Environment
Environment can be defined as the space around the people, the first definition is the landscape, and the second is the relationship, the people around a person, which constitute its environment of life. But we get interested about the first definition, the definition of the environment as a landscape, all the things which constitutes what is around people.
The term environment let's think principally about nature, forest, tree, but today our environment is more often a city, in France for example 33% of people live in a city, in opposition 18,5% of people live in the countryside, although don't make generalizations because to live in the countryside became more and more populous years after years, so the statistics may be changed.
Environment takes part in a lot of issues since people have become conscious about climate change, more known as global warming. However, some people don't agree with the fact that global warming is real, and it is a problem for possibilities of a solution.
Some protocols
The Kyoto Protocol is an international treaty that was signed in 1997 and that sets concrete targets for developed countries to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions. More than 180 countries are party to it. Under this treaty, developed countries are subject to legally binding commitments to curb their emissions of the main greenhouse gasses. Canada became the first signatory to withdraw from the Protocol in 2014.
The Paris Agreement took place in 2016 which aims to hold the increase in global temperatures to less than 2°C above pre-industrial levels. Climate policy suffered a major setback when Donald Trump decided in 2017 to withdraw the United States from the Agreement.
What are the greenhouse gas emissions ?
A greenhouse gas is a gaseous substance that absorbs and emits infrared radiation produced by the Earth or the sun. This process warms the Earth's atmosphere : it is the greenhouse effect. As a result greenhouse gases are one of the causes of global warming. The main greenhouse gases are water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrogen oxide and ozone.
The climate sceptics
The climate sceptics are people who challenge the question of global warming by saying that human actions are not too huge to cause a real impact on the environment. They are based on a theory which decreases the influence of the carbon gas on the temperature. They say that the Earth has already known the same situation in the past.
The most well-known climate sceptic in politics is Donal Trump, the ex-President of the United States has declared that global warming is "a myth invented by the Chinese to put the American industry no competitive". It is for that reason that he decided to withdraw the United States from the Agreement of Paris in 2017.
According to National Geographic, in 2023 37% of the French population is climate sceptic.
The population to raise awareness
"The public is convinced about the science of climate change." Peter Kellner, the CEO of YouGov, a polling firm.
In fact, it is now a major concern for many people throughout the world thanks to the scientists who have been ringing alarm bells and to activist like Greta Thunberg (probably one of the most well-known activist she is a Swedish schoolgirl who decided at 15 years to skip classes in order to do stronger action against global warming to alert population and governments).
The activism for the climate has grown up the last few years with organizations like Extinction Rebellion in the UK, for instance in 2018 the organization have been advocating civil disobedience and organizing protest, blocking bridges… to urge governments to take radical action, however these actions had limited success. In fact, we can explain with an article in the CNN by Colin Davis where he says that often people support the cause but not all the actions do for the cause, in particular the extreme actions with a lot of violence.
Intervention of governments
The most known intervention from governments is probably the IPCC, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which is a scientific intergovernmental body set up in 1988 to evaluate the risk of climate change caused by human activities. The IPCC does not carry out research but publishes special reports for years.
The last report of the IPCC was published in March 2023. In this report, the IPCC reminds us that global warming is caused by human activities : the temperature of the Earth has increased of 1,1 degrees compared to the pre-industrial period, to limit this increase will be possible only by reducing the gas emission. Moreover, the IPCC warns about the rise of natural risks, which may cause danger and degradation of civilization.
Another type of intervention, more economic, is for instance the Green New Deal of the Democratic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in 2019. The Green New Deal (yes it is a reference to the New Deal of Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 30s), is a set of economic and social policies aimed at fighting economic inequality as well as making the US carbonneutral in 10 years.
Or there is also the "emissions trading" (or cap and trade), an administrative approach used to control pollution by providing economic incentives for achieving reductions in the emissions of pollutants. In fact, companies or other groups are issued emission permits which represent the right to emit a specific amount. Companies that need to increase their emissions allowance must buy credits from those who pollute less. The transfer of allowances is referred to as a trade.
Last news
COP 28 took place from 30 November until 13 December 2023 at Dubaï. The 200th countries present for the 28th COP give their agreement of "an historical text". In fact, it is historic because it is the first time that the idea of taking countries out of fossil energy is planned. According to Carbone 4, in 2021 the use of fossil energy has caused 75% of the gas emissions.