USA's Behaviour towards the environmental problems

Résumé du document

As the world's largest polluter, America has recently refrained from backing pollution treaties aimed at reducing car emissions or petrol consumption. The US alone accounted for 36.1% of worldwide greenhouse emissions in 1990. "The US contains 4% of the world's population but produces about 25% of all carbon dioxide emissions. By comparison, Britain emits 3% - about the same as India which has 15 times as many people" Many environmentalists understand that developing countries do not have the technology or means to use the most modern or environmentally friendly industrial equipment. However when a rich country like the USA fails to take responsibility for its own pollution it annoys a lot of people worldwide. China and the EU, both lesser polluters than the US, have one thing in common: They are both committed to further reducing their rate of emissions.

Extraits

[...] USA's Behaviour towards the environmental problems The USA are the world's biggest polluter As the world's largest polluter, America has recently not backed pollution treaties to reduce car emissions or petrol consumption. The US alone accounted for of worldwide greenhouse emissions in 1990. "The US contains of the world's population but produces about 25% of all carbon dioxide emissions. By comparison, Britain emits - about the same as India which has 15 times as many people" Many environmentalists understand that developing countries do not have the technology or means to use the most modern or environmentally friendly industrial equipment. [...]

[...] It was once considered a long-term problem. Now it is upon us. "In 1997 a protocol was adopted at Kyoto under which countries formally undertook to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases by specific percentages of the 1990 levels. Bill Clinton hailed the Protocol as a historic agreement and signed it in November 1998. But President Bush from 2001 opposed it and acted to overturn his predecessor's signature of the Protocol, reverse an election pledge to treat carbon dioxide as a pollutant and revert to actions solely driven by domestic economic concerns." [General Sir Hugh Beach] 2004 Oct: The Kyoto Protocol Becomes International Law In 2004 September, Russia accepted it, making the protocol legally binding internationally, amid praise from the UK Environment Secretary Margaret Beckett and the Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. [...]

[...] His election was a straightforward capitalist venture for the energy corporations. Oil, gas, coal and nuclear companies are the power behind Bush; together, they donated more than $50 million dollars to put him in the White House. As soon as he was elected, it was payback time and Bush declared the Kyoto Protocol on reducing carbon- dioxide emissions dead and buried. President Bush on the Kyoto Protocol said that "This is the American position because its right for America" and, just to make the point clear, he added: "We will not do anything that harms our economy, because first things first are the people who live in America" The attitude speaks for itself; America is a dangerous and irresponsible country as long it materialistically maintains that its own selfish wellbeing is more important than any long-term world wide problems, even where it is the USA itself that causes those problems! [...]

[...] The US refused to sign the treaty, arguing that its economic interests would be threatened. The US also opposed the Bonn refinement of Kyoto because of the cost to US business of Kyoto's prescriptions on the reduction of environmentally harmful emissions which contribute to climate change. "Under the Protocol, the U.S. is supposed to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by seven percent. With four percent of the world's population, the country accounts for about 25 percent of the Earth's greenhouse gas emissions. [...]

[...] The Kyoto Protocol In the 1970s the USA was a world leader on serious long-term environmental issues. The USA joined many groups in protecting endangered species, oceans and fisheries. Its honourable and wise actions continued through the 1980s. "In the mid 1980s the US led efforts to address the problem of the ozone layer. The 1987 Montreal Protocol imposed a stringent ban on the production and use of many substances widely used around the world: deoderants, refrigerants and propellants for aerosol tins. [...]