EARTH MATTERS: THE DARA REPORT

12 Oct EARTH MATTERS: THE DARA REPORT

As of 2011, 192 out of 198 countries worldwide have ratified the international Kyoto Protocol and taken significant steps towards reducing human-induced greenhouse gas emissions that have caused the most rapid rate of global warming in the last 120,000 years. The only countries that have not joined a global effort to prevent environmental degradation, human mortality, and significant economic burdens are Afghanistan, Southern Sudan, Andorra, The Vatican City, Taiwan, and the United States of America (U.S.).

Currently, the U.S. produces 18% of the world’s total human-induced greenhouse gas emissions. Since 1990, U.S. greenhouse gas emissions have increased by 10.5%. Even though our great country is the richest in the world, we have chosen to not take responsibility for our actions and have elected to pass the burden of our excessive fossil fuel consumption to the rest of the world. Greenhouse gases emitted anywhere spread everywhere. In contrast, China has joined the international effort and recently become the world’s number one producer of solar energy. In doing so, they have successfully developed a high-tech renewable energy industry that has created thousands of skilled-labor jobs and generated billions of dollars in revenue. On the other hand, the U.S. continues to subsidize foreign oil and natural gas corporations and outsource manufacturing jobs related to renewable energy products overseas.

The primary reasons for this backwards ideology can be traced to two factors: greed and a lack of education. First, fossil fuel and natural gas corporations would be unable to make record profits if they were not subsidized and if they were held 100% fiscally accountable for impacts caused by offshore oil spills in the Gulf of Mexico and elsewhere, air pollution from the Four Corners region’s coal power plants, oil pipeline spills near Yellowstone, and aquifers contaminated by toxic chemicals from fracking. Second, the U.S. has fallen from 1st in science education to 17th worldwide. This severe decline in education limits our understanding and our ingenuity. Consequently, only 53% of the U.S. Republican voters believe climate change is real. In contrast, 98% of Canada’s citizens understand that climate change is real.

Why does it matter? According to the 2012 DARA Climate Vulnerability Monitor report, 400,000 people died in 2010 due to climate change, mainly because of hunger and communicable diseases that affect children in developing countries. In addition, carbon-intensive energy systems and related activities that are dominant in the U.S. caused an estimated 4.5 million additional deaths in 2010 due to air pollution, hazardous occupations, and cancer. Economically, impacts related to climate change and carbon intensive energy systems cost the world over 1.2 trillion U.S. dollars in 2010.

When will Americans face the facts, stop pointing fingers at others, and join 97% of the countries worldwide in an international effort to address human mortality, environmental degradation, and economic burdens caused by human-induced global warming?