A Green Race

While we are all motivated by different things, the reason that makes taking care of the environment rather important is pretty much the same for all of us:  we can't get away from it.  Everyone in the same community is breathing the same air, using the same resources, and essentially experiencing the same environment, so the reason we care, to whatever extent, is because we live in it.

Photo Courtesy of Alisdare Hickson

The magnitude of our environments differ; it could be our town, our state, our country, or even our global environment.  However, the scale we choose to look at affects who is able to do something to make a difference on that particular environment.  I recycle because I want to decrease the amount of trash that ends up in my community's landfill.  My state sets anti-littering laws so less garbage ends up in our waterways.  Our country regulates the pollutants released in the atmosphere so the citizens can breathe cleaner air.

Obviously these regulations become harder to implement on a larger scale.  However in recent years global agreements have become a crucial part of making headway within the green movement.  After all, climate change is a global issue as much as it is an issue for small communities, and in some ways more so, which is why last November, almost 200 countries came together in Paris, France for the 2015 Paris Climate Conference.  

This conference was particularly important to the U.S., who have tried unsuccessfully for decades to get involved in the global discussions on climate change.  Take the Kyoto Protocol of 1997 for example.  This was an international negotiation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 7%, which the United States signed in 1998, but failed to ratify and ultimately rejected by 2001.  While the U.S. continued to attend the Conferences of the Parties (at which negotiations such as Kyoto Protocol are agreed upon), they did not follow through with the Protocol.  The lack of participation by powerful countries such as the U.S., who historically have the highest emissions of greenhouse gases, was felt throughout the past couple decades, leading to COPs that were anything but successful.  

The 2009 COP, held in Copenhagen, Denmark, was one of the more infamously dysfunctional conferences to discuss climate change, especially for the U.S., who was distracted with congressional gridlock regarding other issues at the time.  The conference failed to meet its goals and ended up settling on an agreement to simply try not to make things worse by keeping temperature rises to no more than two degrees Celsius.  All in all, the conference was described as "chaotic and disappointing".  

Photo Courtesy of United Nations Photo

However, November's Paris Climate Conference, aka COP 21, became a historic deal amongst the 196 countries in attendance, who after many days of deliberation signed a pact in which all agreed to make actual progress regarding climate change.  This pact holds countries to not just maintaining the temperature rises, but aiming to decrease them to 1.5 degrees Celsius, which would also help to reduce harmful emissions.  Many of the participating nations agreed to implement more use of solar and wind technology in the effort to reduce these emissions.  In addition, the agreement aimed to make a lasting impression on the future by mobilizing $100 billion (about two-thirds of the cost) for developing countries to implement infrastructure and technology that is clean and environmentally friendly.  This term of the deal was implemented as a method to encourage developing countries to engage in the movement to become more environmentally friendly without the added worry of the higher costs of building such an infrastructure.  Furthermore, the deal agreed to monitor the progress by having regular reviews of the plans made to reduce emissions.

The Paris Climate Conference could be looked at as a success on both the environmental side and the diplomatic side.  The fact that nearly 200 countries were able to agree on the minute details of a 

31-page document shows global accordance regarding climate change.  If the world is taking steps to make a difference in climate change, it forces the individual to recall how even the smallest actions can have a global impact.  That being said, environmental activists argue the deal is not enough.  However it is a step in the right direction, as there has at least been global agreement that something needs to be done.  Lord Nicholas Stern of the London School of Economics remarked that "a green race is going on," and nations are calling on their citizens to be a part of it.