Global Warming Essay
English 92, Instructor Anna Mills

Should poor countries be required to reduce global warming emissions?  

Intro 
Almost all scientists now agree that human activity is changing earth’s climate.  On average, the planet is heating up.  Human activities have produced more “greenhouse gases,” in the atmosphere.  These are gases like carbon dioxide that stop heat from escaping to outer space.  Scientists do not agree on how fast earth is warming or what exactly the consequences will be, but they do agree that the warming has already started.  Many scientists predict rising sea levels, more intense storms and hurricanes, drought in some regions, flooding in other regions, and mass extinctions of plants and animals. 

The majority of greenhouse gas emissions have come from rich, developed countries such as the United States and Europe.  No matter where the emissions come from, they get into the sky and affect the whole planet.		

History 	
The United Nations has taken steps to organize the world’s countries to stop global warming by reducing emissions.  175 nations have ratified an agreement called the Kyoto Protocol, which requires each country to reduce emissions by a specific percent. However, the Kyoto Protocol sets different requirements for different countries.  In fact, it does not require developing nations such as China and India to reduce emissions at all.  In the negotiations, developing nations have argued that they did not cause the warming that is already happening.  They say they are still struggling to achieve basic levels of health, education, and income.  They are currently increasing their emissions as they produce more and use more energy in an effort to improve their economies and raise their standards of living.  They say it is unjust to ask them to make cuts to solve a problem caused by wealthy nations.

So far, the United States has disagreed.  In 1997, the Senate voted not to ratify the Kyoto Protocol unless it required all countries, including developing countries, to make cuts.  George W. Bush has continued to oppose the Kyoto Protocol for the same reason.  To date, the United States is one of a very few nations in the world that has not ratified the agreement or pledged to make cuts in its emissions.  The United States is also the largest emitter of greenhouse gases.  China is the second largest and is increasing its emissions rapidly.

Current Debate		
The Kyoto Protocol will expire in 2012.  Already, the United Nations is starting to negotiate a new agreement to take its place.  The question is, what will that agreement be? Will it require poorer, developing nations to reduce their emissions? 

Directions
Decide whether or not you think that poor nations like China and India should reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.  

Your essay must include the following:
*A thesis that states your position and gives some sense of your reasoning
*6 facts or quotations from the reading packet
*Use facts or quotations from at least three articles in the packet
	*Each time you use a fact or quotation, use the sentence patterns from the handout. 
	Mention the author or title of the article and give the page number.  
	*Two counterarguments with responses
	
If you feel you need more information, you can do more research, but this is optional.  
The class website includes links to further articles:

http://fog.ccsf.edu/amills/GlobalWarming.htm

		
	Developing Countries Face Worst in Global Warming
	From Business Day courtesy of the Africa News Service.

Full Text:COPYRIGHT 2001 Africa News Service.			
Jul 23, 2001 
Those most at risk are people who make a living from the land and seas while policymakers around the world grapple with the economic and political issues raised by climate change, there is now growing observational evidence that the earth is becoming warmer than at any other time during the past 10000 years. 
And the stakes are far too high for the issue to be pushed back into the world's debating chambers for yet more discussion. 
Most nonpolar glaciers are retreating. Ice sheets in the Artic Sea are shrinking and becoming thinner during the summer. Bird migration patterns are changing and birds are laying earlier. Insects, plants and mammals are migrating towards the poles. In addition, economic losses caused by extreme weather have increased substantially in the past few decades. 
Human-induced climate change, and other global environmental issues such as land degradation and loss of biological diversity, threaten our ability to meet human needs of adequate food, clean water, a healthy environment and safe shelter. 
According to the International Panel on Climate Change, the earth's average surface temperature is expected to rise by between 1.4 and 5.8 degrees during the next 100 years compared with just over 0.6 degrees during the last. 
Sea levels, which have risen by 10cm to 20cm since 1900, could rise by between 8cm and 88cm during the next 100 years. 	
The consequences could be devastating. Small island states and deltaic regions of developing countries in southern Asia, the South Pacific and the Indian Ocean could eventually disappear under water, displacing tens of millions of people. People's exposure to malaria and dengue fever, already rampant in the tropics and subtropics, could become even more severe; crop production could decrease significantly in Africa, Latin America and other developing countries; and fresh water could become even more scarce than today. 
The people most at risk are those who make their living from the land and the seas in the tropics and subtropics of Africa, Asia and Latin America. In most African countries, for example, agriculture is the economic mainstay; it represents 20-30% of gross domestic product in sub-Saharan Africa. 
There is a tragic irony here. Sub-Saharan Africa has the lowest emissions of greenhouse gases, the main cause of human induced climate change. Yet this region together with low-lying small island states in the Indian and Pacific oceans are the most vulnerable to climate change, because widespread poverty limits their ability to adapt to changing climate. 
The challenge to the politicians is clear. Let us heed the scientific warnings of the potential effects of climate change in order to limit its magnitude in a costeffective way and make ourselves less vulnerable to the climatic changes that lie ahead. 
The health and livelihoods of the world's population depend on it. Financial Times. 
Robert Watson is chief scientist at the World Bank and chairman of the IPCC, and Ian Johnson is vice president of the World Bank 
Copyright Business Day. Distributed by All Africa Global Media(AllAfrica.com) 

			The Impact of Asia's Giants: How China and India could save the planet--or destroy it
From Time Magazine, April 3, 2006. By Bryan Walsh with reporting by Susan Jakes; Jodi Xu/ Beijing
If everyone lived like the average Chinese or Indian, you wouldn't be reading about global warming. On a per capita basis, China and India emit far less greenhouse gas than energy-efficient Japan, environmentally scrupulous Sweden--and especially the gas-guzzling U.S. (The average American is responsible for 20 times as much CO2 emission annually as the average Indian.) There's only one problem: 2.4 billion people live in China and India, a great many of whom aspire to an American-style energy-intensive life. And thanks to the breakneck growth of the two countries' economies, they just might get there--with potentially disastrous results for the world's climate.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) forecasts that the increase in greenhouse-gas emissions from 2000 to 2030 from China alone will nearly equal the increase from the entire industrialized world. India, though behind its Asian rival, could see greenhouse-gas emissions that rise 70% by 2025, according to the World Resources Institute. But the nearly double-digit growth rates that are responsible for those nightmare projections also present an environmental opportunity. "Anything you want to do about clean energy is easier to do from the outset," says David Moskowitz, an energy consultant who has advised Chinese officials. "Every time they add a power plant or factory, they can add one cleaner and better than before." If China and India can muster the will and resources to leapfrog the West's energy-heavy development path, dangerous climate change might be averted. "China and India have to demonstrate to other countries that it is possible to develop in a sustainable way," says Yang Fuqiang, vice president of the Energy Foundation in Beijing. "We can't fail."
The Kyoto accord on climate change did nothing to slow growth in China and India because as developing countries they are not required under the protocol to make cuts in carbon emissions--and that is not likely to change after the agreement expires in 2012. Both countries are desperate for energy to fuel the economic expansion that is pulling their citizens out of poverty, and despite bold investments in renewables, much of that energy will have to come from coal, the only traditional energy source they have in abundance. Barbara Finamore, director of the Natural Resources Defense Council's China Clean Energy Program, estimates that China's total electricity demand will increase by 2,600 gigawatts by 2050, which is the equivalent of adding four 300-megawatt power plants every week for the next 45 years. India's energy consumption rose 208% from 1980 to 2001, even faster than China's, but nearly half the population still lacks regular access to electricity--a fact the government is working to change. "They'll do what they can, but overall emissions are likely to rise much higher than they are now," says Jonathan Sinton, China analyst for the IEA.
Environmentalism inevitably takes a backseat to development in China and India, but even among many green advocates there, climate change is seen as a less pressing problem than air and water pollution. There is also a widespread feeling that the developed world, which grew rich while freely spewing carbon, should take most of the responsibility for climate change. "Our issue is that, first and foremost, the U.S. needs to reduce its emissions," says Sunita Narain, director of the Center for Science and Environment in New Delhi. "It is unacceptable and immoral that the U.S. doesn't take the lead on climate change." The Bush Administration, in turn, has rejected Kyoto partly because developing countries were exempt from emissions cuts.
The standoff between the U.S. and the Asian giants has stymied international climate-change efforts for years, but that is beginning to change--and some of the push is coming from Beijing. For most of the recent Montreal climate conference, the U.S. resisted any serious discussion of what should be done after Kyoto expires. But several major developing countries, including China as a quiet but present force, supported further talks and helped break down U.S. opposition. "At the moment, China seems more interested in engaging on this issue internationally than the U.S. does," says Elliot Diringer, director of international strategies for the Pew Center on Global Climate Change.
That's because China and India increasingly see climate-change policy as a way to address some of their immediate problems--such as energy shortages and local environmental ills--while getting the international community to help foot the bill. Thanks to poorly run plants and antiquated power grids, China and India are extremely energy inefficient. China uses three times as much energy as the U.S. to produce $1 of economic output. But that means there is a lot of room for improvement, and saving energy by cutting waste is less expensive than building new coal plants. It also reduces dependence on foreign energy and comes carbon and pollutant free. "Efficiency really is the sweet spot," says Dan Dudek, a chief economist at Environmental Defense. Beijing agrees: the government aims to reduce energy intensity--the amount of energy used relative to the size of the economy--20% by 2010.
Making ambitious pledges is easy--that is what five-year plans are for--but finding the will and the funds to make them stick is trickier. One source of funding is the Clean Development Mechanism, a part of the Kyoto Protocol that allows developed countries to sponsor greenhouse-cutting projects in developing countries in exchange for carbon credits that can be used for meeting emissions targets. Those projects don't require any technological breakthroughs. A 2003 study by the consulting firm CRA International found that if China and India invested fully in technology already in use in the U.S., the total carbon savings by 2012 would be comparable to what could be achieved if every country under the Kyoto Protocol actually met its targets.
But that window of opportunity is closing rapidly. Every step forward that these countries take today (such as China's move to make its auto-emission regulations stricter than the U.S.'s) risks being swamped by growth tomorrow (for example, China could have 140 million cars on the road by 2020). What China and India really need to ensure green development is what the world needs: a broadly accepted post-Kyoto pact that is strict enough to make it economically worthwhile to eliminate carbon emissions. Though actual cuts are off the table for now, Beijing and New Delhi seem willing to discuss softer targets, such as lowering carbon intensity. But they feel that Washington must take the lead. "It is possible for these countries to achieve the growth they deserve without wrecking the climate," says Diringer. "They just can't do it on their own. It has to go through the U.S."	
Maybe we can begin by living a bit more like the average Chinese or Indian--before they start living like us.

	India says fight against global warming must not hinder development in poor countries

	The Associated Press
Wednesday, June 6, 2007

Efforts to combat global warming must not hinder the development of poorer countries, India's prime minister said Wednesday before departing for the G-8 summit in Germany.

The comments by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh were the latest indication that India is hesitant to accept any measures — such as caps on greenhouse gas emissions — that could slow its fast economic growth.

Climate change must be addressed but "due care must be taken not to allow growth and development prospects in the developing world to be undermined or constrained," Singh said in a statement.

Like China and other emerging economies, India has long maintained that it bears little responsibility for climate change and that Western nations should be asked to make many of the sacrifices needed to combat global warming.

On Tuesday, India's foreign secretary, said the costs for slowing global warming "must be shared fairly," and pointed to figures that indicate India produces just 4 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions.

But that estimate is based on 2000 study. India's economy has grown tremendously since then, and experts believe its emissions have also risen greatly.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, host of the summit, has said climate change will be high on the agenda. India is not a member of the G-8, but has been invited to the summit along with Brazil, China, India, Mexico and South Africa.

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/06/06/asia/AS-GEN-India-G-8-Summit.php

	Excerpted from “Pollution From Chinese Coal Casts Shadow Around Globe”

	The New York Times June 11, 2006
By Keith Bradsher and David Barboza

Living Better With Coal 

	Wu Yiebing and his wife, Cao Waiping, used to have very little effect on their environment. But they have tasted the rising standard of living from coal-generated electricity and they are hooked, even as they suffer the vivid effects of the damage their new lifestyle creates. 

	Years ago, the mountain village where they grew up had electricity for only several hours each evening, when water was let out of a nearby dam to turn a small turbine. They lived in a mud hut, farmed by hand from dawn to dusk on hillside terraces too small for tractors, and ate almost nothing but rice on an income of $25 a month. 

	Today, they live here in Hanjing, a small town in central China where Mr. Wu earns nearly $200 a month. He operates a large electric drill 600 feet underground in a coal mine, digging out the fuel that has powered his own family's advancement. He and his wife have a stereo, a refrigerator, a television, an electric fan, a phone and light bulbs, paying just $2.50 a month for all the electricity they can burn from a nearby coal-fired power plant. 

	They occupy a snug house with brick walls and floors and a cement foundation -- the bricks and cement are products of the smoking, energy-ravenous factories that dot the valley. Ms. Cao decorates the family's home with calendar pictures of Zhang Ziyi, the Chinese film star. She is occasionally dismissive about the farming village where she lived as a girl and now seldom visits except over Chinese New Year. 

	''We couldn't wear high heels then because the paths were so bad and we were always carrying heavy loads,'' said Ms. Cao, who was wearing makeup, a stylish yellow pullover, low-slung black pants and black pumps with slender three-inch heels on a recent Sunday morning. 

	One-fifth of the world's population already lives in affluent countries with lots of air-conditioning, refrigerators and other appliances. This group consumes a tremendous amount of oil, natural gas, nuclear power, coal and alternative energy sources. 

	Now China is trying to bring its fifth of the world's population, people like Mr. Wu and Ms. Cao, up to the same standard. One goal is to build urban communities for 300 million people over the next two decades. 

	Already, China has more than tripled the number of air-conditioners in the past five years, to 84 per 100 urban households. And it has brought modern appliances to hundreds of millions of households in small towns and villages like Hanjing. 

	The difference from most wealthy countries is that China depends overwhelmingly on coal. And using coal to produce electricity and run factories generates more global-warming gases and lung-damaging pollutants than relying on oil or gas. 

	Indeed, the Wu family dislikes the light gray smog of sulfur particles and other pollutants that darkens the sky and dulls the dark green fields of young wheat and the white blossoms of peach orchards in the distance. But they tolerate the pollution. 	

	''Everything else is better here,'' Mr. Wu said. ''Now we live better, we eat better.'' 
...
An Insatiable Demand? 
The Chinese are still far from achieving what has become the basic standard in the West. Urban elites who can afford condominiums are still a tiny fraction of China's population. But these urban elites are role models with a lifestyle sought by hundreds of millions of Chinese. Plush condos on sale in Shanghai are just a step toward an Americanized lifestyle that is becoming possible in the nation's showcase city. 
Far from the Wu family in rural Shaanxi, the Lu Bei family grew up in cramped, one-room apartments in Shanghai. Now the couple own a large three-bedroom apartment in the city's futuristic Pudong financial district. They have two television sets, four air-conditioners, a microwave, a dishwasher, a washing machine and three computers. They also have high-speed Internet access. 
''This is my bedroom,'' said Lu Bei, a 35-year-old insurance agency worker entering a spacious room with a king-size bed. ''We moved here two years ago. We had a baby and wanted a decent place to live.'' 
For millions of Chinese to live like the Lus with less damage to the environment, energy conservation is crucial. But curbing that usage would be impossible as long as China keeps energy prices low. Gasoline still costs $2 a gallon, for example, and electricity is similarly cheap for many users. 
With Chinese leaders under constant pressure to create jobs for the millions of workers flooding from farms into cities each year, as well as the rapidly growing ranks of college graduates, there has been little enthusiasm for a change of strategy. 
Indeed, China is using subsidies to make its energy even cheaper, a strategy that is not unfamiliar to Americans, said Kenneth Lieberthal, a China specialist at the University of Michigan. ''They have done in many ways,'' he said, ''what we have done.'' 

	China Says Global Warming in Hands of Wealthy Nations
February 6, 2007
	By Chris Buckley
BEIJING (Reuters) - Rich nations are responsible for greenhouse gases fueling global warming, China said on Tuesday, urging them to cut emissions and deflecting questions about whether Beijing will accept limits.
Spokeswoman for China's Foreign Ministry, Jiang Yu, said Beijing was willing to contribute to curbing greenhouses gases from industry, agriculture and vehicles, which a U.N. scientific panel last week reported was almost certainly behind rising average temperatures threatening wrenching climate change.
But Jiang told a regular news briefing that wealthy countries bore the blame, and the solution lay in their hands.
"It must be pointed out that climate change has been caused by the long-term historic emissions of developed countries and their high per-capita emissions," she said.
"Developed countries bear an unshirkable responsibility," she said, adding that they should "lead the way in assuming responsibility for emissions cuts".
The expert panel gave a "best estimate" that temperatures would rise by between 1.8 and 4.0 degrees Celsius (3.2 and 7.8 Fahrenheit) in the 21st century, bringing deeper droughts, heatwaves and a rise in sea levels that could continue for over 1,000 years even if greenhouse gas emissions are capped.
Many environmental advocates have urged widening the U.N. Kyoto Protocol, which binds 35 industrial nations to cut emissions by 2012 but excludes developing nation emitters, including China and India, from specific targets.
But neither Jiang nor China's top climate official would directly say whether China would accept mandatory emissions caps, and instead urged more action and support from developed countries.
Qin Dahe, chief of the China Meteorological Administration, told a separate news conference that the country is committed to improving energy efficiency by 20 percent in coming years, and to shifting the country from overwhelming dependence on coal, one of the main fuel sources of greenhouse gases.
"The government is very urgent about this demand," Qin said.
Qin, who was co-chairman of the U.N. expert panel, said China's leaders worried that global warming would undermine development goals.
"The Chinese government is taking climate change extremely seriously," he said. "President Hu Jintao has said that climate change is not just an environmental issue but also a development issue, ultimately a development issue."
But Qin did not directly answer whether China would accept a cap on emissions, instead stressing that the country needed support to buy clean-energy technology.
"As a developing country that's growing rapidly and has a big population, to thoroughly transform the energy structure and use clean energy would need a lot of money," Qin said.
China is hurtling toward possibly becoming the world's third-biggest economy by 2008, overtaking Germany and trailing only Japan and the United States. But that growth has been fueled by coal-burning power stations and wheezing factories.
Qin cited data showing that in 2000 China was already the world's second biggest emitter of greenhouse gases. But he could not provide more recent data.
"Unfortunately, I don't have information from the past few years at hand," he said. "I think that maybe you can check these things in some magazines."