My diagram is relatively simple. It starts off with countries emitting greenhouse gases, which we know has an effect on the climate. The majority of the emitted gases come from developed countries, like the U.S. because there are more people and more industrialization. People have seen the climate change in recent years and have begun worried as to what to do. People are beginning to realize that action needs to be taken in order for us to reduce our greenhouse emissions and take care of the planet. This is where the government steps in through the UN to see what they can do on their part. The Copenhagen Accord was a proposed plan for countries to take action to lessen their emission of greenhouse gases. Of course, countries who were not emitting many greenhouse gases (island countries) were not for the plan. This is where the U.S. began sending spies and creating bribes in order to get people to support the Accord. The U.S. began to get countries to back them, but not through very honest means. At one point, the U.S. threatened Zenawi to “sign the Accord or discussion ends now.” Through these means and other persuasions, the Copenhagen Accord is now associated with 116 countries. After all of this was said and done, WikiLeaks got a hold of some of the cables that went back and forth between nations and leaked them to the public so they could see what was happening, which brings us to the end of my diagram.

The government seems to have a lot of power when it comes to climate change and the reduction/elimination of greenhouse gas emissions. It is very important that the U.S. government and other world governments take part in discussion on preserving and keeping the earth healthy for our safety and the safety of the future. Whether or not global warming is a real phenomenon or not, we still need to be aware that it is a possibility that we are really hurting the Earth and endangering its inhabitants. Gas emissions are a problem for environmental and physical health and it is something that has to be addressed by the government.Thinking of this, I don’t the way the U.S. government handles climate change diplomacy is appropriate. The U.S. government should take initiative on their own to create policies or programs that aim to reduce emissions rather than bribing and threatening other countries in the way that they did for the Copenhagen Accord. As for the cables being made public, I am glad that they were. I feel like the United States of America is a leading country and we cannot be acting in a fashion that puts a negative light on us in the matter of global climate responsibility. We need to realize the mistakes we have made and move on from them. We should be pushing for creating our own initiatives and being environmental leaders. It’s great that governments are talking about climate change, but real action needs to be taken and we can’t wait around for that any longer. The U.S. needs to make moves – and soon.