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, or
De f e nd y o
i
ur
l ty
s
…
e l f
b u t 1. US Government
a d g u n d t o
ple re sp o The USA could lead by example but you
m u s t !
yo u s a t i o n did the opposite!
a c c u
your
• Starting a carbon cap (limit on CO2) would
reduce emissions dramatically. Taxing it
The USA emits the most greenhouse gases (GHG) of any major would also.
nation:
• The US Government refused to sign the
• 2 times as much as: UK, Germany, Italy and 3 times as much as Mexico Kyoto Protocol. (the most significant effort
& France taken by governments to reduce GHGs)

• Almost nothing has been done to promote alternative energy. • Instead of taking action you push ethanol as
a fuel which in the end, creates as much
• The USA continues pushing Petroleum (oil) based products; causing a greenhouse gas pollution as petroleum.
large amount of carbon dioxide emissions.

• You could try to decrease it by taxing it, but you have kept your taxes
low at 38 cents per gallon. Other countries in Europe, for example, tax
2 as follows: France $3.92, Germany $4.40.
 2. US Consumers
Buy, Buy, buy. That’s you….Capitalism at its best
• US consumer culture lies at the core of this crisis.
Bigger houses, more stuff, constant buying.
• USA has 5% of the worlds population, but consumes
more than 25% of the worlds resources.
• If everyone in the world consumed like a typical US
consumer, we would need 3-5 more planets.
• The average US consumer consumes twice as much as
they did 50 years ago and spends 4x more shopping as
people in developed European countries.
• Behind all the consumption is the burning of fossil
fuels- creating more CO2 contributing to those GHGs
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Defend yourself, or plead
guilty … but you must
respond to your accusation!
Your addiction to cars and oil are also
contributing to greenhouse gas pollution. You
drive EVERYWHERE.
The average person in the US creates 4x the
carbon emissions as the average Chinese
person. China may release more greenhouse
gases overall, but if the Chinese lived like
Americans—we would be in even more
trouble.
 Defend
yoursel
f, or ple
3. Governments of China, India guilty …
respond
but you ad
must
and “other” developing countries to your
accusat
ion!
The fuel that releases the most CO2 into the
atmosphere is coal. Your countries are not only using a lot of
coal you are burning down forests also!
• China burns more coal each year than the US, Japan
and the EU put together.
• Cutting down trees and burning rainforest
• land is responsible for 15% of greenhouse
In the next 8 years China plans to add 562 coal-fired
gases yearly.
plants. BIG plants.
• People think that poor countries are not to
• India plans to build 213 during the same time.
blame for climate change, but than be.
• We know that coal is the worst greenhouse gas
• Which countries were the largest emitters
polluter and yet governments of these countries
of greenhouse gases in 2013? China, the
continue down this path.
US, and India

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 4.“The Market” Global Capitalism

How do we accuse a SYSTEM of being responsible De f e n

d
for a crime? but yo yourself, o
u r
accus must resp plead guil
ation! o nd t t
• Capitalism: Make a profit and you survive & prosper. o you y …
r
Fail to make a profit and you don’t survive. ..If you
can’t make a profit you don’t care about it

• Ex: If it’s in their best interest for Indonesia to cut

down the forests and burn them to make room for
palm oil plantations, they will do just that.
• However, burning the forests releases HUGE
amounts of GHG’s, which has a big impact on
climate change.
*Capitalism is blind to anything except profit.
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You have no heart, no empathy, no conscience.
• Profit is YOUR ONLY objective.
• The problem being that all the benefits will sit in
private pockets, while all the costs will be sustained
by people – mostly poor people - all around the
world.
 5. Oil & Coal Companies
Defend yourself, or plead guilty …
but you must respond to your
accusation!

We all know burning coal and oil creates carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, and contributes to climate
change.

• But you still send out messages that we need more coal and oil. You continue to destroy mountains to get
more coal and want to mine more in the US to sell to Asia.

• You push to open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling.

• You are not out to produce energy, but profit. You could choose to put money into solar and wind power, or
encouraging people to use LESS energy. But, you wouldn’t make your profit, so you’d NEVER do this.

• You fight consumer attempts to make cars more fuel efficient. Why? Because the more oil consumed by cars
= the more profit in your pockets.

• It’s as if you care nothing for the future. In your perfect world, you would drill, drill, and drill without
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thinking of anything besides where to drill next.