Dickinson to Durban » Environmental Politics
How Much is the Future Worth?
By Timothy Damon ’12 The economics behind policies to address climate change can be highly confusing, especially with different economists reaching very different conclusions. One example of such disagreement is seen between the work of The Stern Review and the review of the Review made by Nordhaus. Their point of contention centers upon the implementation of an economic principle known as “discounting”. But what is discounting? Simply put, discounting is a means of comparing the relative values of present and future costs or benefits. The idea is that $100 dollars would benefit you more today than it would a year from now. This is due to the fact that time itself has a value; money now can be invested to generate more over time. Thus, your $100 dollars today could, just by … Read entire article »
Filed under: Climate Change, Environmental Politics
Finding the “middle ground”
Solving the problem of climate change is an extremely difficult task when trying to negotiate with hundreds of other nation states, not to mention NGO’s, advocacy groups, etc. Every group has their own priorities of what they want from the negotiations and trying to find a middle ground can seem impossible. Our class, along with a first year seminar class, attempted to do what the world has yet been unable to do; find the elusive “middle ground”. Going into this I definitely had a lot more knowledge of the real process then the average student, which helped to keep me realistic about the possibility of agreement. We were split up into 3 different groups of “developed” “rapidly developing” and “other developing” countries and were charged with agreeing on reductions for each … Read entire article »
Filed under: Environmental Politics
The Blame Game
As a student of environmental studies, it is impossible for me to lay the blame of current global warming/climate change on anyone other than myself and my fellow human beings on this planet. Over and over,skeptics, regulation-weary industries, and politically minded scientists have done their best to dispute the fact that the change in global temperature is a natural occurrence, or is only temporary. However, after decades of research and speculations, the advancement of technology has allowed us to prove that, without a doubt, climate change is occurring and that we are the ones responsible for this change. One of the most famous representations depicting anthropogenic contribution to global warming is the Keeling Curve. This curve shows the annual readings of CO2 from Mauna Loa,Hawaii since 1958 (more information found here). Alright, so we … Read entire article »
Filed under: Environmental Politics
Fair Share
Harriet Bulkeley and Peter Newell (2010) explain the contemporary politics of global climate change with accounts of suspicion, inequality, and skepticism. Pointing fingers and holding responsibilities are things involved with every political issue throughout history. When it comes to global climate change, the unethical implications behind actions of developed countries make it easy to see who is responsible for causing, and in turn, preventing climate change from reaching drastic tribulations. Evidence shows that developed countries are indeed most responsible for the causes of climate change; the irony in this is that developing countries will be most affected by impacts of the changing climate. Bulkeley and Newell (2010) suggest “This sense of injustice derives from the fact that those who have contributed least to the problem of climate change in the past, … Read entire article »
Filed under: Climate Change, Environmental Politics
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