Summary:
The degree of climate change on Earth has shown to be disastrous even in the last two years alone, with increased flooding in Europe, droughts in Africa, the catastropic tsunami in Asia, and the hurricanes in the Southern United States. Yet, in 2001 America walked out of the Kyoto Protocol summit which was organized to decrease worldwide energy use and emission of poisonous gases. As the United States is the biggest consumer of energy in the world, it should also be a forerunner on global warming issues.
Why Bush should do something about global warming.
The greenhouse effect and the enhanced greenhouse effect explain the increase of the earth's average temperature of the earth's atmosphere and oceans over the last few decades. The first being a natural cause of global warming and the second causes global warming by way of the gases emitted by human activities. Over the last few decades, global warming has been under a lot of scrutiny. This is because it is still not entirely clear whether or not global warming is completely natural or if it's due to the increase of gas emissions since the industrial revolution. Natural or not the earth's climate change has shown to be disastrous even in the last two years alone as there was an increase in floods Europe, more droughts in Africa, a catastrophic tsunami hit Asia and hurricane ruined much of southern America. Consequently countries have organised summits and agreements such as the Kyoto Protocol, to decrease the energy use and emission of poisonous gases. In 2001, America walked out on the Kyoto summit because . However, as the United States is the biggest consumer of energy it should also be a forerunner on global warming issues.
The scientific opinion on global warming is that the earth has warmed up to 0.6 degrees Celsius over the last 100 years. According to Töpfer and Obasi of the United Nations Environmental Programme, most of the warming observed over the last 50 years is attributable to human activities. This would mean that it is also irreversible. An effective way of doing this is using renewable resources such as wind and water instead of oil and coal. Furthermore an investement in for example hybrid cars instead of SUVs would also be very profitable.
In 2001, Ari Fleischer, America's former press secretary said in a press conference in response to the question whether or not the American people should alter their lifestyle in order to conserve energy, "That's a big no. The President believes that it's an American way of life and that it should be the goal of policy makers to protect the American way of life..." (The White House) This shows that Bush wants the American people to remain using the same amount of energy, even though America is already scrutinised for using too much. Bush and Vice President Cheney have many ties with energy services and construction companies such as Halliburton. Halliburton, of which Cheney was chief executive officer until 2000, which is often scrutinised for still having ties with Cheney, is also the Democratic Party's biggest sponsor. Oil, gas and coal companies have contributed over 2.2 million dollars to Bush's relection campaign. (Mieszkowski) To say that the American people should drive environmentally friendly cars, research on alternative resources, would also effectively put their benefitors out of work. For companies such as Halliburton it would be more profitable to invest their money into renewable resources, as it is a well-known fact that we are soon going to be running out of oil as well.
If it is politics that is keeping the American administration from actively helping prevent global warming it could also be politics that could change their attitudes towards global warming. President Bush's approval rate dropped to 33% in March 2006. (Kohut) This was partially due to his slow and seemingly uninterested reaction towards the states affected by hurricane Katrina and more recently loosing support all across the right-wing spectrum over issues such as taxes and immigration diplomacy. Consequently it would be advantageous for him to campaign stopping global warming. This would avert attention away from topics, which he has been losing popularity over and would make it seem like he has learned from hurricane Katrina and wants to prevent it from happening again.
Scientists who believe that global warming is natural also believe that we are about to enter an ice age. Twelve thousand years ago, before the last big glaciation the earth also heated up rapidly and then went bitter cold for thousand years. (Bryson) Therefore they argue that we should let nature go its way and that we have nothing to worry about.
As mentioned, the effects of climate change are disastrous. Even if global warming is completely natural; the questions remains whether or not we want to advance towards another ice age or keep the temperature it's most profitable. It would not be the first time since human meddled with Mother Nature. In any case it is better to be safe than sorry. This is something that one would expect a President who has had the southern part of its country destroyed due to climate change will understand.
Bibliography
B. Bryson, A Short History of Nearly Everything, Black Swan, London, 2004, p.519-20.
A. Kohut, Bush Approval Falls to 33%, Congress Earns Rare Praise, Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, Washington, March 15 2006, available from: http://people-press.org/reports/display.php3?ReportID=271. Accessed 16 May 2006.
