Environmental Change
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We do not tread lightly on the earth, we children of this high-tech age. Our machines, which we have designed to help us live longer and more enjoyable and more carefree lives have damaged the world we live in, in some cases to the extent that the very good life that we have tried to engineer into being is itself in danger. We have for millennia increased the sophistication of our machines, but we have now come to a point in our historical and biological evolution that technology can most certainly not be counted upon to save us and we must ask ourselves very serious questions about what the relationship between technology and the environment is and what the future may hold for us. One of the most obvious cases of this all-too-potentially disastrous concatenation of technological developments and environmental constraints lies in the area of global warming. This paper explores how societies are attempting to grapple with the climatic and environmental changes that human technologies have set into motion by examining the Kyoto Protocol of 1997, an accord that the Bush Administration has refuted while many other nations seek to save all of humanity by adhering to.To understand the need for an accord like the Kyoto Protocol and the seriousness of the United States's refusing to follow its provisions, we must understand first something about the physical forces of global warming and the changing effect of technology on the environment since the beginning of the Industrial Revol
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ccur is not simply an academic question but poses significant and potentially disastrous consequences for all life on earth, including human civilizations and human populations. Scientists agree that when they reach a certain point elevated global temperatures may result in coastal flooding and the shifting of major climatic zones - which may in turn have serious implications for agricultural productivity.
Since 1850 there has been a mean rise in global temperature of approximately 1.8 degrees (Fahrenheit) and a 28 percent rise in carbon dioxide levels; there is no way of knowing at this point in history how much farther global warming will proceed because the extent of global warming that will occur depends at least in some substantial measure on the steps that governments and individuals take to curb the emissions of greenhouse gases over the next decade (Houghton 41).
The consequences of global warming on the oceans - which serve not only as an immense reservoir of life but as an intimate regulator of the earth's climate they store heat - are not yet well understood, but there is growing concern that the effects could be terrible indeed and the effects on the oceans will spill over onto the land, even as the land is itself af
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Industrial Revolution, Nino/La Nina, Kyoto Protocol, , Margot Wallstroem, George Bush, Europe Japan, United States's, Commission Environment, global warming, Bush Administration, greenhouse gases, kyoto protocol, industrial revolution, carbon dioxide, european union's commission, living earth, union's commission, european union's, union's commission environment, nations seek, commission environment http//europaeuint/comm/environment/index_enhtm, commission environment, global warming occur, greenhouse gases cited,
Approximate Word count = 1443
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)
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