JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.
  • About K
  • Academics
  • Admission
  • Alumni Relations
  • Giving to K
  • News & Events
  • Student Life
  • HORNET HIVE
  • ATHLETICS
  • SITEMAP
  • WEBMAIL
    • Login
    View Item 
    •   CACHE Homepage
    • Academic Departments, Programs, and SIPs
    • Political Science
    • Political Science Senior Integrated Projects
    • View Item
    •   CACHE Homepage
    • Academic Departments, Programs, and SIPs
    • Political Science
    • Political Science Senior Integrated Projects
    • View Item

    We're Getting Warmer: Calling for a New Look at Global Warming Policy in the United States

    Thumbnail
    View/Open
    Searchable PDF / Kalamazoo College Only (2.580Mb)
    Date
    2001
    Author
    Rathert, Adrienne Rae
    Metadata
    Show full item record
    Abstract
    Since the early 1980's, society has been experiencing increasingly strange weather patterns around the globe. Flooding in Bangladesh, fires in Canadian forests, ice and snowstorms in Texas these are all recent weather oddities. (Gelbspan 1998, 19, 21, 24). In the past twenty years weather records set as far back as the seventeenth century have been broken. The nine hottest years of the twentieth century have occurred since 1980 (Watson in Bender and Leone 1997, 19). These trends are only going to continue. Climate scientists predict that the global average temperature will rise between 6 -8°F in the next century (Gelbspan 1998, 17). These trends, along with other changing weather patterns, can be linked to human-induced global warming. If these predictions come true, we are approaching a world even more inflicted with weather-related disease, death, and squalid living conditions than today. Allowing the Earth to deteriorate is unfair to the rest the Earth's species. It is up to humankind to discover innovative solutions to the problems we ourselves have created. Effective global warming policy is necessary to avoid a premature end to life on Earth, or at least to avoid unpleasant living conditions for all of Earth's inhabitants. In order to sustain a more hospitable environment, it is necessary to consider the well being of other species and the Earth. Our philosophy needs to change from one centered on humans, known as anthropocentrism, to one balanced on all of the Earth's inhabitants, known as ecocentrism. With ecocentric philosophy behind the United States's legislative decisions, we could reverse the effects of global warming. To establish effective global warming policy in the United States, an ecocentric attitude must correspond with the politics of the modern world. To gain a better understanding of this, three things must be accomplished: 1. Compare ecocentric and anthropocentric theories. 2. Explore the human centered nature of the attempts at global warming policies. The two main problems preventing effective global warming policy are the influence of big businesses on policy makers and the lack of international cooperation. 3. Propose a strategy for implementing ecologically based policies. This will require a pragmatic approach for applying an ecocentric theory to modern life. These three steps will determine whether ecocentric-based policies will actually be effective. The problems of human induced global warming cry out for new solutions to this environmental problem.
    URI
    http://hdl.handle.net/10920/11716
    Collections
    • Kalamazoo College Guilds: Sustainability SIPs [25]
    • Political Science Senior Integrated Projects [799]

    Browse

    All of DSpaceCommunities & CollectionsBy Issue DateAuthorsTitlesSubjectsThis CollectionBy Issue DateAuthorsTitlesSubjects

    My Account

    Login

    DSpace software copyright © 2002-2023  DuraSpace
    DSpace Express is a service operated by 
    Atmire NV
    Logo

    Kalamazoo College
    1200 Academy Street
    Kalamazoo Michigan 49006-3295
    USA
    Info 269-337-7000
    Admission 1-800-253-3602

    About K
    Academics
    Admission
    Alumni Relations
    Giving to K
    News & Events
    Student Life
    Sitemap
    Map & Directions
    Contacts
    Directories
    Nondiscrimination Policy
    Consumer Information
    Official disclaimer
    Search this site


    Academic Calendars
    Apply
    Bookstore
    Crisis Response
    Employment
    Library
    Registrar
    DSpace Express is a service operated by 
    Atmire NV