Dickinson to Durban » Archive
Hub-Caps and Trade
From reading the Kopp-Pitzer paper and the Stockholm Environmental Institute’s Policy Brief, one gets a sense of the overwhelming options available to the US in regards reducing CO2 emission, specifically with cap-and-trade “schemes.” And why do I refer to them as “schemes” you ask? The answer is that that’s just what they are: “schemes.” There has been no real and concrete bi-partisan actions towards implementing one or a combination of the myriad ideas presented in the two papers. When is this to occur, one really can’t say—politics and economics prove to be semi-insurmountable hindrances to definitive actions. Yet, one point to focus on from the articles, which could prove effective in the near future is that of regulating car fuel efficiency and our transportation sector. While a majority of the Kopp-Pitzer … Read entire article »
Filed under: Summer Reading Responses
The College Environment
One question that keeps coming up in my mind as to my studies with this Africa Mosaic,is my own involvement in contributing to the GHG emissions of the world. While having the privilege to study international climate negotiations in-depth is not possible for a majority of the public with jobs and other full-time commitments, I realize that I am extremely priveged and fortunate in this sphere. I go to a good liberal arts college which affords me the opportunity and focus to do such a thing. However, merely studying the impacts of carbon emissions outside my privileged “scholarly bubble” feels, well, unfulfilling. So the question I wish to discuss is how and why this “bubble” shapes some of the environmental choices I am able to make in my four years at … Read entire article »
Filed under: Climate Change, Mosaic Action
From Copenhagen to Durban
This summer when I was researching the past Conferences of the Parties it’s start as COP-1, the one conclusion I consistently found about the Copenhagen COP-15 was that nothing concrete in the way of real policy was accomplished. I remember thinking that what I was reading was perhaps biased—was this conclusion really true? Had nothing been accomplished—after all Cancun and now South Africa negotiations were subsequently being held after the “failed” Copenhagen COP-15? Where were the legally-binding policy most of the developing country wanted to desperately see? Reading first the actual Accord that came out of Copenhagen and subsequent reactions and criticisms following that negotiation, I felt that I was finally reading a more balanced account of what really occurred at the Copenhagen conference. Some of the criticisms reacted to the … Read entire article »
Filed under: Summer Reading Responses
World Climate Summit at Dickinson College!
Imagine if the title of this post were actually true! Not only would students, faculty, and other community members flock to our conference event, but international persons and other interested citizens would flock to our campus to have a say in the negotiations room! We, the students in the Africa Mosaic, obviously and luckily, have the privilege of actually participating in the real negotiations in Durban in a few months, but not every student at Dickinson does. To give a larger segment of the campus an opportunity to participate in a similar experience, the Africa Mosaic students and students from a similar-course of study in their first-year seminar acted out a mock-World Climate conference. The first thing I would like to comment on is that the initially feelings and anticipations I had … Read entire article »
Filed under: Summer Reading Responses
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