Reflection 2

I think that this act is a really meaningful one. As a geography student, i know from all the lessons that I have had, that global warming is THE major environmental issue of the 21st century, and it relieves me to know that leaders of major cities are doing something about it.

Average global surface temperatures have risen a lot in the past century, and so has carbon levels. Since carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas which traps heat, it is no doubt that the rise in surface temperatures is partly due to the increasing levels of carbon, which in turn is caused by the increased burning of fossil fuel from transportation vehicles, idustries, as well as homes.

With the establishment of this act, in line with the current kyoto protocol, i think it would do quite a fair bit in reducing carbon emissions. I choose to say "quite a fair bit" because I think that though this act aims to cut down carbon emissions in major cities, there are still too many factors affecting global warming that needs to be taken care of, such as deforestation, planting of too many paddy fields (as suggested in the recent news, paddy fields contribute to global warming by producing methane), rearing of cattles(also produces methane) and many more. However, though this act, we can see, like what New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg emphasized on, "political will". We can see that people are taking more and more interest on the topic of global warming and climate change, and are starting to take actions like the establishment of this act. Thus hopefully in the future, there would be more and more of this kind of acts, this one would act as a stepping stone for all the rest to come.

Another part to this article is regarding the US president George W. Bush on not ratifying the kyoto protocol. This is no news, and has been published for a very long time already, and it is again brought up in this meeting. The US has been critisised by many, such as Japanese Governor Shintaro Ishihara, who blames Mr. Bush for worsening the environment, and also New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who criticised governmental inaction reagarding climate change, and said that they are lacking "political will".

From my point of view, it seems as though the US had been pressured into signing this accord to cut down on carbon emissions. However, this is still good news as not only will it cut down the carbon emission of the world's most polluted country, but as said before, it will act as a stepping stone for many more of this similar acts to come.

In conclusion, I think that not only would the established act cut down on carbon emissions and reducing greenhouse gases in the environment, it also would pave the path for more and larger-scaled acts to stop global warming. This act is indeed very valuable and meaningful.