Contributions to Climate Change
China plays a large role in climate change. They are the largest industrial country in Asia. They are the mass producers of many items and they have the highest amount of carbon dioxide emissions worldwide with 22.30% of the world’s total emissions. The pollution output that they have is significant, to the point that the air they breathe is unhealthy. China is the main contributor of climate change in East and Southeast Asia. The pollution that comes from the region has produced brown clouds, which block out the sun. From pollution, the area will see less sunshine, and smog will drift to other parts of the region. China is responsible for building at least one coal plant a week. The contributions of the countries within East and Southeast Asia are unbalanced with China and Japan being two of worlds largest contributors, while other neighboring countries and island nations produce some of the smaller amounts of C02 in the world. Unfortunately every country will bear the consequences of climate change regardless of their own contribution.
China plays a large role in climate change. They are the largest industrial country in Asia. They are the mass producers of many items and they have the highest amount of carbon dioxide emissions worldwide with 22.30% of the world’s total emissions. The pollution output that they have is significant, to the point that the air they breathe is unhealthy. China is the main contributor of climate change in East and Southeast Asia. The pollution that comes from the region has produced brown clouds, which block out the sun. From pollution, the area will see less sunshine, and smog will drift to other parts of the region. China is responsible for building at least one coal plant a week. The contributions of the countries within East and Southeast Asia are unbalanced with China and Japan being two of worlds largest contributors, while other neighboring countries and island nations produce some of the smaller amounts of C02 in the world. Unfortunately every country will bear the consequences of climate change regardless of their own contribution.
~Musa Kanso
Impacts of Climate Change
China is the biggest emitter of Carbon Dioxide on the planet, and the effects are currently noticeable and will increasingly be more severe in China (the air is barely breathable). There have been numerous landslides due to torrential rains and over 1,000 people were killed in the latest one last August. However, other nations within East and Southeast Asia such as the Maldives are seeing dramatic shifts in sea levels that threaten the future of their country. There is talk of purchasing land in India and Sri Lanka because it is a very real possibility that the country will actually run out of land. For example, one island in the Maldives is predicted to be uninhabitable in 20 years time due to increasingly severe storms, but mainly because there won't be enough land for people to live on. In Thailand "the rice bowl of Asia," climate change threatens to submerge the capital city and destroy the rice business. Thailand is the largest exporter of rice in the world and the loss of that industry would be catastrophic to Thailand’s economy.
~Hannah Sorenson
Proposed Solutions
Seeing as climate change is becoming a more and more apparent problem in South Eastern Asia, it is important to recognize the steps to resolving the growing issue.
The first organized effort towards ending climate change is a treaty called the Kyoto Protocol, which was negotiated in December of1997, in Kyoto, Japan. Though the treaty did not come into effect until 2005, it has already made a huge dent in lowering the emission levels (about a 30% cut by 2010). The overall plan of the treaty is to bind the involved countries to cutting their collective emissions by 5.2% compared to what they previously emitted in 1990. Another organized effort for the slowing of climate change is the Asian Development Bank (ADB). This is a development which finances any program that will efficiently move towards the progression of the country involved.
This program’s main focus is developing underprivileged parts of the world. They have found that climate change will be one of the most important factors that will hinder the future growth of these up and coming countries. Since discovering this world dilemma, they have created strategies that will give Asia a chance at having a much more sustainable, climate-resilient future.
~Michael Campbell
~Michael Campbell
