早稲田国際教養学部AO, Extra Material, Global Warming

 

The climate is changing. The earth is warming up, and there is now overwhelming scientific consensus that it is happening, and human-induced. With global warming on the increase and species and their habitats on the decrease, chances for ecosystems to adapt naturally are diminishing.

 

UN Framework Convention on Climate Change

The world mostly agrees that something needs to be done about global warming and climate change. The first stumbling block, however, has been trying to get an agreement on a framework.

 

Reactions to Climate Change Negotiations and Action

The United States plus a few other countries, and many large corporations, have been against climate change treaties due to the fear of the threat to their economy and profits if they have to make substantial changes.

However, as more climate change science has emerged over the years, many businesses are accepting this and even asking their governments for more action so that there is quick clarification on the new rules of the game so they can get on with their businesses.

 

Global Warming, Spin and Media

For many years, large, influential businesses and governments have been against the idea of global warming. Many have poured a lot of resources into discrediting what has generally been accepted for a long time as real.

Now, the mainstream is generally worried about climate change impacts and the discourse seems to have shifted accordingly. Some businesses that once engaged in disinformation campaigns have even changed their opinions, some even requesting governments for regulation and direction on this issue.　However, a few influential companies and organizations are still attempting to undermine climate change action and concerns.

 

Climate Justice and Equity

For a number of years, there have been concerns that climate change negotiations will essentially ignore a key principle of climate change negotiation frameworks: the common but differentiated responsibilities.

This recognizes that historically:

●Industrialized nations have emitted far more greenhouse gas emissions (even if some developing nations are only now increasing theirs);

●Rich countries therefore face the biggest responsibility and burden for action to address climate change; and

●Rich countries therefore must support developing nations adapt—through financing and technology transfer, for example.

 

This notion of climate justice is typically ignored by many rich nations and their mainstream media, making it easy to blame China, India and other developing countries for failures in climate change mitigation negotiations.

 

However, rather than continue down the path of unequal development, industrialized nations can help pay off their carbon debt by truly helping emerging countries develop along a cleaner path, such as through the promised-but-barely-delivered technology transfer, finance, and capacity building.

So far however, rich nations have done very little within the Kyoto protocol to reduce emissions by any meaningful amount, while they are all for negotiating a follow on treaty that brings more pressure to developing countries to agree to emissions targets.　In effect, the more there will be delay the more the poor nations will have to save the Earth with their sacrifices.

(Source: Unknown-probably a web site entitled Global Issues:

http://www.globalissues.org/article/710/global-warming-spin-and-media  Note that the contents of this website have been updated since I last accessed the site and I have edited the original material, so that they are different from the passage above. The certain thing is that you can learn much more about global warming if you access the site.)       

 

 

Reference:

Is there a connection between the ozone hole and global warming?

Ozone (O3) high in the atmosphere absorbs ultraviolet radiation from the sun, thereby protecting living organisms below from this dangerous radiation. The term ‘ozone hole’ refers to recent depletion of this protective layer over Earth's polar regions. People, plants, and animals living under the ozone hole are harmed by the solar radiation now reaching the Earth's surface—where it causes health problems from eye damage to skin cancer.

 

The ozone hole, however, is not the mechanism of global warming. Ultraviolet radiation represents less than one percent of the energy from the sun—not enough to be the cause of the excess heat from human activities. Global warming is caused primarily from putting too much carbon into the atmosphere when coal, gas, and oil are burned to generate electricity or to run our cars. These gases spread around the planet like a blanket, capturing the solar heat that would otherwise be radiated out into space.

(Source: http://www.ucsusa.org/global_warming/science_and_impacts/science/ozone-hole-and-gw-faq.html)