The Environment: An Issue for International Cooperation?

President Bush, in his State of the Union address stated that the U.S. was a slave to oil. He was vague, however, in how th save the global warming threats, caused to some extent by motor fuels and the exhausts from the millions of cars on the road. Weapons of mass destruction and political stability in the Middle East are greater concerns than the threat of problems, world-wide. What seems to be lost on the Administration is that not just the U.S., but the entire world is at risk unless some sort of cooperation can be developed to protect the globe from further damage.

For whatever reason, President Bush does not see environmental issues, including global warming as a major priority for the U.S. Nevertheless, "a panel of distinguished scientists issued a report affirming predictions of global warming. Amid rising international criticism of his policies on greenhouse-gas emissions, Bush acknowledged the problem but offered few specific proposals to counter it...President Bush had commissioned the report shortly after his March rejection of the Kyoto Protocol, an agreement signed in 1997 by negotiators for 167 nations, including the United States. The accord sets limits on the emissions of greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide. Bush reaffirmed his rejection of the protocol but said he would continue to seek international solutions to the problem" (Schubert 3).

There are other nations who are far more concerned about the effect of global warming, for one. Turkey is one such concerned nation: "''As the global warming continues, forest fires will increase, several animal and plant species that can't adapt to the climate changes will disappear, arid areas will increase, aridity will be increased in many parts of the world.' "Many coasts in Turkey can remain under water because of the rising sea level and the sudden melting of snow in the areas covered with snow will cause great dangers. Some animal species will immigrate from south to north and several others from north to south in parallel with the rising warming. Environmental groups including Earth Action and Greenpeace, warn all countries to reduce the number of the motorized vehicles, to plant new trees in order to form wide forests and to save energy. The world is polluted mostly by the northern countries" (Anon 6).

While these projections seem dire and perhaps politically motivated against the so-called "Northern Nations" (i.e. Europe and the U.S.) there are scientists who have studied and found that global warming is indeed happening. "over the past few decades, greenhouse gases produced by human activities appear to have had an increasing influence on temperatures. The anomalous warmth of several recent years appears likely to be related to human influences on climate" (Mann and Bradley 4).

It should be obvious to everyone interested in the future of the Earth that the environmental issues, headed by Global Warming is not the priority of a single nation, but must be an internationally coordinated effort among scientists, not politicians. For whatever reason, the U.S. is lagging well behind doing something to ease environmental disasters in the future. "While the European Union is on target to meeting its Kyoto-agreed goal of reducing greenhouse-gas emissions to 8 percent below 1990 level by 2012, U.S. emissions have increased more than 11 percent during the past decade" (Schubert 6)..

There is no doubt that politics and Big Business have a role in preventing a more emphasized effort in the U.S. "The United States creates 25 percent of yearly global greenhouse gas emissions but has less than five percent of the world's population. To have a fighting chance to keep climate change within safe levels, the U.S. must reduce emissions of CO2 by 80 percent below year 2000 levels by 2050 - and we must begin to make these reductions right away. But this isn't happening. As the rest of the developed world begins to implement the Kyoto Protocol, an international agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions globally, U.S. corporate lobbyists have been very effective in derailing national and international action to address climate change" (Goldtooth A3)..

It seems rather obvious, when reading editorials and op-ed commentary about the environment, that many people feel that science is not doing enough. "It Is Time for the Scientific Community to Take Responsibility for Many of the Problems Confronting Society Today.... Not only is the human population increasing exponentially, but so, too, is per capita use of energy. Other immediately relevant global changes include the unsustainable rate of use of natural resources and the generation of waste on land and in the oceans. There is a striking difference between developed and developing nations in the patterns of this over-consumption and generation of waste. Developed countries represent less than one- quarter of the world's population, but cause around three-fourths of the pollution and use more than three-quarters of its natural resources. One person from the U.S. expends energy equivalent to that of six Mexicans, 14 Chinese, and 38 people in India" (Lubchenco 61).

While the public seems aware of environmental problems and natural resource depletion, all too little is being done despite all sorts of warning signs. The argument for the depletion of natural resources within various countries has always been that it is necessary for economic growth and development. We are seeing fierce political and even physical battles in Brazil, where the rain forest is depleted each year by thousands of acres, natives are forced to leave their historic habitats, birds and animals are destroyed, all in the name of progress: highways, bridges and housing. The same is true in the U.S. In California, for example, hardly a week goes by that we don't see local TV news about bears or mountain lions or coyotes wandering into newly built neighborhoods, looking for food, because their natural habitats have been encroached upon. In New Zealand, for example, the government has finally provided sums to the local Green Party. "The money will pay for the development of a social and environmental audit program....to better measure economic activity" (Fitzsimmons 1). There is a new approach to the expenditure and savings implemented to save the environment, called "green accounting." There are many involved who call it not "green" but "environmental accounting" which is broadly defines as "the modification of the national income accounts to take into account the economic role of the environment" (Hecht 1). The problem is that the U.S. is not among the leaders in this activity. International cooperation and coordination efforts are basically useless unless and until the largest cause of global warming seems to be the U.S. There is no doubt that among the many issues of environmental problems- depletion of natural resources, loss of rain forests and virgin land and the human contribution to global warming heads the list.

Scientists ascribe some of the climatic warming to the growing expansion of the suburbs and enlargement of metropolitan areas, where concrete and stone and steel are replacing nature's vegetation, sending off heat, rather than absorbing it. "Population growth, soil degradation, loss of biodiversity, changes in atmospheric chemistry, these are the major trends' that humans have triggered, changing the character of the landscape, oceans, and atmosphere on time scales far faster than Earth's processes alone typically operate..." (Spotts 1)

Overall, whatever the reason, scientists have now proven that the average Northern Hemisphere summer temperatures have been greater during recent decades than at any time since 1400. Reduced daily temperature ranges are also part of the climatic change problem, with night time temperatures increasing. Recent scientific studies show that the minimum daily temperatures have typically increased by twice as much as maximum daily temperatures since the 1950s, which may well be one of the contributors to the various changes in rainfall and drought, severe heat, or cold.

Some international efforts are well underway, but results, of course, are still a long way from being deemed successful. Men are doing something to answer the call for solutions to global warning. Another UN report says, for example, that "geothermal, small-scale hydropower, solar, biomass and wind technologies have grown proportionately faster than any other electricity supply technology." (Knight 1). In other words, science and technology are not standing pat.

The UN is marshalling forces to combine environmental protection efforts that single countries cannot or will not provide. Here is one example: "The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), one of the key organizations behind the report, believes that targeting scarce conservation funds on these 15 key countries may pay dividends in terms of environmental results. Importantly, the survey also reveals that the pressure from people and population growth on most of these remaining closed forests, such as those in Bolivia and Peru, is low" (Anon 3).

Perhaps the Bush Administration should listen to their closest friend and ally, Great Britain and make note of a recent speech by Prime Minister Tony Blair, commenting on the problems of the environment: "there are the issues that affect us over time. They are just as devastating in their potential impact, some more so, but they require reflection and strategy geared to the long-term, often straddling many years and many Governments. Within this category are the issues of global poverty, relations between the Moslem world and the West, environmental degradation, most particularly climate change" (Blair 3).

As much as we can appplaud individuals climbing branches to saveredwood trees, or keeping lumber compoanies from destroying the habitat of the spotted owl, international unity must be developed to save the plnet. It is inconceivable that India and China, the most popuolpous nations on Earth are doing more thnan the U.S. and acknowledging international laws.

It is time to take politics and the eagerness of Big Business lobbyists to kleep the U.S. from fully jopining the rest of the international community to do something aboujt the future of this planet. It is not a Republican priority, nmor a democratic one, but a human need that must be attacked and somehow successfully resolved. Science and business have to unite to get it done.

WORKS CITED:

Blair, Tony: "'Concerted international effort' necessary to fight climate change" Feb. 24, 2003 www.number10.gov.uk/output/Page3073.asp

Fitzsimmons, Jeanette: "Green Accounting counts the environment" New Zealand Green Party Press release, June 15, 2000 www.greens.org.nz/docs/press000615budget07/accounting.Htm

Goldtooth, Tom "We Only Have One Mother Earth" Oneida NY: Indian Country Today.: Mar 30, 2005. Vol. 24, Iss. 42;

Hecht, Dr. Joy E. "Green accounting Initiative" CaseStudies" Washington DC: IUCN/The World Conservation Union, April 2, 2002 www.iucn.org/places/usa/literature.html

Knight, D.: "Global Warming a Solvable Problem. Says Report" Inter Press Service, March 5, 2001, n.p.

Lubchenco, Jane: "Needed: A New Social Contract with Science" USA Today Magazine, July 1997

Mann, Michael and Bradley, Raymond: "New Study Proves Global Warming" University of Massachusetts (1998) www.albionmonitor.com/9804b/contents.html

Schubert, Charlotte: "Global Warming Debate Gets Hotter" McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science Online, June 17, 2001

Spotts, P.: "How Warm Will It Get?" Boston MA: Christian Science Monitor, Dec. 27, 2001 n.p.

No author listed: "GLOBAL WARMING - TURKEY TO BE ONE OF THE COUNTRIES MOST INFLUENCED BY GLOBAL WARMING" The Anadolu Agency Home Page at http://www.anadoluajansi.gov.tr/ July 30, 1998

No author listed: "International Effort to Save Forests Should Target 15 Countries"United Nations Environmental Programme (Sic).