Summary:
This essay addresses the issue of global warming by offering several suggestions to help reduce the amount of greenhouse emissions.
"When the well's dry, we know the worth of water." These were the words ominously spoken by Benjamin Franklin, in 1746, in his ongoing struggle to reform water pollution. Benjamin Franklin paved the way for many of today's regulations regarding pollution, including the Clean Water Act, amended in 1987. He warned that if we did not heed caution to the depravity, neglect, and horrid disrespect we held towards the environment, that we will succumb ourselves to a recrudescence of pathologies and a desolate environment. His warning is both blunt and ominous, but it serves a very powerful purpose. No longer can we turn a blind eye to our environment, hiding behind our own refusal and laziness to improve the environment and our government's nonchalant approach. While most environmentalist are, by default, generally far-sighted when it comes to the gravity of environmental issues, it has been a scientifically proven fact that Global Warming is a true, solid concern. Governments around the world are doing what they can to curb the emissions of greenhouse gases to reduce global warming. But they are not doing enough. Many more measures have to be taken, - and some current ones, enforced - to protect our planet. We've been warned that in hundreds, maybe even thousands, of years from now our children will live in a barren planet whose surface would mirror Mars. But we cannot hide behind the mask of luxury and time any longer. We must do what we can to reform our situation and hand this planet to our children and their children in the exact way we received it, maybe even better.
The United States has been reluctant to succumb to the wills of environmentalist movements. In December of 1997, hundreds of nations assembled in Kyoto, Japan and amended the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) into what we now know as the Kyoto Protocol. The objective was simple: reduce emissions of six greenhouse gases, or engage in emissions trading if they maintain or increase emissions of these gases. The United States has not ratified the agreement. The Bush Administration currently explains their views on the agreement not as a direct reflection of their concern on the environment, but as a result of the strain the protocol would put on the economy and the lack of enforcement of quotas for several other nations including China and India. The United States must become a figurehead for environmental reform by addressing international issues and enforcing their quotas.
One particularly enticing method of initiating success is discussed in the Kyoto Protocol. Countries who meet their quotas easily are able to sell their overlapping costs to other countries who would not meet them as easily. This is referred to as emissions trading and is in some countries a very lucrative business (Russia). The United States government can take that one step further and offer monetary incentives to industrial business should they meet or surpass certain quotas and implement substantial taxes on business who fall short of their estimated quotas. Businesses would not only compete on a market value, but they would also compete to conjure methods of mass production and waste management that would be both very beneficial to the environment and very lucrative to themselves. Recently, with the overwhelming costs of oil, many plans are being taken into consideration to conjure the most cost-effective means of fuel. This has led some companies to construct what they call "hybrid cars" - cars that synthesize their fuel from other sources, such as the sun. The United States would join other nations, such as Japan, in the new competitive game of alternate fuels, resulting in more jobs, more fuel, and less waste.
But much more needs to be reformed on the most local of levels: ourselves. The government can implement the teaching of environmental issues as a core curriculum in schools. This will no doubt raise many concerns. Public speeches, documentaries, news articles - all these items depicting the gravity of the environment have generally only been made easily accessible to those who have an already establish concerned in the environment. Such spiels would fall on deaf ears if our educational system goes as currently planned. Should the government regulate the core curriculum of schools, it would then expand the habitat of environmental knowledge to a wider audience. Hopefully, this will illuminate the need for reform and protection to many of our more naïve populaces. Education is a very powerful tool and one that the government must seek to take full advantage of.
Benjamin Franklin warned us two hundred years ago on the perils of water pollution. It took two hundred years for the government to enforce regulations and laws. Are we to believe that our government will stall another two hundred years to rectify the problems of global warming? Our species is far too advanced, intelligent, aware, and technologically capable to let our blind superiority cloud our judgment. I refuse to believe that a species that has been so adamant about their survival and thirst for power and knowledge would refuse to focus on their immediate environment, for it goes hand in hand with their own survival. We may not experience the Hellish world environmentalists predict in our lifetime, but we must do what we can to insure the safety and security of our future children. Each government must take a stance to meet this new challenge; for it is not a challenge that we can overcome, but a challenge that we must overcome.
This is the complete article, containing 916 words
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