The concept Global warming is controversial in International Relations in which experts have different point of view about how to deal with global warming .Politicians , Businesspeople , industrialists are challenged ,but they tackle the issues different according to interests, alternative energy and the use of fossil fuels which still dominate the energy market and pollute the environment .Alternative as solutions is not ready to meet the market demand .Hence the energy need and global warming are the problems for all .
Glacial ice crashes into Alaska's Prince William Sound. Most scientists say industrial emissions of "greenhouse gases" are heating the atmosphere and eventually will melt glaciers and cause global flooding. President Bush contends his new Clear Skies Initiative would improve U.S. air quality and reduce global warming using voluntary market forces instead of regulatory mandates. AFP Photo/Steve Morgan
Global warming is at the doorstep of every country as it is the result of longtime practice of human being since the immemorial days through recent days .Humanity has been calling for global actions to tackle the common enemies that are climate change ,drought , extinction of species , poverty and pollution through international actions like Kyoto Protocols , Davos Conference and very recently UN report about climate changed on 4th May 5, 2007 in Brazil where measures have been taken to solve this dramatic chaos in the near future .Light can be seen on the side of America from the effort of former vice president ,Al Gore to enlighten American public about hideous consequences about global warming as USA is leading in global pollution .On the other hand , there is no subsequent decision is taken to associate poor countries like Africa that is victims of climate change since Africa do not have big plants to emit more greenhouse gases as the develop countries .Critics are pointing emerging countries like China , India , Brazil that need assistance to develop and update their technologies in order to fight global warming .Only a fair global cooperation at all levels that help to solve the alarming call for climate change in which the focus on this paper is supporting the use of alternative energy as solution and fund for research in order to save the Earth
"If we fail to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases, deadly heat waves and droughts will become more frequent, coastal areas will be flooded, economies will be disrupted," President Clinton told Congress, reiterating his support for Kyoto in his State of the Union address on Jan.25.However , U.S lawmakers did not take any step from this speech as Republicans were majority in both the House and Congress .The President was not heard by who were supposed to implement laws to save the Earth as it is facing more and more threat from the melting of glacier from the poles .Another alarming voice can be heard from an official of Clinton administration "There is a great consensus that if the planet warms by more than two degrees C, we´ll be taking an enormous risk," Joseph Romm, Garman´s predecessor at Energy during the Clinton administration, says." Global warming is why we should be willing to consider spending a lot of money to develop a whole new energy system" this is new system is nothing else as alternative energy that is available , but improvement to meet the market demand .Initiatives are not encouraged ,nor enough fund for research in alternative sources of energy .
A milestone in bipartisan effort which is always needed in US to handle energy issues has been done by McCain and Lieberman who agree with many environmental advocates that fighting global warming has to be a major imperative of energy policy ." we must take more active role in finding a solution ," McCain said on Feb.10 as he and Lieberman reintroduced the bill and promised further proposals to spur development of the technologies to harness non-fossil energy sources . It is known in US history that democrats are greener than Republicans who support the use of fossil fuels.
The current President George Bush does not have a bipartisan action with the former President, Bill Clinton .In one of his first moves , President Bush froze 175 executive orders and regulations that Bill Clinton had issued just before leaving office in January 2001.Bush environmental policy encourage oil production ,logging woods , electric utilities and other industries .Bush also renounced the Kyoto Protocol , an international treaty calling for mandatory emission reductions designed to slow global warming . The Irony is that US is the first country that emits pollutants in the World , as a result it should have been wise if US can take a lead in reducing greenhouse gases and use her influences in the world for other countries to follow the example .On Feb.14, concerning global warming and air quality improvement the President Bush said: "This new approach will harness the power of markets [and] the creativity of entrepreneurs and draw upon the best scientific research," Bush also said concerning his Clear Skies Initiative." And it will make possible a new partnership with the developing world to meet our common environmental and economic goals."[6] The plan aims to cut by 70 percent power-plant emissions of three major air pollutants-nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide and mercury.
CAUSES OF GLABAL WARMING
Atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide , the principal cause of global warming , have grown by more than 25 percent since the industrial revolution .Fossil-fuel burning , forestry and agricultural practices are responsible for most man-made contribution to the gases in the atmosphere that act like a greenhouse to raise the Earth´s temperature resulting in global warming .In 1988, the World meteorological organization and United Nations Environment Program created the intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change , made up of scientists from many countries , to assess the threat .They concluded that human activities – chiefly the burning of fossil fuels—was likely responsible for the warming trend .
Action Against Global Warming
Great people, organizations and even some governments have been taking actions around the world to tackle global warming, but the brave actions of Earth Day, Greenpeace and around the world activists could change the mind of industrialists, businessmen and politicians who think of economic competition , economic growth which center their actions , instead of environmental issues .
On April 22, 1970, millions of concerned Americans gathered in communities and on campuses across the country to celebrate the first Earth Day – and launch the environmental movement .Oil spills , pesticide poisonings and other disasters had generated intense concern about the health of the planet Earth .
In 1985 , six years after Greenpeace activists in rubber rafts began putting themselves between whales and hunters´ harpoons , the International Whaling Commission enacted a global moratorium on commercial whaling. Pressure by Greenpeace and other organizations also led to a 1989 United Nations ban on the use of drift nets, a 50-year ban on development of Antarctica imposed in 1991 and the 1994 Basel agreement among 64 countries, the U.S among them, to ban all hazardous-waste exports from industrial to developing countries ..Japan´s attitudes to whale hunting have been long criticized by Greenpeace." Certainly one of the very biggest successes was the International Whale Commission agreement just last May to ban whaling south of the 40th parallel, Dudley says." But even as we speak, a Greenpeace ship in the area to monitor the Antarctica accord encountered the Japanese whaling fleet inside the sanctuary."
Clean Air Act
It set standards for emissions of 189 pollutants that caused smog .It also ban sulfur dioxide production from burning coal and oil by factories and also require installation of catalytic converters in all cars to reduce toxic emissions in exhaust fumes, and oil companies had to remove lead from gasoline. by 1990 after 20 years of effect the emissions particulates in the U.S. had fallen from nearly 25 million tons per year to under 10 million. Lead emissions from leaded fuel, a cause of developmental retardation in children, had been drastically reduced, from more than 200,000 tons a year to less than 10, 000. [11] The elimination of CFC in refrigerators and air conditioners in 1996 which lead to an international agreement called the Montreal Protocol, signed in 1987, calls for phased out of production and use of CFCs and other ozone –depleting chemicals by 2030.
Water Pollution Act
It took act in 1974 in USA , however in Africa and many other poor countries water remain valuable as it is not easy to get .The worst is the climate change today cause drought to many poor countries which are not prepared to fight against it .Many poor countries around the world drink water from the wells , rivers without any treatment that cause diseases in these communities .Since time immemorial, streams and rivers have been used not only as a source of food and a means of transportation but also to carry away sewage and other waste .As cities grew, this practice caused outbreaks of cholera and other waterborne diseases .The problem was compounded by individual development, as chemicals, oil lead and other contaminants were added to the toxic brew. The worst is poor countries have no technology to check the reliability of cleanness is just a dream for many of these poor countries which envy US where water Act play an important role in the life of its citizens who don´t drink from the tap , but a clean water from super-markets . The biggest remaining threat to water quality is posed by so-called "non-point" pollution sources, which are harder to identify and combat because they cannot be traced to a single outlet.
Endangered Species
Rachel Carson American readers in 1962 by her book, Silent Spring, in which to alarm the extension of bald eagle if measure were not taken cause by agricultural and household use of DDT and other potent pesticides. But it was until 1972 that DDT and other toxic with negative effect on birth, children and environment have come under more stringent regulation. It is said by scientists more than 500 plant and animal species have ceased to exist in U.S since 1500s [19] how about in the world? Some species have drastically disappear in Africa which is the home of remaining wildlife, however, if the climate change at this pace , many more will disappear both on land and in oceans around the world .That is why saving the Oceans is in the clear language of Marcia Clemmitt in her paper ,Saving the Oceans , in which she points out :
The world´s Oceans are under extreme pressure from over fishing, pollution and coastal development , two major commissions have warned .Global fish catches have declined in recent years , despite the use of increasingly sophisticated equipment –including satellite tracking. Moreover scientists say 90 percent of the world´s large predator fish-such as swordfish and tuna – have disappeared .Scores of proposals on oceans have been introduced in Congress this year , but none has passed .While 3,600 Americans a day move to a coastal communities –bringing new development that eats up fish-breeding wetlands and increases runoff pollution from motor oil , fertilizer and lawn chemicals-no single public agency is responsible for coordinating onshore development with ocean health .Meanwhile , new fisheries-management techniques are offering hope in North America and Europe that over fished species like cod can recover .And the White House has created a new Cabinet-level committee to coordinate oceans policy .
the world need more Gaylord Nelson , U.S. D-Senator ,Wis., who is the founder of Earth Day which at garnering political support for cleaning water and other environmental causes .He just barely raised $190,000 to coordinate Earth Day , but the number of participants was overwhelming in success .It means money it is not the only thing to keep the Earth Clean , but global participation for all is needed to at each level to solve global warming and cleaning the environment ." No one could organize 20 million people, 10,000 grade schools and high schools, 2,500 colleges and 1,000 communities in three and a half months, even if he had $20 million," he says." The key to the whole thing was the grass-roots response .And that has been true every year since 1970"
Oil companies commitment are valuable resources to help reduce climate warming as two energy behemoths , the Royal Dutch / Shell Group and BP Amoco , the world´s No. 2 and No. 3 oil and gas companies ,respectively , have committed to reduce their greenhouse emissions by 10 percent over 1990 levels by 2010.this could be a measure step to help the world from warming .Shell , for example , emitted nearly 115 million tons of carbon dioxide in 1997 .One-third resulted from the practice of venting and flaring natural gas in oil fields , which the company plans to phase out by 2002. "One of the easy things for petroleum companies to do is to stop venting and flaring natural gas," says Joseph Romm , executive of a nonprofit Center for energy and Climate Solutions , which advises private companies ways to reduce greenhouse emission and save energy ." Given that Global warming is the biggest environmental problem of the next century , I suspect that there will be more pressure on most companies to adopt good business practices to reduce their contributions to the problem .´´ the problem is that many other small oil companies do not use these technologies to tackle the climate change .It is said Iraq that is the world second largest oil reserve need 30 years to recover its infrastructure that is still outdated meaning against measures to tackle global warming .
"With exception of companies undergoing rapid expansion, I believe that most businesses, even small businesses, can profitably reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, he says." If the U.S. economy reduced its carbon dioxide emissions by 4 percent dollar of gross domestic product every year for the next 12 years, we would meet the terms of Kyoto .That´s a reasonable goal." Most decisions makers do not see the case in the same binoculars as for them that mean economic slow down, job lost and problems. But they forget the big problem is flood like the one that swept New Orleans and put it ten years back .
The Kyoto Protocol was a landmark in the push to develop alternative energy in Europe, Japan and other industrialized countries. Vice President Al Gore signed the international treaty to curb the emissions of green-house gas emissions in 1997, but Bush repudiate it four years later, saying it shackled U.S. economy .The agreement, which went on Feb.16,2005 effect in 141 countries , including major industrialized countries except for U.S. and Australia , requires member countries to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions by 5 percent below 1990 levels by 2012 . The European Union ( EU) ,whose member nations also signed the treaty , has set an even more ambitious decrease – 8 percent –by 2012.This protocol is in the benefice for all to get win-win results if USA and Australia sign the treaty .
Environment and Alternative Energy
A) Alternative Energy by Rodman D. Griffin
Have 200 years of developing industries, creating job, fossil fuels are daily polluting our environment we love so much that call for alternative energy to replace fossil fuels, however fossil fuels remain the dominant in international energy market despite research for clean and renewable energy which is far from horizon to solve the global warming as politician and leading world pollutants, namely U.S., Australian have cold feet.
Revolution is needed to change old habit in minds and innovation in auto markets to make people control the global warming." Oil has been fueling the transportation sector for 70 years," notes Jeff Alson , assistant director of the environmental protection agency
s auto emissions lab in Ann Arbor , Mich ." It is the fuel .Every thing is designed around it." Changing that will take a revolution in thinking." It is this revolution that is needed cause great mind need to find new ground to solve the problem –dependency of oil. That is the ideas supporting in the following "The resources are unlimited and wait only upon technological progress for harvesting "said Duane Sunderman, director of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colorado.It means revolution has already taken place ,but the truth is alternative energy can not meet the market need ,Unless they are given a try, they will be improved to meet the current market need. Oil wasn´t used in the transport or electricity until it was given a try to be used in our daily life.
Cutting funds for research in renewable also may hurt the prospects of the United Sates becoming more independent from imported energy and from having to import the technology to develop our own renewable-energy resources, says Garrett. Already, Japan has pulled ahead of the United States in production of photovoltaic technology , and Denmark and Germany are leaders in the production of wind generators , a field once dominated by the United States .International competitors to USA in energy efficiency are about to lead the market if subsequent measures are not taken as in " Currently , Japan and many of our International competitors are using tax and other market incentives to build their domestic renewable energy industries ," says Scott Sklar , executive director of Solar Energy Industries Association in Washington ." we´re almost at the point of no return .If we relinquish our technology lead , we will face a repeat of the VCR syndrome- by default letting international companies usurp our role in the country ." this translates changing in the police making in the two administrations in which Republicans run the office in USA , but with change in the House and Congress can bring some decisions in favor of climate change .
"Renewable will not replace fossil fuels in the foreseeable future," Swezey says." Most energy analysts believe that we need a mix of different energy sources .But renewable can certainly contribute more substantially than they do today." This eclectic approach can be wised to follow as old habits die hard.
Alternative energy as solution does not go with any critics as in this alarming notice: to be fair, no alternative energy source is environmentally cost-free. To the unsympathetic eye, sprawling wind farms on mountain ridges are eyesores – and the turbines themselves kill large numbers of birds .Geothermal energy, produced by converting subterranean hot water and steam into electricity into electricity, can adversely affect the water table. And the electric transmission lines necessary to bring many renewable on line cause electromagnetic fields with unknown health effects.[11] since we can´t live without energy so what can be done … ?
Another critic to environmentalist who thinks alternative energy is not ready to supply the market." If environmentalists wanted to argue that addressing the global warming would require us to get rid of fossil fuels, that would be an honest debate," says Jerry Taylor, director of natural resources studies at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank." But to argue that it won´t have major economic dislocations or dramatically change a number of aspects of our economy is silly. "The main reason we don´t use renewable energy sources today is that it´s too expensive and it´s not very useful for most purposes "
The Clinton´s administration´s environmental agenda faces even dimmer prospects in the 104th Congress .Upon gaining majorities in both houses of Congress for the first time in 40 years , Republican lawmakers are trying to gain hasty passage of last fall´s " Contract With America "
DIFFERENT KINDS OF ALTERNATIVE ENERGY
"Wind is the renewable electric source that will move fastest into the marketplace," predicts Worldwatch´s Lessen .Technological breakthrough in wind power have re-energized the manufacturers of wind-power equipment and attracted the interest of foreign competitors .utilities are producing survey and starting pilot projects. And a new breed of wildcatter is scurrying to buy up wind rights—licenses to erect what may be oil wells of tomorrow. Tomorrow is the alternative energy that will clean skies and kick off pollution in global environment.
Despite America´s early lead in wind technology , the major markets , the major markets for wind technology are now in Europe , according to the Washington-based American Wind Energy Association .Today there is only one major American manufacturer in a position to compete against European or Japanese companies, the association says , and the European wind development effort is five to 10 times larger than the U.S. Department of Energy´s .The countries with largest wind development programs are Germany , the Netherlands and Denmark .
Wind Power Mill (Google photo image)
"Resources like wind are not only widely available in the market but are sufficiently abundant to meet all U.S. electricity, or even total energy, needs," says Amory Lovins, chief executive of the Rocky Mountain Institute. It is not only abundant for US , but also for the world as whole meaning any country can use this technology to meet global need in electricity and energy need in offices and even in industries .To meet that goal, European governments are investing heavily in alternative-energy technologies, especially wind turbines." Wind energy is the fastest-growing energy source in the world," says Thresher of NREL." In the past five years, it´s been growing by up to 30 percent a year, but most of that growth is in Europe." Germany´s more than 16,000 windmills generate 39 percent of the world´s wind energy , marking it the leading global producer .Denmark generates 20 percent of its electrical power from wind turbines , and Spain is not far behind .[20] ( European action to alternative energy )
Nuclear power which is another safe energy environmentally compare to fossil-fuels with environment pollutants emission. After peaking at 112 in 1990 , the number of nuclear power reactors now stands at 103 in 31 states , accounting about 8 percent of total energy consumption in the United States .Nuclear power´s fate appeared to be sealed after a devastating explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear plant in Russia in 1986.This show the weakness of research of reverse reaction in case of accident .Scientific research has not come out with solution to clean nuclear power accident if it occurs that make the future of this valuable energy source doubtful and harmful to both environment and living being when accident happened .However some EU states have continued to develop nuclear power despite the safety concerns. Today, France and Belgium rely on nuclear for more than half of the electricity consumption, and nuclear energy account for 6.3 percent of the world´s energy production, only slightly less than hydroelectric power (6.9 percent).
International Relations at the era of global warming
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