Earthquakes, tornadoes, hurricanes, and floods have wreaked havoc on our world at a rate within the past thirty years that has shocked humanity. Scientists are pleading that these are "the beginnings of a new kind of future in which mega-disasters are going to be more frequent."(Global Issues). People may be starting to ask, what is to blame? Unfortunately most of the data points an unwavering finger at humans. Air pollutants from carbon-based fuel and greenhouse gas emissions are changing the environment, and nations across the globe may or may not be enforcing rules to change the creation and release of these poisons. The United States in particular is a reluctant partner in the global actions toward creating eco-friendly policies. Now that desperation to save the planet is overflowing, like the floods attacking Australia, the question is becoming more clear. How important should our environment be on the U.S. government's list of priorities?
The environment has been taking many drastic hits as humans have become more skilled at getting large quantities of whatever they want out of the earth. Global warming, caused by greenhouse gas emissions, are melting the West Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets, while thermal expansion is causing oceans to rise, which is causing floods. "Global warming results in catastrophic weather events. The recent floods are a result of climate change, undoubtedly," (Simi Kamal). While floods are killing hundreds in China and Pakistan, drought is plaguing Russia, which is causing out-of-control wildfires. Besides global warming, another cause that specialists are pinpointing is change in land use patterns and heavy deforestation. This is a repetition of past mistakes that America learned from in the 1930's with dust storms that attacked the middle of the nation for the better part of a decade. Changing the structure of the land will affect the climate, and humans like to pretend that isn't the fact until it is being presented to their dismayed faces.
These different causes of climate change that humans are enacting is all subject to government rules. Understandably, we have many other issues on our plate that require money and attention from the U.S., but many of the disasters that are pulling money from our pockets are the direct result of the earth crying out against the changes we are causing. Indonesia recognizes these issues with greenhouse gas emissions, and is beginning to act in positive ways to change their population's bad habits. For example, their government is expanding land rights, giving more of the country's land to local communities to reduce loss of forest cover. They are attempting to expand the economic growth rate and reduce plundering of the terrain. In Japan, due to the Fukushima nuclear accident caused by the earthquake and resulting tsunami on March 11, 2011, the government is pushing full steam ahead on their plans to replace nuclear power with renewable energy. Various means, such as wind, solar, hydro, and biomass sources, will be put into play, and they hope to have more than 20% of their power industry operating through those means in less than 9 years. Australia, one of the biggest contributing nations to pollution, has both recognized carbon pollution's effect on the climate and incorporated a change to reduce them. Their plan is to tax the nation's larger carbon emitters. This is not to say that the United States is the only country that is not implementing laws and changes that will help improve the environment. Latin America, due to their 40% increase in discovery of underground oil reserves, is now one of the leading countries in the oil and gas market (Global Issues).
It appears that the president has quite a bit of funding planned in the future, but environmental funding is located considerably far down on his priority list. 408 million will go to a new Global Food Security Fund, and the Pentagon's new budget will be at 703 billion dollars. Ten percent of the total budget will be given to
the Department's Foreign Military Financing Programme. 4.46 billion dollars is being requested for security and development assistance in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iraq. "Altogether about 20 percent of the State Department's total budget will be devoted to Afghanistan (five billion dollars), Pakistan (3.16 billion dollars), and Iraq (2.5 billion dollars), according to the budget documents."(Global Issues). Of these budget goals, the World Bank-based Global Environment Facility will be getting 175 million dollars, which is merely a fraction of the budget intentions for the rest of the president's prerogative.
It has been proven that the income from oil imports is widening the U.S. deficit, and makes a large difference on the gap between our nation's import and export costs. The U.S. is spending approximately 1 billion dollars every day on oil imports, making us a major contributor and thus driving up oil prices. (American Progress) One popular issue that Obama promised in the beginning of his presidency was to place solar panels on top of the White House by the end of spring. This promise has not been kept, and along with that note, the New York times agreed that the White House has been very quiet on the subject of climate change.(Guardian.uk) "As he's doing now in the debt ceiling and budget talks, the president could have intervened personally and earlier by using his bully pulpit to galvanize Americans and policymakers on the urgency and economic imperative for launching the clean energy transition. He also could have better leveraged very strong business and investor support for comprehensive energy and climate policies." (Mindy Lubber, Grist Magazine)
Any legislation that required replacing this crude oil energy with clean energy along with pollution reduction would benefit the country and the environment. Gas companies, such as ExxonMobil, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, and Shell are spending record breaking amounts of money--between 7 to 75 million dollars at a time--on lobbying to stop this type of legislation. The jobs required to create and support clean energy laboratories and businesses would make up for the job loss when banning our oil producing businesses. It seems that the government is merely afraid of the transition and the momentary losses they would sustain due to this radical change. This goes without mentioning the money the country would be saving since we would no longer be fighting and negotiating with dangerous, unstable foreign countries for crude oil. There would be less of a need to stretch our military across the world, thus compromising our national security.
There are, however, examples of how people can make a difference regardless of the lack of cooperation that society seems to be demonstrating. Some of the methods that business managers deploy in order to motivate their employees to work and sell more efficiently are competition and incentive. Energy secretary Steven Chu has put into effect these methods for large companies; their goal is to decrease the costs of photovoltaic solar energy systems in order to compete with other forms of energy.
It's called the Sunshot Initiative. With hefty funding toward this development, companies will compete across the nation with solar photovoltaic energy and it will become much more accessible to the population. The president does have a goal of doubling energy in the next 25 years, and this could be the most efficient step so far in making that happen.(Grist).
Everyone finds it easier to get along in a clean home. Imagine a day when we could look at the facts on the internet and see that the health of the environment is improving on a daily basis. It would be something everyone could look forward to. Our nation has been a leader in many different aspects; shouldn't it be a leader in the most important aspect of all? Showing that the once front running country with the most individual freedom and rights also has the best morals and ethics would encourage other countries, and we could once again be a positive role model. We teach the practice of setting a good example to others, and yet our country is destroying everything in its path to accomplish its own personal goals. We are butting heads with the oil companies over money that could be earned in a respectful, honest, and healthier method. It may be a bumpy road in the process, as it is proving to be now, but as each person learns the facts on how to change the economy in small ways, we will slowly change the country's opinion.
"A Diary of the Planet." EarthWeek. Oct. 1988. MMXI Earth Environment Service.
Web. 02 Jul. 2011. <www.earthweek.com/index.html>
Center For American Progress. 2003. CAP Action Fund. Web. 22 Jul. 2011.
<www.americanprogress.org>
"Climate Change and Global Warming." Global Issues. 12 Jun. 2011. Web. 02
Jul. 2011. <http://www.globalissues.org>
Grist Magazine. 1999. 11th Hour Project. Aug. 5, 2011. <www.grist.org>
Guardian. 2011. No. 908396. The UK Patent Office. Web. 02 Jul. 2011.
<http://www.guardian.co.uk>
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