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Kyoto Protocol and Paris Agreement

Pollution, Air Pollution, and Water Resources

In November of 1998, during the Clinton administration, the United States signed the Kyoto Protocol. However, the Protocol was never submitted to the Senate for ratification. In 2001 the Bush Administration outright rejected the Kyoto Protocol. In 2011 Canada withdrew for the Kyoto Protocol and Japan and Russia state they would not take on any further Kyoto targets. Without the backing of such major nations, the Kyoto Protocol, which does remain in effect, seemingly lost much of it significance.

In December 2012, 195 countries adopted by consensus the Paris Agreement. As of September 2016, 179 nations and the European Union have signed the treaty, of which 27 have ratified it. One of these nations is the United States, which signed the agreement on September 3, 2016.

One of the most important debates about the Paris Agreement is how much it resembles the Kyoto Protocol that the U.S. did not ratify and that failed to have much of an impact on global emissions. Opponents of the Paris deal say it's basically the same as Kyoto, an ambitious agreement that countries won't follow through on.

Supporters say it's the opposite. The Paris deal loops in more countries than the Kyoto Protocol and gives them more flexibility to meet goals. China is on board, however unambitiously, with the Paris agreement. Climate advocates say that's a major improvement from the Kyoto Protocol. The Paris agreement's broad nature is claimed to signal a new era of climate cooperation. The Paris negotiations attracted cooperation from China and other developing countries through another significant difference between it and the Kyoto Protocol — the Paris agreement's terms aren't legally binding. Instead, they are guidelines that call on countries to pass their own laws. The Paris accords also put more emphasis on the Green Climate Fund, which sends money from wealthier countries to ones that are still developing. The U.S. and other wealthy countries got developing nations to sign on to the Paris deal partly because they promised financial support.

Despite the Paris agreement's differences with the Kyoto Protocol, comparisons to the unsuccessful Kyoto agreement are tempting for opponents. The agreement is already gaining opponents in the U.S. Senate. These opponents criticize how low the bar is set for China, which is required to "peak" its emissions by 2030 rather than achieving any actual reductions. The disparity between China and other country's commitments illustrates that the Paris deal "is mainly political theater — like most aspects of this deal — to forward the interests of those most involved in orchestrating the agreement.".

Advocates for the Paris agreement see it differently. They point to its treatment of China as an improvement on Kyoto's shortcomings. China's Paris goals might not be ambitious, but under the Kyoto Protocol, China and other developing countries didn't set any greenhouse gas targets.

For more information, please review the following articles:

Kyoto Protocol. (2016). In Encyclopaedia Britannica. Link to article.

Driscoll, S., & Flynn. (2016). Global Warming: An Overview. Points Of View: Global Warming, 1. Link to article.

Shorr, D. (2014). Think Again: Climate Treaties. Foreign Policy, (205), 1. Link to article.

Kienast, A. N. (2015). Consensus Behind Action: The Fate of the Paris Agreement in the United States of America. Carbon & Climate Law Review, 9(4), 314-327. The "Paris Gap," and How to Fix It. (2016). Environmental Forum, 33(2), 22. Link to article.

Water Resources and Pollution

Pollution, Air Pollution, and Water Resources

Water covers about 71% of the earth's surface and organisms are made up of mostly water. The unique properties of water include: its high heat capacity (which means water is slow to warm and cool), one-half of all elements (and all elements in traces) are found in water which makes it a universal solvent, water filters some UV radiation, is cohesive, and expands when it freezes. Only a small fraction of the earth's water is available to us as freshwater. If the earth's supply were only 100 liters (26 gallons), our useable supply would be 2.5 teaspoons. The good news is that our freshwater supply is continuously collected, purified, recycled and distributed through the water cycle.

500 million people live in countries that are water stressed. The website, Nature: Global Water Crisis has an extensive collection of information devoted to the water crisis. Even where water is plentiful, many poor people cannot afford a safe supply of drinking water. A number of analysts believe access to water resources will increase in importance as a foreign policy issue over the next 10-20 years. Clashes over water are already occurring in the Middle East.

Worldwide, about 70% of the water is used for irrigation. Floodplains are highly fertile and have been settled by people since the beginnings of agriculture. In developed countries, dams, levees and channelization are used to protect against floodwaters but large scale flooding can overcome these defenses. Dams can increase the annual runoff available for humans but can reduce downstream flow to a trickle and even prevent rivers from reaching the sea. China's Three Gorges Dam is the world's largest hydroelectric dam and reservoir. This dam will radically change the regions entire ecosystem.

Tunnels, aqueducts, and underground pipes can transfer water. The California Water Project transports water from northern to southern California. This is an amazingly complex water delivery system. A massive water diversion project in part of the former Soviet Union has drastically shrunk the size of the Aral Sea and created one of the most serious ecological and health disasters.

Withdrawing groundwater from a water bearing aquifer faster than it can be renewed can lower the water table, deplete an aquifer, and allow contamination of water by salt and chemicals. At the current rate of water withdrawal, parts of the Ogallala aquifer in the central United States could be depleted by 2020. The North Plains Groundwater District website provides environmental background on the Ogallala Aquifer and other Midwestern water sources.

The United States, the world's largest user of water, loses about 50% of the water it withdraws. Government water subsidies and laws that govern the rights of water users provide little incentive for conservation. More efficient irrigation systems, such as drip irrigation which delivers water to the roots of plants are little used at this time. Xeriscaping, (using plants adapted to dry climates), and the use of graywater or wastewater can save water in homes and industry.

The major categories of water pollutants are oxygen-demanding wastes, which are broken down by bacteria, inorganic and organic chemicals, plant nutrients, radioactive materials, and heat. 

The oxygen sag curve shows how the diversity of life forms changes along its length of flow. Chemical analysis, fecal coli form bacteria tests, and monitoring indicator species serve as warnings that the ecosystem has become degraded. Pollutants from single identifiable sources called point sources are easy to identify, monitor, and regulate. Non-point sources of pollution such as crop fields and lawns are more difficult to control and regulate. There has been little improvement in reducing pollution from non-point sources. The Clean Water Act has led to improvements from point sources. There is controversy over whether the act should be weakened or strengthened.

Flowing water can recover from degradable, oxygen reducing wastes and excess heat through dilution and bacterial decay. Lakes and ponds are more vulnerable to pollution because they have little flow or water movement through them.  Overnourishment of aquatic ecosystems with plant nutrients, such as nitrates and phosphates, has caused them to become choked with vegetation.

Groundwater supplies more than half of the drinking water in the United States. It can take hundreds to thousands of years for groundwater to cleanse itself of wastes. Landfills, underground tanks industrial waste ponds, and agricultural areas are sources of groundwater pollution.

Oceans can absorb huge amounts of waste, but many coastal areas have become contaminated. Ocean dumping of wastes threatens marine ecosystems. Most marine organisms can recover from exposure to crude oil within 3 years, but exposure to refined oil can take 10 years or longer. A variety of methods are used to clean up spills, but none work very well on large scale spills.

Sewage waste treatment ranges anywhere from septic tanks (in areas not served by waste treatment plants) to primary, secondary, and advanced sewage treatment. Sewage sludge produced by these plants is dumped into landfills. There is growing controversy over using sewage sludge to fertilize food crops in the United States. New methods of treating wastes include working with nature. These ecological systems cleanse the wastewater by passing it through natural or artificial systems. The Water Conservation Portal  is an excellent website to begin to explore the issue of water waste.