Phase 4 Discussion Board Climates – Environmental Science
United States is lagging behind many other countries in dealing with global warming. They say that it will promote economic damage resulting from more severe weather.
The science is changing to be clearer and clearer that global warming is a problem. “What is not changing is the failure of some of congressmen to recognize that science. . . . The real losers here are our children and grandchildren, who, if we don’t act soon, are going to inherit a planet that is not going to be as hospitable as the one we were given by our parents and grandparents.”
Discussion of this issue comes as the United States faces increasing international pressure to take stronger action on emissions of greenhouse gases. European leaders are planning to press the United States on the issue at an annual meeting next month of the Group of Eight industrialized nations.
The Bush administration has repeatedly rejected calls for mandatory controls in favor of voluntary emissions limits, and says that program is working. The White House contends that mandatory controls would cost jobs and lead to higher energy prices.
Despite the growing body of evidence that industrial discharges of carbon dioxide and other so-called greenhouse gas emissions are a major cause of global warming, Sen. James M. Inhofe (R-Okla.), chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee, once again argued “there is no convincing scientific evidence.”
(Senate Rejects Greenhouse Gas Limits, 2006)
I think it is shameful that the United States is the only member of the Group of 8 nations not to ratify the Kyoto Protocol. It is even more shameful that 40 of our own states have devised their own plans to address climate change, while the federal government looked for ways to offer incentives to energy companies to drill and mine more of the fossil fuels that cause global warming.
Currently, nearly 30 percent of greenhouse gases emitted by the United States come from cars, trucks, and the rest of the transportation sector. Another 30 percent of our nation’s greenhouse gas emissions come from power plants.
We already have technologies to reduce the amount of energy we consume; we just need to use them. This would include reducing the amount of energy we consume and producing more energy from renewable sources.
Using less energy will help us to reduce the amount of greenhouse gas emissions that we create. Increasing energy efficiency at power plants will reduce the quantity of fossil fuels that are burned while still generating enough electricity for consumers. Consumers can save energy, and save on their utility bills, by using energy efficient technologies in their homes and selecting energy efficient appliances, electronics and lighting. Drivers can save energy while also saving money on gasoline by driving a car that is very fuel efficient.
They say more than 140 nations, including all 25 members of the European Union, Russia and China; have ratified the agreement to reduce man-made emissions of greenhouse gases. The United States – which accounts for about one-fourth of the greenhouse gasses believed responsible for global warming – has refused. I believe this is a serious mistake. We’ve already seen:
Four hurricanes of significant force pounding the state of Florida in a six-week period last fall. The storms formed over an area of the ocean where surface temperatures have increased an average of 1.7 degrees over the past decade. Eskimos being forced inland in Alaska as their native homes on the coastline are melting into the sea. Glaciers beginning to disappear in Glacier National Park in Montana. In 100 years, the park has gone from having 150 glaciers to fewer than 30. And the 30 that remain are two-thirds smaller than they once were. California’s water supplies being threatened by smaller snow packs in the Sierra Nevada. Record snowfalls this winter have provided hope, but the region still could face drought or floods unless temperatures stay cold enough to maintain the snow pack and average snowfall continues for the rest of the precipitation season.
Scientific estimates that global warming could have serious ramifications in the very near future, including:
A water crisis in the western United States due to the smaller snow packs. The disappearance of the glaciers in the Andes in Peru, leaving the population without an adequate water supply during the summer. The melting of two-thirds of the glaciers in western China by 2050, seriously diminishing the water supply for the region’s 300 million inhabitants.
(The United States Must Curb Global Warming, 2006)
References
Senate Rejects Greenhouse Gas Limits. (2006). Retrieved June 12, 2006, from http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/22/AR2005062200465.html
The United States Must Curb Global Warming. (2006). Retrieved June 12, 2006, from http://feinstein.senate.gov/05speeches/global-warm-oped.htm