Global warming has ballooned from an environmental issue supported by wacko-Californians living in trees to now being considered one of the most important global issues. As mounting data suggests that the climate is changing environmentalist and scientist continued to disagree with how much of the change occurring in the environment has been caused by human activity. This dispute was given clarity in the 2007 IPCC (International Panel of Climate Change) Report of Climate Change stating that 90% of the changes occurring to the climate and globe have been caused by human activity.  So, out of this 90% change that humans have caused, what percentage should the U.S. take responsibility for? There will never be unanimous agreement on this question, however the greater question is how much effort should the U.S. make to change in its handling of the environment?

America should care about global warming for two reasons: It has an economic responsibility because of its success to be held responsible for its industrial output; secondly, climate change will most severally affect the developing countries, who are also most susceptible to instability, thus, is in America’s self-interest to ensure its own stability to help foster environmental stability in developing countries.

The past two centuries have been marked by the rise of America as a globe political, economic, and military power. More recently, our national GDP has grown from 4.2trillion USD in 1985 to 12.4 trillion USD in 2005. Our wealth has made us exceedingly big. We drive big cars and live in big houses. Our light up cities beckons the amazing possibilities of electricity. This progress has provided for many people a with better life, however America’s business practices are now understood to have serious detrimental affects to the environment. By being the only developed country to not sign the Kyoto protocol, America, is one of the major hurdles stopping a global movement to reduce human’s affect on the environment

There are mixed views between economists, policy makers, social scientists, biologists, and meteorologists on how the U.S. should approach the issue of climate change. Politicians and economists believe that strict greenhouse gas restrictions will have  detrimental economic consequences and lead to greater poverty and instability because are overall economy will suffer. Most scientists believe  we either drastically change our greenhouse gas emissions or the planet’s stability is in jeopardy.

Should the government intervene to halt greenhouse gas emissions? The U.S. economy has been able to progress largely because of its capitalist flexibility that has allowed the economy to grow with little government interference. However, some economists think that our capitalist structure needs to adapt a new policy that is able to take into environment consequences. With the U.S. being the only developed country refusing to ratify the Kyoto Protocol to limit greenhouse gas emissions it is sending a clear sign that it will not budge on its economic policies.

The second reason for the U.S. to be concerned about global warming is because of the threat that environmental changes are having on the developing world. In the developing world environmental change causes drought, which means crops are not able to grow to full potential, causing villages to have insufficient food, resulting in malnutrition, which causes both the possibility of disease to increase as well as civil unrest. Farmers in Australia have been in nearly a ten-year drought. Their farming industries have shrunk to a fraction of what they once were. Major food shortage problems are already affecting large parts of rural China and Africa.

Also, the causes of global warming have caused an inequality of who is responsible and who is paying the price. It is estimated that by Oxfam, a non-profit organization studying the effects of global warming on developing countries, believes that the U.S. is responsible for 40% the environmental changes occurring. The poorest countries are believed to have only contributed to 10% of the environmental changes occurring. Should those countries that have caused global warming like the U.S., Europe, and Japan be responsible to the countries that are being affected by the climate changes most severally?