When I played my role in the policy exercise, I felt like I was fighting an uphill battle against a phenomenon that has already progressed too far and against other groups who either wouldn’t or couldn’t do anything to help stop its perpetuation. I felt like the world police, trying to get everyone to follow the rules for their own good even if it seemed hopeless.
Over time, I became more sympathetic to the plight of the developing world, as it is being asked to commit equally to stopping a process they had little to no involvement with in the first place. It’s easy for developed nations to cast blame on these nations who are causing increasing amounts of pollution compared to the rest of the world, but I realized that their behavior is completely understandable, as they haven’t had a chance to grow as the developed world has.
We became more willing to contribute to less developed countries as we listened to their problems, and we had to take an increased international role in order to make up for the lack of participation from other groups.
The unwillingness of other developed nations to initially contribute or match our promises, as well as the obvious need for aid in the less developed countries spurred us to make an even larger contribution.
As the world stands now, I don’t think a simple contribution to a global fund and reduction of emissions will be enough to maintain a livable level of climate change. Technological developments and international agreement in conjunction with domestic policy and willingness to contribute, however, still could stand a chance if that change starts very soon.
Developing nations had emissions per capital that were too low to reasonably reduce further, and the rest of the developed world at the beginning of the simulation was hesitant to even contribute to other nations’ limited emissions, much less to limit their own production. Most of this was overcome however, resulting in a significant, although ultimately insufficient, reduction in climate change.
Personal change in consumption to more environmentally friendly products signals desire for change in production standards. The speed with which change can take place with significant impetus is very promising in a free market economy like that of the United States. Additionally, demonstrating irrefutably the havoc that climate change can and will wreak can help to catalyze these efforts, and education of the public can help to disseminate the most effective ways to combat the crisis.
