Leaders of states are well aware of the dimension of environmental issues, thus, they pretend to be blind.
Al Gore, former vice president in the Clinton Administration, is a supporter of environment awareness, author, multiple award winner, business man and a member of a nongovernmental organisation. He is present in talks and negotiation. Al Gore's former position in the White House enabled him to build a good network with powerful people; his concerns are being heard and considered in Climate Change talks in Copenhagen, Denmark, Kyoto Global Warming conference, in the Congress and many more other meetings.
In his lifetime, he was very active in chairing and negotiating agreements; he accomplished many things in regards to climate change. He, for instance, chaired the congressional delegations on Global Warming in the US whereby 40 nations agreed to cut Greenhouse gas emission, he was a member of many who drafted the limitation of Greenhouse and Carbon dioxide release in the Kyoto Global Warming Conference for 150 nations and many more other things.
He once said
“For a long time, the scientists have been telling us global warming increases the temperature of the top layer in the ocean, and that causes the average hurricane to become a lot stronger. So, the fact that the ocean temperatures did go up because of global warming, because of man-made global warming, starting around in the seventies and then we had a string of unusually strong hurricanes outside the boundaries of this multi-decadal cycle that is a real factor; there are scientists who point that out, and they're right, but we're exceeding those boundaries now.”
It is very important, for every individual and for every state, to participate and take action against the damage of the environment. I think Al Gore is doing a good job in using his power to reach out to people and make them aware,educate them with public talks, documentaries, books and many other ways.
http://algoresupportcenter.com/accomplishments4.html
http://www.algore.com/
http://www.polisci.colostate.edu/fac/mb/NGO%20Influence.pdf
I think the reason it is so difficult for state leaders to reach environmental agreements is that it is not a problem which you can physically see. The effects of global warming are long-term and it's hard to warn and convince people of something that may happen 50 or 100 years from now. That being said, the environment must indeed be at the top of the international agenda and Al Gore has certainly done his part in promoting the issue.
ReplyDeleteEnvironmental issues are definitely among the most difficult ones to reach agreements on! Minna highlights some of the problems above well! I was just thinking about one more aspect that makes it such a hard topic for the leaders, namely public pressure at home. However much some leaders would like to reach agreements and see some real action happening, it is often not possible because of the powerful forces acting at home, this has been the case with many US Presidents who have had to face the fact that environmental agreements (treaties) will not go through Senate's approval because of public pressure that the senators face..
ReplyDeleteBut maybe, for this very reason, people like Al Gore have such a huge impact on decisions as they can work towards changing the public opinion, which then might then (in the case of the US) reflect to Senate's ratification behavior and thus give a bit more room for President's negotiation opportunities.. I don't know..
This is a very interesting blog entry. Adressing the issue of global warming and climate change is one of the most vital tasks the world faces right now.
ReplyDeleteI agree that Al Gore is doing a great job in rasising awareness, but in line with the two comments above I recognizing the diverse difficulties state leaders are facing with regard to environmental diplomacy. This becomes even more apparent if relationships of trust are eroded as has happened during the Copenhagen Summit with the release of the Danish Text.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/dec/08/copenhagen-climate-summit-disarray-danish-text
Also, exasperated by the slow political progress, a so-called People’s Assembly was held, parallel to the Copenhagen Summit, aorganized by civil society and later on even attended by some delegates of the Summit. Its slogan is: ‘System change not Climate change'
http://www.commoner.org.uk/?p=88 (good article, but a bit one the anti-capitalist side, just a warning) :)
Those two aspects might be interesting to look into, if you want to either have a closer look at why diplomacy is especially difficult in environmental negotiations due to trust issues between the developed and the developing world, or if you want to examine certain NGO/civil society alternatives to the tedious normal process...
Just some (very long) thoughts that struck me while reading your blog entry :)
Again, great job!
PS: I just thouht i mention that to me, the way you say 'in his lifetime...', I somehow get the impression that Al Gore has died. But that might just be me :)
ReplyDelete