Conclusion and Bibliography
Conclusion
The fact that greenhouse gas emissions from human activities cause the Earth to heat up and that this global warming changes the climate cannot be altered. This is a fact that so many scientific reports show the correctness of. Only people with economic interest in remaining a high use of fossil fuels have questioned the correctness.
To solve the problem is extremely important. The impacts of the industrialized countries emissions of greenhouse gases will also harm the developing countries. Therefore it is important that the members of the United Nations were able to agree on a solution to the problem: The Kyoto Treaty. Although it was just a tiny step in the right direction it showed that the industrialized countries at least cared a little about the environment.
The US rejection of the Kyoto Treaty shows that the US government cares more about money than about the health of the global environment. The fear of losing money seems to hide the fact that a decision to stop the use of fossil fuels automatically will coddle the development of technologies that will use alternative energy sources. New technology like computing has already created many jobs and the development of alternative energy will do that too. Alternative energy will cause the economy to flourish. The cut in emissions of carbon dioxide is not the only reason to stop the use of fossil fuels. Cars and trucks emit many other substances that among other things cause asthma and respiratory illness. Therefore it is extra important to start cutting the use of fossil fuels. Additionally, the use of alternative energy will liberate USA from its dependence on oil from the Middle East. Many problems are caused by this dependency: the Golf War and the much-wanted war on Iraq.
The no to the Kyoto Treaty also comes from the fact that the Republicans' strings to the oil and gas industry are quite many. The huge amount donated from this particular industry has of course helped the Republicans in their decision. President George W. Bush's alternative to the Kyoto Treaty also did not present any real alternatives to the environmental situation in USA and the fact that it was voluntary just cripples it further. It just shows that the US government does not care about environmental issues of this caliber.
Thomas Kilde Krath
Bibliography
- 1
- Zuotao Li: Greenhouse Effect & Enhanced Greenhouse Effect, Center for Earth Observing and Space Research,
http://www.science.gmu.edu/~zli/ghe.html - 2
- Global Warming - Emissions, US Environmental Protection Agency,
http://yosemite.epa.gov/oar/globalwarming.nsf/content/emissions.html - 3
- Jonathan Amos: Kilimanjaro's white peak to disappear, BBC News, 19 February, 2001,
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_depth/sci_tech/2001/san_francisco/1177879.stm - 4
- New threat for flood-hit Europe, CNN, August 20, 2002,
http://www.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/europe/08/20/europe.floods/index.html - 5
- David Archer: GCM Predictions of Global Warming, Department of Geophysical Sciences at University of Chicago,
http://geosci.uchicago.edu/~archer/PS134/Notes/gcm.warming.dist.html - 6
- A Paleo Perspective on Global Warming: Paleoclimatic Data Before 1000 Years Ago, National Geophysical Data Center,
http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/paleo/globalwarming/paleobefore.html - 7
- A Paleo Perspective on Global Warming: A Final Word, National Geophysical Data Center,
http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/paleo/globalwarming/end.html - 8
- Andrew C. Revkin: Study Faults Humans for Large Share of Global Warming, New York Times, July 14, 2000,
http://www.nytimes.com/library/national/science/071400sci-environ-climate.html - 9
- United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, UNFCCC,
http://unfccc.int - 10
- The Kyoto Treaty, UNFCCC,
http://unfccc.int/resource/docs/convkp/kpeng.html - 11
- Kyoto Protocol - Status of Ratification, UNFCCC, October 16, 2002,
http://unfccc.int/resource/kpstats.pdf - 12
- D. K. Stevenson: American Life and Institutions: American Government, Ernst Klett Schulbuchverlag, 1987
- 13
- A Money in Politics Backgrounder on the Energy Industry, The Center for Responsive Politics (non-partisan and non-profit),
http://www.opensecrets.org/pressreleases/energybriefing.htm - 14
- Open Secrets - Money in Politics Data, The Center for Responsive Politics (non-partisan and non-profit),
http://www.opensecrets.org - 15
- Will Oil Be Weapon In Mideast War?, CBS News, April 2, 2002,
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/04/02/world/main505174.shtml - 16
- E. Tiede, R. Jensen, H.Norman-Risch: America in Close-Up, Longman, 1990
- 17
- John Kerry: Bush Takes a Backseat, CNN Inside Politcs (Originally printed in Time), August 19, 2002,
http://www.cnn.com/2002/ALLPOLITICS/08/19/time.kerry/index.html - 18
- John Kerry: Will the U.S. ratify the Kyoto Treaty, December 11, 1997,
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/environment/july-dec97/kyoto_12-11.html - 19
- Rana Foroohar and Fred Guterl: Will we ever stop global warming?, June 17, 2002, Newsweek International Edition (print edition)
Footnotes
- ... melting1
- Quote from BBC News February 19, 2001 [3]: ``The beautiful ice fields on the top of Mount Kilimanjaro ... could completely melt away in the next 20 years if the Earth continues to warm ...''
- ... flooding2
- New threat for flood-hit Europe, CNN [4]
- ... ratified3
- By signing a treaty the government promises to make the treaty part of the country's laws. To ratify is to actually make the treaty part of the laws.