Should the U.S. Be Doing More to Combat Global Warming?
The United States is the leading contributor to global warming and has been criticized by other countries for not doing more about the problem. Both the Australian and U.S. government have not ratified Kyoto, which is an act to reduce the amount of pollution. However, since the seventies the United States has been progressing with the fight against global warming. The United Sates does not have to do more with combating global warming because the U.S. is doing everything possible. The ways the U.S. is helping combat global warming is by setting standards and laws to help reduce pollution admittance.
Most appliance manufactures in the United States are making energy saving appliances and for having strict emissions for automobiles. These new appliances are being manufactured to run and save energy on ordinary household appliance, to help reduce the amount of energy it uses. Such appliances consist of TVs, microwaves, and refrigerators which are the mostly used appliances that we use today. this was the first step in cutting greenhouse gases because with the less amount of energy being used these appliances are working less then they have been in the past and giving off less CFS into the air. In addition to making environmentally safe appliances the U.S. government has also made laws pertaining to the global warming situation.
The United States has become a part of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), where in 2005, had the U.S. Senate pass an acted called the Energy Policy Act. This act made scientists pinpoint how and what greenhouse gases were accumulating in the atmosphere. In the CRS Report, written by Justus and Fletcher who talk about the global climate change and how “It is believed however by many scientists that human activity is to blame for the rise of greenhouse gas accumulation“(2006). In addition, the United States also has passed multiple clean air acts to try and help reduce the amount of pollution released into the atmosphere. The first act for cleaner air was passed in 1967, called the Air Quality Act of 1967 (Guggenheim 2006). This act was the first federal legislation that was aimed to reduce pollution.
Although this act had no hard standards or enforcements, the act was a good step towards a reduction of pollution. President George W. Bush said “Addressing global climate change will require a sustained effort, over many generations” (52) meaning that to get control over global warming is not going to happen over night but instead its going to take time and with the advancement in technologies we are on our way to reducing pollution admittances. The United States may not join a act such as the Kyoto act till the economy jumps back up and starts climbing out of debt.
Over time and through the use of new technology scientists have found the cause for global warming and how it is affecting us. It has helped the United States in trying to reduce the output of greenhouse gases and other pollutants. By coming up with acts that will reduce, if not deplete, the pollution producing factories. Therefore, if humans were to minimize their usage of fossil fuels, overtime one could predict that the effects of global warming would decrease.
References:
Bush administration, “Executive summary: Global Climate Policy Book”, February 2002.
Justus, J and Fletcher, S. “Global Climate Change.” CRS Report (2006): 19p.
An Inconvenient Truth. Dir. Davis Guggenheim. Perf. Ex-Vice President Al Gore. Lawrence Bender Productions, 2006.
