Chapters 7-8

I thought that these chapters were much better than the ones of the past. The beginning for both were straight to the point. Chapter 7 started off with BAU (Business As Usual) and with Socolow, director of the Carbon Mitigation. I learned a lot of interesting facts about how Carbon Dioxide is emitted into the atmosphere. (like how 70 percent of our electricity is generated by burning fossil fuels). I was glad to see that there were actually plans or wedges on what we can do about climate change. I think nuclear power is a wedge that we shouldn't try though. It just seems to cause a lot of waste and I know other problems can arise if we were to invest more money in nuclear power. Plus, I didn't really understand how it stop the carbon and climate problem. It wasn't explained well how it could help.    

If mankind doesn't do something soon, it's going to be harder to keep the CO2 levels from getting too high. Both Socolow and Hoffert had completely different sides on carbon levels in the future. Socolow believes that they're going to decarbonize and Hoffert believes that the levels are going to recarbonize. There wasn't enough reason as to why they two scientists believe this in my opinion. Yet, I do agree with Hoffert. The way we keep causing more carbon emissions without any notice says that its only going to keep increasing. Even if the world naturally depletes some of the carbon in the atmosphere.

In chapter 8, there was a lot more information about politicians are saying about climate change. Of course, we all know Bush's stance on this issue. It's interesting how we refuse to be a part of the Kyoto Protocol even though we're the largest emitter of greenhouse gases. The Bush Administration has been stubborn with their beliefs and even mentioned trying to focus on "greenhouse gas intensity." This makes no sense to me. How is this going to help us? But of course, Bush rejects the idea of global warming because he just wants to continue using up our resources so that our economy can continue to grow.

"A treaty that requires binding commitments for the industrial countries but not developing countries will create a very damaging situation for the American economy," said Richard Trumka, secretary-treasurer of the AFL-CIO. This just shows how much of a selfish country we are. It seems our government is just ignoring the facts (or changing the facts like Philip Cooney did to government reports on climate change). There's so much we can at least try to do about climate change. Yet, our past president and other elected officials are too interested in making climate change look like some kind of a hoax so that our economy can continue to grow; but the world that we live in will continue to die.