This is where our daily reactions to the readings will be posted. Also, we will be able to reply to each other and continue discussions outside of class.
Sunday, April 22, 2007
Last Week: Global Warming, Public Policy
This week we have a final debate on Global Warming and a wrap up of all the issues we have covered in the last half of the course. Post on anything you like.
4 comments:
Anonymous
said...
13th Journal Global Warming
While reading the issue regarding global warming, I had an extreme bias and have never believed that mankind has not been causing the warming to the earth. Based on the evidence, I do not deny that the Earth’s temperature has risen, but its rising has not been caused by CO2 in the Earth. In fact, I believe that the rise of temperature has increased the CO2 omissions. This article, along with Al Gore’s movie, just seems like it is jumping on the bandwagon with regard to global warming. In the article, the author’s discuss a rise in temperature between 1.4 and 5.8 degrees by 2100. In my opinion, this does not sound like a big deal because the Earth’s temperature is constantly rising and falling. This entire article seems like a scare tactic to force big businesses to be more environment friendly and people be more conscience of their environment. When the author compares us to the Apartheid, South Africa and Nazi, Germany, I found this astonishing. These accusations are extremely hallucinated. Also, the author makes the United States look like the worst climate denier of all, but when looking at the statistics one would notice that our CO2 omissions are far less than countries such as China and India. Countries that have to industrialize fully realize the most CO2 in to the air. So, America is not the problem in this situation.
After reading several articles about global warming, I do not believe the United States should ratify the Kyoto Treaty. I agree with the Bush adminsitration when they say that the treaty would hurt the economy and it is ineffective and discriminatory because large, rapidly industrializing countries such as China and India escape the limits. If we agreed to the treaty it would cost 5 million jobs and $400 billion every year. The Bush administration also claimed that many countries including Japan and several countries in the European Union, are not likely to meet their emission-control targets. Therefore they would have to buy "credits," which would most likely come from Russia sinice they will have plenty to sell because many of its industrial plants shut down during the economic meltdown in the 1990s. Rather than ratifying the Kyoto treaty, Bush has made proposals for voluntary emmission controls and incentives to develop clean technologies that would have as much as an impact on American emissions as Europe would achieve under Kyoto. I think this is a better idea than forcing the entire country to control the greenhouse emissions. 7th Reflection paper
I think the global warming issue we debated in class is important, but America has more pressing issues that take precedence. We have many domestic problems, like poverty, crime, and poor education systems that should take first priority. I think that companies should take responsibility for making our environment a better place for us to live. They should set requirements for their companies, so that the problems our world is facing can be resolved. The Kyoto treaty restrictions are probably to strict if our country will lose 400 billion dollars a year if we accept it, but I think America should be one of the world leaders in preserving the earth. The United Nations should maybe come up with a new resolution that would be better suited to the needs of the entire world, including the major capitalist countries.
Even though there are people out there who believe that global warming does not exist, is some kind of scam, or doesn’t oppose any real threat, I believe that global warming does exist and that it was mainly caused by humankind who is even still accelerating it. And the fact is, if we do not take immediate action to slash greenhouse gas emissions, then we will be condemning our children and future generations. Recent investigations have shown that catastrophic changes in the environment will take place as soon as the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere reaches the level of 450ppm. Today’s concentration is already 380ppm and it raises on an average 2 to 3ppm each year, which means that this critical value will be reached in about 25 to 30 years. From global warming we expect a rise of the average temperature leading to the melting of glaciers and polar ice that will increase the sea levels by about a hundred feet, as well as increasing the amount of extreme weather events such as natural disasters like droughts, floods, and tornadoes. Other reduced effects of global warming include higher or lower agricultural yields, reduced summer stream flows, species extinctions, and increase in diseases such as malaria. To me it’s amazing how most people are a where of global warming but still continue to continue on and make the problem worse.
The IPCC predicts that if more harsher measures aren’t taken to help prevent global warming, then a global temperature rise between 1.4-5.8 by the year 2100, will cause many large areas of agriculturally productive land to be destroyed a well as causing countries and regions to disappear and become uninhabitable. I think that the Kyoto treaty was a good idea, however, even after signing it, several countries have still increased their carbon dioxide output. I think that harsher measures need to be take to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide countries produce before it is to late. If global warming continues to increase, then I believe human survival will be at stake, and all parts of the world will suffer and some destroyed.
Global warming’s effects may be hard to realize today, but if we don’t reduce global warming then they won’t be hard to see in the near future. The destruction that global warming can cause could be like that of a weapon of mass destruction.
4 comments:
13th Journal
Global Warming
While reading the issue regarding global warming, I had an extreme bias and have never believed that mankind has not been causing the warming to the earth. Based on the evidence, I do not deny that the Earth’s temperature has risen, but its rising has not been caused by CO2 in the Earth. In fact, I believe that the rise of temperature has increased the CO2 omissions. This article, along with Al Gore’s movie, just seems like it is jumping on the bandwagon with regard to global warming.
In the article, the author’s discuss a rise in temperature between 1.4 and 5.8 degrees by 2100. In my opinion, this does not sound like a big deal because the Earth’s temperature is constantly rising and falling. This entire article seems like a scare tactic to force big businesses to be more environment friendly and people be more conscience of their environment. When the author compares us to the Apartheid, South Africa and Nazi, Germany, I found this astonishing. These accusations are extremely hallucinated.
Also, the author makes the United States look like the worst climate denier of all, but when looking at the statistics one would notice that our CO2 omissions are far less than countries such as China and India. Countries that have to industrialize fully realize the most CO2 in to the air. So, America is not the problem in this situation.
After reading several articles about global warming, I do not believe the United States should ratify the Kyoto Treaty. I agree with the Bush adminsitration when they say that the treaty would hurt the economy and it is ineffective and discriminatory because large, rapidly industrializing countries such as China and India escape the limits. If we agreed to the treaty it would cost 5 million jobs and $400 billion every year. The Bush administration also claimed that many countries including Japan and several countries in the European Union, are not likely to meet their emission-control targets. Therefore they would have to buy "credits," which would most likely come from Russia sinice they will have plenty to sell because many of its industrial plants shut down during the economic meltdown in the 1990s. Rather than ratifying the Kyoto treaty, Bush has made proposals for voluntary emmission controls and incentives to develop clean technologies that would have as much as an impact on American emissions as Europe would achieve under Kyoto. I think this is a better idea than forcing the entire country to control the greenhouse emissions. 7th Reflection paper
Hanna Olivier
13th Journal
I think the global warming issue we debated in class is important, but America has more pressing issues that take precedence. We have many domestic problems, like poverty, crime, and poor education systems that should take first priority.
I think that companies should take responsibility for making our environment a better place for us to live. They should set requirements for their companies, so that the problems our world is facing can be resolved. The Kyoto treaty restrictions are probably to strict if our country will lose 400 billion dollars a year if we accept it, but I think America should be one of the world leaders in preserving the earth. The United Nations should maybe come up with a new resolution that would be better suited to the needs of the entire world, including the major capitalist countries.
Even though there are people out there who believe that global warming does not exist, is some kind of scam, or doesn’t oppose any real threat, I believe that global warming does exist and that it was mainly caused by humankind who is even still accelerating it. And the fact is, if we do not take immediate action to slash greenhouse gas emissions, then we will be condemning our children and future generations. Recent investigations have shown that catastrophic changes in the environment will take place as soon as the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere reaches the level of 450ppm. Today’s concentration is already 380ppm and it raises on an average 2 to 3ppm each year, which means that this critical value will be reached in about 25 to 30 years. From global warming we expect a rise of the average temperature leading to the melting of glaciers and polar ice that will increase the sea levels by about a hundred feet, as well as increasing the amount of extreme weather events such as natural disasters like droughts, floods, and tornadoes. Other reduced effects of global warming include higher or lower agricultural yields, reduced summer stream flows, species extinctions, and increase in diseases such as malaria. To me it’s amazing how most people are a where of global warming but still continue to continue on and make the problem worse.
The IPCC predicts that if more harsher measures aren’t taken to help prevent global warming, then a global temperature rise between 1.4-5.8 by the year 2100, will cause many large areas of agriculturally productive land to be destroyed a well as causing countries and regions to disappear and become uninhabitable. I think that the Kyoto treaty was a good idea, however, even after signing it, several countries have still increased their carbon dioxide output. I think that harsher measures need to be take to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide countries produce before it is to late. If global warming continues to increase, then I believe human survival will be at stake, and all parts of the world will suffer and some destroyed.
Global warming’s effects may be hard to realize today, but if we don’t reduce global warming then they won’t be hard to see in the near future. The destruction that global warming can cause could be like that of a weapon of mass destruction.
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