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The climate change debate in the United States. Outline 1. Overview 2.
Uncertainty 3. The Structure of Government 4. Economic Impacts ...
... Recently, the most common resistance to this issue may be the debate over climate
change in the United States and whether global warming actually exists. ...
... Debate in decline Though for decades arguments have ... fluctuations from long-term climate
change, making it ... Meanwhile, in the United States, new computers have ...
... indispensability” is a topic very well-open to debate. The United States has long
been considered to be ... of these concerns is global climate change, a matter ...
... and has sparked a new debate in local ... the United Nations Framework Convention on
Climate Change (UNFCC ... would avoid dangerous human interference with the climate. ...
Submitted by apanteleev on April 3, 2005
Category: Social Issues
Words: 4928 | Pages: 20
Views: 314
Popularity Rank: 29,572
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Outline
1. Overview
2. Uncertainty
3. The Structure of Government
4. Economic Impacts
5. The United States' Inward Focus
6. The Media
7. Partisan Politics
8. Conclusion
Overview
Climate change is on the international policy agenda primarily because of warnings from scientists. Their forecasts of a potentially dangerous increase in the average global temperature, fortuitously assisted by unusual weather events, have prompted governments to enter into perhaps the most complicated and most significant set of negotiations ever attempted. Key questions - the rapidity of global climate change, its effects on the natural systems on which humans depend, and the options available to lessen or adapt to such change - have energized the scientific and related communities in analyses that are deeply dependent on scientific evidence and research.
At both the national and international levels, the policy debate over climate change is unfolding rapidly. But it is also becoming increasingly mired in controversy, and nowhere more so than in the United States. This raises a crucial question: Why is it that this country - the undisputed leader of the world in science and technology - is finding it so difficult to agree on policies to address an ecological threat that, if it materializes, could have catastrophic consequences for itself and the rest of the world?
The perhaps surprising answer is that in the U.S. policy process, climate change is not now a scientific issue. Although much of the controversy appears to revolve around scientific principles, political and economic forces actually dominate. In a sense, this is not surprising: in dealing with possible climate change, policymakers, stakeholders, and the public have to confront competing economic interests, significant political change, and such difficult issues as intergenerational equity, international competition,...
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