The Real Inconvenient Truth

The solution to global warming requires global cooperation, particularly between China, India, and the United States. However, cooperation cannot be easily achieved; economic motivation is undoubtedly necessary to enact the necessary cooperation.

The polar ice cap has shrunk by more than 20 percent since 1979. Over the past century, global temperatures have risen between 1.08 degress fahrenheit and 1.62 degress fahrenheit—a steep increase considering that during the last ice age the globe was only 9 degress fahrenheit to 15 degress fahrenheit cooler than today. Global warming has already caused sea levels to rise between four and eight inches, and experts predict that if the Greenland ice sheet melted, it would submerge significant parts of many coastal cities around the world , including nearby Boston.

Clearly, something needs to be done. As Americans, we have been, until recently, the largest contributors to the problem; 0.1 Zetajoules of energy are consumed annually in the United States—a nation of about 300 million—compared to the 0.45 Zetajoules of energy consumed globally—a population now over 6.5 billion—in 2005. Fortunately, efforts are being made to raise U.S. awareness of global warming and to reduce American consumption and demand for energy. Campaigns of varying scale, from student-led initiatives on campuses around the country to national documentaries, are being launched to bring up the issue; major efforts, public and private, are underway to discover alternative sources of energy, and eco-friendly cars are gaining traction in an increasingly environmentally conscious society.

But, as we Americans plug away at reducing our contribution to the environmental burden, we must also consider the exponential developmental growth of Asia in recent years. Once we step outside of the bubble that we have built around ourselves, that truth becomes very apparent. With over 1.1 billion people in India and over 1.3 billion people in China, it is clear that a solution to the problem, if one does indeed exist, does not lie in our hands alone.

To some extent, it may seem unreasonable to ask China and India to embrace the long-overdue wave of environmental consciousness that has finally passed through America. After all, the U.S., now a global economic, military, and political powerhouse, reached the pinnacle of its success with blatant disregard for environmental implications, exploiting resources and emitting carbon dioxide at rates that placed the world in its current binding predicament starting during the Industrial Revolution. As China and India now undergo periods of rapid growth and approach huge upswings in development, it is unrealistic to expect them to forego economic gain in order to protect the environment. Certainly, the issue of fairness needs to be considered in coming up with a plausible solution.

World demand for energy is expected to rise by 54 percent in the next two decades. Undoubtedly, a large proportion of this rise in demand may be attributed to the rise of China and India; an estimated 61 percent of the expected rise in carbon dioxide emissions will be due to the developing world’s reliance on coal and fossil fuels. In fact, air pollution is even worse in developing Asia than it is in the United States. A brief walk through the streets of smog-ridden Bangalore can leave a healthy individual coughing within a matter of minutes; in fact, many of the residents of the rapidly growing city are forced to wear surgical masks to prevent the inhalation of smog, as they undertake their daily chores.

An increase in global temperature is a negative consequence for the entire world, the United States, China, and India included; a rise in the sea level will undoubtedly impact coastal cities that include New York, San Francisco, Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Mumbai. It is in the interest of all nations to contribute to a resolution of the environmental crisis.

A solution to global warming requires international cooperation, and yet, such cooperation may be unrealistic. China and India are not likely to turn down the opportunity to grow in the present in order to contribute to a solution in the future. A potential means to induce the cooperation of economically-expanding China and India is to financially compensate the two countries for losses incurred as a result of environmental conservation. The system could be sustained by a common pool comprised of money contributed by members of the developing world; the level of contribution of each country could be assessed in proportion to the nation’s level of environmental destruction and energy consumption. By supporting a continued exponential economic growth in China and India, we provide an incentive and a means for expanding Asia to cooperate in sustaining the environment.

There are likely other feasible possibilities of inducing environmental cooperation in China and India. However, to realistically convince China and India to cooperate, proposed solutions will undoubtedly provide for the sustained economic growth of Asia. If we cannot come up with a solution that allows for the economic development of Asia, we essentially negate the possibility of global cooperation, in which case, we should start warming up to the most practical solution: to move inland, away from the inevitably rising sea.

Shankar G. Ramaswamy ’11, a Crimson editorial editor, lives in Pennypacker Hall.