Capitalism Barrier for the Movement - Assignment Example

Capitalism barrier for the movement towards an ecologically friendly industrialization. For about 200 years, the world was mainly concerned about industrialization and little concern was given to how it affects the environment. However in light of recent events there has been growing demand for a more ecological friendly kind of industrialization. Capitalism has been the greatest hindrance to achieving an environmentally friendly form of industrialization. This paper will discuss climate change and human capitalism as a barrier for the movement towards an ecologically friendly industrialization. Modern man first started to concern himself with matters of climate change due to nuclear tests that were being done. It is until the 1960s that scientists started to investigate man’s impact on the planetary environment. By 1970s, the scientists were able to predict how chemicals like DDT were affecting the ozone layer at a very fast rate. The scientists could tell that sulfates from coalmines and carbon dioxide were agents that were affecting the planetary environment. However, none of these scientists was visionary, and most were skeptical as such. Earlier the scientists thought that the solution to pollution is dilution. The early scientists who were concerned with the environmental changes believed that substances such as carbon dioxide and water vapor only absorbed heat in the atmosphere (Oreskes & Conway p2). It is during this time that countries like the United Kingdom, United States, Germany, Brazil, and China had the largest production of carbon dioxide. To the early environmental scientists, the atmosphere was considered an immortal sink that could handle whatever was thrown at it. It was only later that man’s impact on the planetary environment was realized. It was at this same time that water vapor and carbon dioxide was considered the cause of global warming. Due to the inquisitive nature of scientists, it was realized some substances even in low concentrations had an astounding impact on the environment. One such chemical was DDT, which was found to affect the reproductive health of birds, fish, and mammals that were even in the arctic. After scientists realized and confirmed that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses had a discernible impact and could lead to climate change, agencies and organizations to fight climate change were formed. The human population that came to know of the impact of such gasses and dire consequence they possess if not stopped immediately were moved and soon people begun to push. To many scientists, the year 1988 is considered to be the Penumbral period, the period when political leaders formed a new hybrid of leaders that had scientific leaders. Treaties were signed which included the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Before the climate change movement could make pronounced impact while trying to attain their goals, there was something. Some critics started to claim that the uncertainties in the scientific findings were too big and that the expenses incurred in order to limit greenhouse gasses may be more that it was worth. Most of these critics were from the United States. Many countries tried to force the United States into agreements, but they failed. Some of the other nations defended themselves behind United States’ logic to excuse their environmentally unfriendly nature of their industrialization. In matters of climate change, it is assumed that when there are temperature changes, the sea level changes simultaneously. This has been an assumption from climate change specialists for quite some time. However, geological statistics that involve the past events of global change bring in a new reality. The information passed across by this geological detail is that the change in climate and the resultant effects may not be simultaneous and proportional. Thus, some components may experience a minor change that may have catastrophic results, which can be abrupt and even irreversible (Malina p8). A suitable example is that of flight 3935 of 2012. The passengers were informed to take their luggage and move into the plane, since the plane was ready for takeoff. When the passengers were all seated, they had to wait for another agonizing 3 hours. None knew what the problem was until keen passengers noticed that the wheels of the plane were sank 4 inches into the airport’s tarmac that was in Washington D.C. At first a tow truck came to pull the plane off the tarmac but it was not able. It was at this point that a bigger and stronger tow truck came and managed to pull it out. The airport officials blamed the delay on the ridiculously hot sun that was hot enough to melt the airport’s tarmac (Weil). No one even blamed the incidence on climate change; not even a single media house. However, one lesson that anyone who noticed the incident is that no matter how deep the plane would have sunk, or how long it would have taken, the journey would still have to continue. This is the cruel fact about climate change. It stands on the way to the survival of the human race and there is need to develop a way to stop or reduce climate change, while not affecting peoples lifestyle (Klein p8). Climate change has affected both the emitters and the non-emitters of greenhouse gasses. An example is that of Bolivia. Bolivia is an Island that depends on the water from the glaciers for its water supply and irrigation. However, what scares the inhabitants of Bolivia is that the rate of the ice-capped mountains changing to gray and brown at an alarming rate. The changing of the climate condition of Bolivia is because of what the citizens of the country have done; Bolivia is a small third world country with a very little international budget. The cause of the change in Bolivia is because of the huge carbon emitting countries, putting the lives of the citizens of Bolivia at stake. It is because of such incidences that there is a demand for the compensation of victim nations of carbon emissions. The compensation will numb the pain of climate change. The mode of compensation is both financially and technologically. This is meant to move the new technology to third world countries so that they can be able to reduce carbon emissions further. The result of this is that countries with high carbon emissions levels will be forced to reduce emissions and compensate the affected countries for the damage of the globe (Llanos p2). Climate change issues have been present for such a long time but it has never acquired a crisis state, and this amazes the climate change activists. When banks experience a meltdown, they are quick to declare a crisis but this is not the case for climate change. So is the case of the collapse of buildings due to poor construction habits. It is important to note that climate change has the capacity of causing catastrophic events with much worse consequences that lead to great loss of property and lives than an economic meltdown. However, history has a lesson to teach since there are many such incidents that the officials did not declare them crises. These include gender-based violence, apartheid, racism and slave trade. None of the above was taken to be a crisis until activists started protests that were unstoppable. From the brief history, it can be concluded that until the ordinary people take to the streets, then the issue of climate change will be responded to. The funds to be spent to reverse or to stop the effects of climate change should not be issues just as Britain’s Prime Minister James Cameron once put it. Mr. Cameron said this after large parts of his territory under his jurisdiction was flooded, and the public were infuriated that their prime minister had not done enough (France-Presse). Researchers have noted that countries behave differently when its population has been exposed to tremendous stress. Such issues include terrorism, HIV/AIDS prevalence, and economic meltdown. It changes the entire perspective of what is possible and what is not possible. Countries have achieved what was initially thought to be impossible just because the whole citizens were made to combine their heads and push together in a particular unified direction. In the past two decades, financial organizations have utilized the presence of crisis in order to satisfy their endeavor to acquire more power and more wealth. The primary method used is through the introduction of schemes. A general scenario is the privatization of public property all in the name of good will. The climate change scenario is expected to be no different as there are more such organizations and the competition is even stiffer. Currently, organizations have been forced to have tree plantations and reserves so that they can acquire what is known as carbon points. One of the results is the eventual privatization of public forests and other resources that could be used to acquire the carbon points. The large financial organizations such as banks and corporate companies are the ones entitled to perform these functions. It tends to illustrate how light the issue of global climate change is taken by the general organization. To them, it seems like a game where they can gamble to acquire more money. In the period 2005-2006 the weather preservatives industry increased by nearly nine folds from $9.7 billion to $45.2 billion. The same big companies come up with schemes to stop climate change in developing countries or even reduce it in these countries. These countries have no other alternative but to pay for such schemes since their structures are too weak to stand the devastating effects of climate change something that they hardly contributed to. This is the case while countries that take the biggest share of the blame continue to reap more from the damage they are causing on the globe (Reguly p9). For climate conservative sources of energy to displace the other sources of energy, there is a need to develop a kind of technology that can replace the current equipment that is in today’s market. It means that there is a great need for groundbreaking scientific inventions that are capable of replacing the current technology. There is a difficulty for the public to do away with the technology that they currently have and adopt another that is more environmentally friendly. It has to be made easier by ensuring that the environmentally friendly equipment are cheaper and more profitable than those that are in use currently. However, ensuring that the environmentally friendly technology is cheap and profitable as the technology that is currently in use may be sufficient. It could spark a considerable portion of the population to switch to the environmentally friendly technology. The idea is to the fact that the public is bound to be convinced of the devastating effects of not being environmentally friendly. Despite the already drastic decrease of wild animals in the late 1900, the numbers are still declining tremendously. Recently the New York Times had a published piece of information that shocked most of the American readers. On the heading of the New York Times was a title suggesting that one of Minnesota’s two moose population has significantly reduced from 4000 in the 1990s to 100 currently (Cusick). The main reason this piece of information shocked many is that very few understand and follow the effects of climate change in the current world. Harris poll in 2007 came to the realization that 71% of America’s citizens believed that the burning of petroleum and other fossil fuels continuously, is the primary cause of increased climate change. By early 2009, the percentage of the population in USA that believed that the continued use of fossil fuels accounts for the alteration of climate drop to 51%. This trend is drastic and despite the initial findings, more was yet to come. By June of 2011, the fraction of the population that believed that climate change and global warming was mainly caused by continued use of fossil fuel had hit 44%; this is well below half the population. Other countries that have realized similar trends include U.K. and Australia. The press has described the statistics of how the public opinion trend on climate change alters as among the largest shifts over a short period, seen in recent public opinion history. The director of survey Scott Keeter tends to agree with this (Harris Interactive p1). From the discussion, it can be concluded that the fight between environmental change and capitalism has been a long, complicated and sore fight. The results of the fight are expected to be the transfer from western civilization to an environmentally friendly society. However, for the environmental change to win the group should unite and be stronger and that is what is likely to warrant the group success. Environmental changes are essential for the survival of humanity just as the other humanity challenges like slave trade, and Civil rights violations. Works Cited Cusick, Daniel. Rapid Climate Changes Turn North Woods into Moose Graveyard. New York: Scientific American, 2012. Web. France-Presse, Agence. "British PM Warns of Worsening Floods Crisis." France: Agence France-Presse, 11 Feruary 2014. Web. Harris Interactive. Big Drop in Those Who Believe That Global Warming Is Coming. 2 December 2009. Print. Klein, Naomi. This Changes Everything: Climate Change vs Capitalism. Canada, 2014. Print. Llanos, Angélica Navarro. "Climate Debt: The Basis of a Fari and Effective Solution to Climate Change." United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Ed. Ad Hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action. Bonn: United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, 2009. Print. Malina, Mario. "What We Know:The Reality, Risks and Response to Climate Change." AAAS Climate Science Panel. New York: American Association for the, 2014. 15-16. Print. Oreskes Naomi & Erik Conway. The Collapse Of Western Civilization: A View From The Future. Columbia: University Press, 2014. Print Reguly, Eric. Exponential Growth in Weather Risk Management Contracts. New York: Weather Risk, 2013. Print. Weil, Martin. Washington Post. 7 July 2012. Web. 6 May 2015. Read More