Enviromental Problems

Global warming is a serious issue in today’s society. World powers such as the United States, Japan, Canada, and Australia can usually see eye to eye with each other about global warming. Other countries, either less developed or more climate aware, do not agree with the countries that are more industrial, because they want strict regulations on air pollution that the more developed countries do not want. The more industrialized countries complain because they say that in order to keep the world going at a safe and orderly pace, they cannot have a change the lifestyle that we are used to today. Both sets of countries know that the amount of greenhouse gasses need to be lightened, but cannot come up with a viable solution.

In order to understand what the countries are talking about, one would have to know why the earth is warming and what exactly

One of the only known things on Earth that consumes CO2 is plant life. The industrial nations cut down and consume more trees then they can reforest. Also, toxins and pollutants kill plant life in the oceans like algae. This is a major reason for the abundance of CO2. The amount of CO2 in the atmosphere went “from about 280 PPM in the preindustrial age to about 364 PPM in 1997…” (2-454) The amount consumed is far less that the amount that is put into the atmosphere.

In order to help reduce these gasses in the U.S. and around the world the United Nations have held conferences to try to establish an environmental treaty. There was a proposed treaty, which was called the Kyoto Protocol. (5-2) This treaty explained that certain countries were to cut ”their greenhouse gas emissions by 2012 to at least 5 percent below emissions in 1990. So far, no industrialized countries have ratified the pact.” (5-2) There were to many provisions the United States could not uphold. They could not put their industrial revolution on hold, even if it was for the sake of the environment. No one can seem to agree on this treaty, so this conference ended with little progress.

Most countries could not agree on certain parts of the provisions of the treaty. Prime example, “The European Union and the United States remain far apart on key provisions, including the amount of credit a country can get by investing in climate- protection projects abroad and how much credit towards emissions cuts could be gained by using forests to absorb carbon dioxide.” (5-2) Many environmental campaigners were mad because countries would only have to save forests to receive credit for emissions goals and not by lowering pollution made by cars and burning fossil fuels. The United States wanted to take credit for not cutting down as many trees, but failed to lower standards for factories. They told the UN that they were doing their part, when in fact they were doing very little. This would be a reason why they called another Conference of the Parties three years later. This conference was known as Cop 6. (5-2)

One of the major reasons that the rest of the world is unhappy with the United States is that we produce the most greenhouse gasses on the planet. The reason for this is our large amounts of factories and inadequate transportation. Chart one shows the amounts of greenhouse gasses as related to the other parts of the world in 1998.

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