Global Warming:

~Joining the Kyoto Protocol would not damage the Economy in the U.S. ~

Bakheet Amrri

AES 220-01 Advanced Writing

Professor Michael Krauss

December 1, 2006

First Draft

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to give a basic idea about global warming, and to focus particularly on how joining the U.S. to the Kyoto protocol wouldn’t damage the economy. This problem has caused a big controversy in the U.S. because people have seen the impacts of global warming. Also, they have been reading about this issue which makes them realize that the Bush administration is wrong by disapproving the Kyoto protocol. Moreover, causes of global warming, gases of greenhouse that cause global warming, a very brief background about the Kyoto protocol and how it works, a thought that people think that the Kyoto protocol would harm the economy with many evidence that proof the opposite is right.

Today, many people talk about terrorism around the world instead of environmental issues such as global warming. Global warming does not just put one country in danger, but the whole world. Terrorism has an obvious impact on some countries for short time, but global warming has a hidden impact on the whole world. At the same time, environmental issues are contributing to a big social problem in the U.S., which is that many Americans are upset at the Bush administration for not join the Kyoto Protocol to limit carbon emissions. Even some Senate Republicans are calling for action (Cary 2005). This is important because even many people who work in the Administration don’t like the decision. The Bush administration has nothing to support his choice, but myths. One myth is that joining Kyoto would ruin the U.S. economy. The global warming issue is becoming more and more controversial, and the researches support the argument that the U.S. should join the Kyoto protocol. Nevertheless, before discussing more deeply, it is necessary to know what is global warming is.

“Global warming is an increase in the average temperature of the Earth’s surface” (Global warming 2006). Global warming is caused when “carbon dioxide and other gases warm the surface of the planet naturally by trapping solar heat in the atmosphere” (Guggenheim, D 2006). This is a good thing because it keeps our planet habitable. However, by burning fossil fuels such as coal, gas and oil and clearing forests we have dramatically increased the amount of carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere and temperatures are rising, but what are the causes for global warming?

There are many causes for global warming such as deforestation and burning fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and natural gas. Burning fossil fuels is the primary cause of global warming for three reasons. First, it’s commonly used around the world by both developing and even developed countries. Countries burn fossil fuels in electric power plants in order to feed their cities with power. For obvious reasons, cities need this power to provide energy for their buildings as well as transportations systems. Second, it’s cheaper than other sources such as nuclear power and wind power. Third, during the last 100 years, countries have became more dependant on fossil fuels as a source for power. Therefore, the amount of Co2 produced by burning fossil fuels is increasing day after day.

Deforestation is another cause for global warming. As is commonly known trees and other plants use CO2, water, and sunlight to produce food in a process called photosynthesis. Therefore, by cutting down tress, we reduce the trees avails to clean that CO2 from the air. There are more than these causes; however, how do we explain global warming?

One basic explanation for global warming is solar radiation comes in form of light waves that heat the earth. Some of this radiation is absorbed by the earth, and some is radiated back into space in form of infrared radiation which is a good thing because it keeps the earth temperature livable for all kinds of animals including human beings according to Guggenheim(2006). One main factor for this process is carbon dioxide (CO2).

In other words, sun lights come. Some of them are absorbed by the earth, and some are reflected; however, due to the fact that the layer is thicker now because the greenhouse gases, the lights are trapped in the atmosphere which cause the global warming.

Carbon dioxide is a gas that we find in many planets. In earth, CO2 is important for plants for photosynthesis as mentioned previously. In addition, co2 controls the earth’s temperature by trap some of the heat, but if all the heat escaped, the earth would turn into a cold place that its temperate would be 90- Celsius degrees. on the other hand, too much co2 is not good, because it is trap too much heat that cause global warming. Of course, co2 isn’t the only gas, but it is the main gas that causes this problem. With all the other gases together such as methane, nitrogen, oxygen, water vapor, nitrous oxide, ozone, and chlorofluorocarbons; we have something called greenhouse effect. However, Co2 is the most important one because people have been increasing its percentage in the air. Also, let us not forget there are other gases that have indirect relationships with greenhouse affect such as carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxides, but these gases don’t work on themselves. They work with all the other gases.

“Greenhouse effect is a warming of the lower atmosphere and surface of a planet by a complex process involving sunlight, gases, and particles in the atmosphere.” (Global warming, 2006)Basically, it is work as a greenhouse which a building made of glass or plastic people use to vegetables the year around. The idea of green house is to trap the heat inside, so it does not matter the time people still can grow plants even when it is not their seasons.

There are many impacts of global warming according to (Global warming, 2006), but this paper points out just the most significant ones that have been noticeable around the world. In addition, sciences have been trying so hard to tell people about global warming.

The first impact is oceans getting warmer. The water temperatures become higher and higher. This impact has two majors effects on sea creatures. First of all, first the surface get warmer, then the water underneath become warmer as well. This has a major impact on species living underneath the surface. For example, coral can’t live in warm water. It bleaches and dies which affects the whole Olean system because many creatures live on them. Second of all, warm water is a good environment for diseases to spread among sea creatures.

The second impact is creatures change their habitat. When an environment becomes inhospitable, creatures that live in it move to another place that is more supportive for them. Sometimes, creatures can not find another habitable place to move in which causes their deaths. For example, polar bears have been found dead because the polar ice caps are melting so they have to look for more ice, and finally they could swim no longer.

The third impact is the weather becomes more unpredictable, and extremely harmful to the earth. There are two examples of this. Firstly, rainfall has incredibly changed around the world. Some places get more rain and some other places get nothing. Some places get more rain that causes flooding. For instance, the floods that have taken place in Austria and Switzerland at the same month and same year. On the other hand, other places get no rain which causes drought. For instance, droughts occurred in Darfur, and Niger. Secondly, more powerful hurricanes occur due to the fact hurricanes get more powerful when they pass over warm water. Here are some examples of famous hurricanes that have occurred recently, or more precisely in 2004. In Florida, Hurricane Jeanne, and Ivan occurred in September. Hurricane Emily took place in the Caribbean in 2005. In 2005, Hurricane Dennis that took place in Florida caused a lot of damage especially to oil industry; for example, world’s largest oil platform –Golf of Mexico- was broken badly. Not to mention hurricane Katrina with damage that is hard to describe. Sorrowfully, all these hurricanes have killed many people, and done billions of dollar damage. Let us not forget that 2004 was a record breaking year. For example there was a new record set for tornados, 1,717 just in the U.S. Also, a new record was set for typhoons with ten typhoons in Japan (Guggenheim, 2006). All these events and examples mean only one thing: that the global warming has increased the storm intensity during the last decade. Also, it means many people have gotten killed, and there have billions of dollars in damages.

The forth impact is rising sea level. Seas have been rising slightly due to the amount of ice that has been melting in Antarctica and Greenland. This may cause the sea to invade coastal cities, small islands and low places, such as the Netherlands (Guggenheim, 2006).

The fifth impact is diseases. Diseases are more likely to spread in warm places due to the fact that mosquitoes’ numbers increase in these places. Some of these diseases are already known, and some of them are new. Some examples for both diseases are; malaria, Hantavirus, Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, tularemia, rabies, and dengue (Guggenheim, 2006).

According to (Houghton, 2004) all these impacts look like complexes network of changes. It one impact leads to another in big circles. It is look like big circles that have one overlap, but this overlap is really big. All these impacts only tell us the global warming is a serious matter for the world. Many people all over the world know about it, and they have been working on to solve this problem.

Many things have done to fight global warming such as the Untied Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), stabilization of emissions, the Montreal Protocol, reduction in the sources of methane, reduction of deforestation, energy enervation, and the most significant action is the Kyoto Protocol.

According to (Goudie, 2003), the Kyoto Protocol is an agreement that most developed countries have ratified. The idea behind it is to necessitate industrialized countries to decrease their emissions of greenhouse gases by 5% starting from 2008 through 2012 below 1990 levels. The Kyoto Protocol is not required on developing countries because they do not produce as much as developed countries. However, it is a global issue. Therefore, developing countries should more willing to cut their emissions on ground that is will benefit the world, and it is a right thing to do.

Kyoto Protocol has flexible mechanisms for countries to reach their targets with even reducing their emissions at their homelands. One way is buying the right to emit from other countries that have spare emissions reductions. Another way, is countries can earn credits either from planting tress or funding projects such as solar power in poor countries (Factbox - what is the Kyoto protocol?, 2003).

Some people in the U.S. think that the U.S should not join the Kyoto Protocol because it would devastate the economy of the U.S. for one main reason. The reason is the Kyoto Protocol obliges the country to reduce its emissions. However, what people think about the Kyoto Protocol is just an assumption, but the opposing view is supported by obvious, simple, and strong arguments. These arguments will be mentioned, and it might correct this assumption.

This assumption might be right, but there are many supports points. First, the Kyoto Protocol is an adjustable agreement. Second and third, many professors as well as notable politicians, both democrats and republicans agree that the U.S. should join the Kyoto protocol. Forth, Bush doesn’t want to agree because he expended the energy bill domestically. Fifth, almost all the developed countries have joined the Kyoto Protocol. Sixth, during Bush campaigns, he has promised to join the Kyoto Protocol, but then he did not keep his promise. These points will be discussed next.

The Kyoto protocol tries to reduce greenhouse gases by reducing CO2 which comes from burning fossil fuels. It has nothing to do with other things such as how countries get their power. This wouldn’t ruin the U.S. economy because there are many alternatives for power such as wind and solar power. In addition, this will make people think more about efficiency with their daily lives either in transportation or using power in houses which means they would pay less money for their bills. All these together would provide a better life for the whole nation.

As mentioned before, there are many ways to reach the target that the Kyoto Protocol asks for without even reducing the emissions. For example, planting trees and funding clean environment projects in poor countries can achieve the target. Therefore, it is easy to reach the target without damaging the economy.

Bodansky (2002), who is a professor of law at the University of Washington, and was climate change coordinator at the U.S. Department of State, said this assumption is a myth “The costs of achieving the Kyoto targets remain highly uncertain, with estimates carrying from about 0.1 to 2 percent of gross domestic product. Most of the high estimates focus on reducing carbon emissions domestically, and they do not take account of the potential savings resulting from international emissions trading and from Kyoto’s six-gas approach. Conversely, the low estimates unrealistically assume perfect efficiency” (p. 3).

In 1997, The Senate voted 95-0 to condemn the Kyoto Protocol (Cary, 2005). More recently, the decision for ratification has never reached the senate, otherwise, the senate would agree. Therefore, if the senators themselves are supporting the idea of joining, that means there is something wrong in the administration.

According to Lisowski (2002) Bush doesn’t agree because one reason. At that time when the conference of the Kyoto Protocol took place, Bush had just expanded the domestic energy policy. This policy increased the emissions by 30% (Japan ratifies Kyoto pact, 2002). That wouldn’t project a good image of the President Bush because how could he agree to reduce CO2 emissions, and at the same time order to increase the domestic energy production that based on oil and gas. That would be a huge discrepancy between his ideals and his actions.

Let us not forget that almost all developed countries have joined the Kyoto except the U.S. and Australia. Both, developed countries and developing countries care about its economy, and try to improve the futures of the countries. Logically, all these countries, which agreed with the Kyoto Protocol, saw how it wouldn’t hurt their economy, therefore; they agreed to involve.

According to (Cornwell, 2004), in order to accept global warming is a fact that can be controlled; the Bush’s administration has to change its way for many things, for instance, energy policy. This is why Bush denials global warming is not caused by people’s actions.

The last one is during the campaign in 2001, president Bush promised adjust emissions from power plants. After the campaign finished, his administration has stated that by joining the Kyoto protocol; the economy will be damaged (Natural resources defense council, 2006). This statement is wrong for one clear reason. The reason is why he promised the people during the campaign if that would hurt the economy in the first place.

In conclusion, as mentioned above, the U.S government does not want to join the Kyoto protocol due to the fact that the government is not willing to reduce Co2 emissions. Quite the opposite; The U.S. government doesn’t want to join Kyoto which makes my think it is unfair to put the whole world in danger, and make it suffering because just one government. Moreover, there are many ways that can be done to reach the Kyoto protocol such as planting trees, and funding projects like wind power. In addition, many developed countries have joined the Kyoto protocol.

References

Cary, J. (2005). Global warming: suddenly the climate in Washington is changing; even some senate republicans are calling for action, with Bush increasingly isolated. LesisNesis™ Environmental, 3940, 91. Retrieved November 14, 2006.

Cornwell, R. (2005). Global warming: why Bush advisers fight the evidence on climate change. LeisNeis™ Environmental.

Factbox - what is the Kyoto protocol? (2003). Retrieved December 13, 2006, from http://www.forbes.com/home_europe/newswire/2003/12/09/rtr1175321.html

Global warming: The world book encyclopedia (Vols. 8). Chicago: World Book, Inc. (2006).

Goudie, S.A. (Ed). (2003). Encyclopedia of global change: Environmental change and human society. New York: Oxford University Press.

Guggenheim, D. (Director). (2006). An Inconvenient Truth [Motion picture].United States.

Houghton, J. (2004) Global warming; the complete briefing. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Japan ratifies Kyoto pact. (2002). BBC news. Retrieved December 13, 2006, from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/2024265.stm

Lisowski, M. (2002). Playing the two-level game: US president Bush’s decision to repudiate the Kyoto protocol. Retrieved November 30, 2006 from http://taylorandfrancis.metapress.com/(rmxh5g45pipg0enjxczxdy45)/app/home/contribution.asp?referrer=parent&backto-issue,7,11;journal,19,26;linkingpublicationresults,1:108506,1

Natural resources defense council. Bush administration errs on Kyoto global warming agreement. Retrieved December 02, 2006 from

www.nrdc.org/globalwarming/akyotoqa.asp