Transcript Global Environmental Problems

Global Environmental
Problems
17.32 Environmental Politics
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International Environmental Politics
• Environmental policy is about what government
•
•
does and does not do to address environmental
problems
Environmental politics is the clash of values &
interests that occurs in the course of formulating
and implementing policy
What does this suggest about international
environmental politics and policy?
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“Third Generation” Issues
• Global in Scale
• Long-term in Scope
• Significant Scientific Uncertainty
• Large Economic Stakes
• Complex Institutional Management
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Global Environmental Problems
• Climate Change
• Ozone Depletion
• Biodiversity Loss
• Ocean Exhaustion
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WHY NOT IMPOSE INTERNATIONAL
ENVIRONMENTAL REGULATIONS?
• Sovereignty
• No Supra-National Authority
– U.N.
– World Court
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Ozone, CFCs, and Montreal
• Why was it possible to construct an international
• regime to respond to Ozone Depletion
– Immediate scope and tangibility of the problem
– Small set of CFC producers
• Industry interested in product change
– Relatively Low Cost to Industry
• No net economic impact on states
– Developed-Developing states rift healed by funding
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Global Climate Fluctuations
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Kyoto Treaty
• Treaty Text
• GHG Emissions Reductions
– 1990 target year
– Industrial Countries = 5% reduction from 1990
• emissions levels by 2012
• US = 7%
• European Union = 8%
• Japan = 6%
• Emissions trading allowed
– Industrializing Countries = voluntary reductions
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US GHG “Problem”
• 90% of US GHG emissions = fossil fuel
combustion
• US reduction strategy must involve
– Energy efficiency/conservation
– Removing subsides from fossil fuel
extraction/production
• (~ $100 billion/year)
– Develop alternative energy sources
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Policy Problem
• Convincing the government there is a
problem
• Devising an effective course of action
• Getting other governments to do likewise
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CO2 MT per $ million
Bush CO2 Plan
Year
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CO2 MT per $ million
Bush CO2 Plan
Year
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CO2 MT Emissions
Bush CO2 Plan
Year
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Biodiversity Loss
• Continental-Scale Ecosystem Destruction
– Human Population Growth
– Economic Development
• Mining, forestry, agriculture
• Ebola virus killing off African primates
• Climate Change
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Biodiversity Loss
• Consumptive Use
• Bio-Homogenization
– Economic Globalization
– Alien Invasions
• Fungus decimating amphibian populations
• West Nile Virus decimating bird populations
– Plus dozens of other species
• Sudden Oak Death Syndrome
• Wooly Adelgid
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Ocean Exhaustion
• Consumption
– Collapsing Fish Populations
– “collateral damage
• Leatherback turtles
• Pollution
– Eutrophication
• Dying Coral reefs
– Toxins, Viruses, Bacteria
• Sea otter decline
• Habitat destruction
– Bottom trawling
– Coastal wetlands
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