"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.
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.
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.
