral standard. On the one hand I understand the US adamant push and support for the Copenhagen Accord. It would help restrict the global communities total CO2 emissions especially in some of the developing countries where manufacturing and factories produce large amounts of pollutants while at the same time those factories are countries largest sources of income. The moral standard I have a problem with is that the US felt it was necessary to commit espionage and cyber warfare in order to guarantee that the Copenhagen Accord went through the UN. Now I understand if we are at war and commit these acts without telling the American people. That’s fine. That’s military exploits and the American people don’t need to know that. However, if and when the American people found out the State Department was trying to manipulate the vote of less developed countries that’s absurd. No country should be able to bully other countries into doing whatever they say. However, playing devils advocate, many of these countries were being greedy in my opinion trying to get as much money as possible from the American Government just because they were in a position of power. So on this issue no countries were in the right but they all meant well. And ultimately the results were good for everyone for the most part.