EnvironmentalIssues
EnvironmentalIssues
Thispaper looks at environmental issues from the perspective of globalwarming. In particular, it focuses on the emission of greenhousegases like carbon dioxide into the earth’s atmosphere. It is amatter of common knowledge that global warming has resulted in therising of sea levels all over the planet over and above, causingrising health concerns that threaten life on earth in times to come.The sea levels are rising since the issue of global warming iscausing masses of ice in the Polar Regions to melt with the passingof time. Greenhouse gasses emissions are regulated in the UnitedStates by federal law. The law places much focus on emissions ofcarbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere by the transport sector,electricity generation sector, and other associated industries aswell.
Ingeneral, the current laws that regulate the emission of greenhousegases in the United States are established in The Global WarmingPollution Reduction Act of the year 2007. The federal law, or ratherAct was initiated by the 110th United States Congress.According tothe government of the United States, greenhouse gas emissions areresponsible for adverse climate change, which endangers some lifeforms or species. For this reason, the government has come up withsome standards for regulating CO2emissionsin the country. These standards set limits regarding maximum andacceptable amounts of the pollutant gases that can be released intothe atmosphere. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) doesmanagement and monitoring of the standards in the country. Concerningthe transport industry, a vehicle that weighs less than, or equal to8500 pounds, its emission of CO2 should not exceed 205 grams of CO2per mile. For those that weigh between 8501 pounds up to 10000pounds, their standard rate of emission ought not to exceed 405 gramsof CO2 per mile.
Song,Banerjee, & Hasemyer (2015) looked at the reportable carbondioxide emissions in the world today. Their study revealed that in1982, forecast studies by Exxon Research and Engineering hadindicated that the emission of greenhouse gases would increasesignificantly to “400 parts per million of carbon dioxide (CO2) inthe air by 2010,” leading to a dangerous situation of globalwarming. The actual reported levels of CO2 in the atmosphere by 2010,as indicated by the researchers, showed that the forecasting studywas indeed precise in its findings. This was despite the fact thatthe researchers relied on In-House Climate Models to conduct theirinvestigations at the time. According to the results of the researchundertaking in 1982, Steve Knisely, an Exxon trainee at the time hadensured to reiterate that such high levels of emission could besignificantly downscaled, if the human societies reduced the use ofor the burning of the fossil fuels for energy.
Allaround the world, there have been reports of destruction of airquality owing to emissions of greenhouse gases. Another importantaspect worth mentioning is that global warming due to the emission ofthe gases, and hence climate change, have increased occurrences oftornados, cyclones, tsunamis and other catastrophic weatherscenarios. For this reason, it is safe to say that the currentlyreported discharges of greenhouse gases are still high (Nick, et al.,2013). Nevertheless, the mentioned Global Warming Pollution ReductionAct of the United States aims to reduce the CO2 emissions in thecountry by over 80%, by the year 2050.
Itis also very well understood that the primary energy resources usedin the world depend on utilization of oil and gas products. Even so,people are increasingly becoming conscious of the dangers of globalwarming that occurs as a result of the human action of polluting thenatural environment. For this reason, more and more people arejoining the campaign for the establishment of green environments.Undeniably, there are initiatives from the government and players inthe private sector to reduce pollution of the environment via therelease of greenhouse gases. For instance, people are encouraged toadopt the use of electric and hybrid cars as opposed to conventionaloil-driven vehicles, to use public transport as opposed to personalvehicles. The government, even more, promotes the use of othersources of renewable energy like wind and solar.
Evenso, there have been some cases where companies or industries havebeen fined for excessive emission of greenhouse gases into theatmosphere. In 2014, for example, the EPA fined Chinese company thatmakes recreational vehicles $725,000 for exporting vehicles withexcessive emissions into the United States. The company, ZhejiangCFMOTO Power Co. along with Chunfeng Holding Group, had failed toensure that the vehicles complied with the set clean-air laws of theClean Air Act (CAA) and their fuel tanks did not have appropriatemechanisms of gasoline vapor control (EPA, 2014).
Overall,and from a global perspective, there exist needs for improvements ofregulatory frameworks of transnational treaties, and, or conventionsregarding pollution of the earth’s atmosphere as a result ofemission of greenhouse gases. Special emphasis should be put on suchaction call for relentless participation of the United Nations,Commonwealth of Independent States, European Union, and all the otherindividual countries of the world.
References
EPAPRESS RELEASE. (2014). EPA Stops Illegal Import of Vehicles That Failto Meet Pollution Standards. Retrieved Online fromhttp://www2.epa.gov/enforcement/cfmoto-powersports-inc-cfmoto-america-inc-zhejiang-cfmoto-power-co-ltd-and-chunfeng
Nick,F. M., Vieli, A., Andersen, M. L., Joughin, I., Payne, A., Edwards,T. L., … & van de Wal, R. S. (2013). Future sea-level rise fromGreenland/`s main outlet glaciers in a warmingclimate. Nature, 497(7448),235-238
Song,L., Banerjee, N., and Hasemyer, D. (2015). Exxon: The Road not Taken.InsideClimate News.Retrieved Online fromhttp://insideclimatenews.org/news/18092015/exxon-confirmed-global-warming-consensus-in-1982-with-in-house-climate-models