First off, I find it disheartening that future generations might not know what a walrus is. I think the recent efforts made by the Federal Aviation Authority in re-routing flights around the stranded walruses is a great idea in preventing stampedes. It’s nice to see that the major efforts that the Obama Administration has had in advocating for environmental protection at the international level, such as in the UN Climate Summit, has not taken away from helping the specific local externalities of global warming. Ultimately, I believe that re-routed flights aren’t enough to prevent the extinction of walruses. For the short term, it’s excellent. However, in the long term, carbon emissions must be heavily reduce because even without stampedes, walruses will not be able to find food at the rate the polar ice caps are melting.
It is amazing to me how much that the ice in the polar caps has been retreating over the past years, with little done by the world leaders to change this. I think that keeping airplanes out of the area to stop a stampede is a great thing to do, but I do not think that that is a big enough response to the problem. It feels to me like we are putting a band aid on a cut that needs stitches. I would like to see more done not only by the US government, but governments world wide.
Going off of what Que said, this is definitely a short term solution. To prevent a growing number of symptoms of climate change like this one (and worse), we instead need to start preventing the causes.
It makes you wonder how much will have to happen for climate change to be taken as a more serious issue by everyone. Yes there are prominent figures such as President Obama calling for reform, however as seen in a Daily Show clip I posted on a previous global warming post, there are still many members of our own government that do not think climate change is real. Will it take humans being the ones who are clearly and seriously harmed by climate change for real change in policy to happen? And will it then, like for these walruses, potentially be too late?
I also share the same opinion, this is the best example of market failure and there is no government intervention to fix this problem. The picture of Walruses is so heart-breaking when I look at it, to know that “those animals have essentially run out of offshore sea ice, and have no other choice but to come ashore,” I am angry. We are paying the price for global warming and those innocent animals are suffering from it. I wish there would be more action to save the Walruses.
First off, I find it disheartening that future generations might not know what a walrus is. I think the recent efforts made by the Federal Aviation Authority in re-routing flights around the stranded walruses is a great idea in preventing stampedes. It’s nice to see that the major efforts that the Obama Administration has had in advocating for environmental protection at the international level, such as in the UN Climate Summit, has not taken away from helping the specific local externalities of global warming. Ultimately, I believe that re-routed flights aren’t enough to prevent the extinction of walruses. For the short term, it’s excellent. However, in the long term, carbon emissions must be heavily reduce because even without stampedes, walruses will not be able to find food at the rate the polar ice caps are melting.
ReplyDeleteIt is amazing to me how much that the ice in the polar caps has been retreating over the past years, with little done by the world leaders to change this. I think that keeping airplanes out of the area to stop a stampede is a great thing to do, but I do not think that that is a big enough response to the problem. It feels to me like we are putting a band aid on a cut that needs stitches. I would like to see more done not only by the US government, but governments world wide.
ReplyDeleteGoing off of what Que said, this is definitely a short term solution. To prevent a growing number of symptoms of climate change like this one (and worse), we instead need to start preventing the causes.
ReplyDeleteIt makes you wonder how much will have to happen for climate change to be taken as a more serious issue by everyone. Yes there are prominent figures such as President Obama calling for reform, however as seen in a Daily Show clip I posted on a previous global warming post, there are still many members of our own government that do not think climate change is real. Will it take humans being the ones who are clearly and seriously harmed by climate change for real change in policy to happen? And will it then, like for these walruses, potentially be too late?
A definition of a market failure caused by externalities.
ReplyDeleteI also share the same opinion, this is the best example of market failure and there is no government intervention to fix this problem. The picture of Walruses is so heart-breaking when I look at it, to know that “those animals have essentially run out of offshore sea ice, and have no other choice but to come ashore,” I am angry. We are paying the price for global warming and those innocent animals are suffering from it. I wish there would be more action to save the Walruses.
ReplyDelete