Dickinson to Durban » Archive
The Responsibility of the World
Deciding whom to blame for climate change is an incredibly complex and sensitive issue. The reasons behind this stem from two very important aspects of what it takes to deal with climate change. First the difficulty of changing the habits of millions of people and second, and possibly more importantly, the cost of making changes. Because of these, everyone wants to put the blame and responsibility on someone else, anyone else. When first looking at who should clean up and prevent climate change, it is key to look at who is responsible for the mess we are in now. Looking at it from a historical view, it is clearly the United States and other developed countries who take the cake for historically polluting the most(Roberts and Parks). But as we move … Read entire article »
Filed under: Climate Change
Climate Politics: Beyond Nation States
The politics that surround climate change are incredibly complex. What adds to this complexity is the number and variety of actors who do or should participate. The decision making process for climate change policies on the international level involve not only states but coalitions of states, organizations through the UNFCCC, and a myriad of non-state actors. The non-state actors are sometimes not given the credit they deserve for how much influence they have in the process. In Governing Climate Change by Harriet Bulkeley and Peter Newell, the authors agree that, “non-state actors are central to the governance of climate change”(34). The most obviously needed non-state actors for climate change are the scientists who study climate and discovered that anything was even changing in the climate. No matter if they agree … Read entire article »
Filed under: Environmental Politics
The lies of children’s books and movies?
As an environmental studies major, I would love to think that by planting more trees we could indeed save the world. The possibility that something that easy and relatively inexpensive could stop global climate change and the associated impacts, is inviting. Yet the truth of the matter is that our world cannot be saved by just planting a tree or riding a bike or using reusable water bottles. Every human through out the history of time has helped enhance climate change and miniscule changes by the current few generations is not enough to reverse the previous impacts. It seems it should be clear that build up over thousands of generations can’t be fixed by a only a few, yet majority of people, tend to be hesitant to even make small … Read entire article »
Filed under: Conservation
Hiding Global Warming
Oreskes and Conway contend that a small number of scientists have merchandised doubt on many of the most important issues of our time by fighting scientific evidence and spreading confusion (page 9). In the case of climate change, is the evidence for their contention convincing? Climate change has clearly fallen victim to the same tactics as the other case studies looked at in Merchants of Doubt by Oreskes and Conway. When it has been known since 1995 that global warming is a reality and people are still unsure or confused, clearly there is something out of place(169). One of the main themes through out the book is the industries claim that the media needs to keep a balance of the sides of the argument. But just as with the other case … Read entire article »
Filed under: Summer Reading Responses
Recent Comments