Environmentalism

What is Environmentalism?

Environmentalism is the idea/movement advocating for:

The environment, and protecting it
Sustainability
Improving natural conditions
Preserving the planet
Limit human impact

Climate Change - The change in the world's Global Average Temperature (GAT), usually due to manmade reasons/causes

Impacts include (but aren't limited to):

Warmer climate
Rising sea levels
- change in water salinity, loss of drinking/freshwater
More natural disasters at more common rates
Habitat loss
- Animal/species extinction
Lower air, land, life quality

All the above impacts are negative. People know climate change is bad. So why do environmentalism debates exist?

Usually comes down to:
- Feasibility/possibility of change
- Principles - spending energy fixing a problem that wasn't caused by us, but rather, generations beforehand

Earth's 4 Spheres - Points of Discussion

Biosphere

Contains all life forms

Hydrosphere

Contains all water

Lithosphere

Contains all land

Atmosphere

Contains the air and its layers

General Ideas in an Environment Debate

Advocacy
- Supporting/disagreeing with the environmentalist movement becoming very mainstream, and raising awareness
  - Consider:
    - Overall impact (long term+ short term)
      - What happens at the very end of the day? What does the world look like, say, 100 years from now?
    - Perception (from the general public)
      - How do they view the movement? How likely are they to support it?
    - Ways to "spread the word"
      - Social media, flyers, other types of promo, etc

Government Intervention
- (Pushing for) action(s) started by the government, leading to change in populations
  - ex. Carbon taxes on companies, monetary incentives for buying EVs, punishments for littering
  - Consider:
    - Pros/Cons of new policy
    - Feasibility of new policy - how easy is it to implement, and to what extent?
      - Helps determine tangible change that may come out of it (ex. if a policy is really situational and hard to enforce it probably won't be the magical solution to climate change)
    - Resulting input from public
      - Will people be upset/angry? Will that result in things like riots, protests, or general backlash?

On a Global Scale
- How willing are certain countries to adapt a new "green policy"?
  - Will be harder for some nations than others - Developing countries will have a much harder time creating infrastructure but developed countries may face problems with monitoring action from citizens
- International/Foreign aid towards developing nations
  - To implement green infrastructure/develop solutions to climate crisis
    - Generally expensive, not very effective, raises dependence for developing nation (refer to IR pages)
- Common debate idea: Punishing/rewarding countries more depending on their impact towards saving the environment
  - For example: China being one of the biggest polluters means needing to implement harsher policies/do more work

Sustainability
- Consider: Investing in green energy
  - Usually involves developing technology like:
    - Wind turbines
    - Solar panels
    - Gardens
  - Or just making them more widespread. Other options include:
    - Planting trees
    - Purifying water
    - No pollution of any kind!!!!
      - Air, water, land, light, sound/noise
  - Carbon footprint - total amount of carbon/greenhouse gases consumed or created by an individual
    - Common sources: Transportation, heating, electricity, manufacturing
    - Ways to limit it individually (setting widespread goals, etc)
      - biking/walking, carpooling, travelling less

Prevention/Adaption
- Often grouped together, just consists of ways to either slow down, or adapt to, global warming and its other side effects
  - Building dams, creating natural disaster survival plans/courses, investing in space exploration
- Consider:
  - How effective is prevention (Trying to stop global warming/climate change from getting worse)
    - Depending on what temperature the GAT (Global Average Temperature) is currently at. The more severe, the harder to do
      - involves changing ways of life that probably have been practiced for generations (fuel used for cooking/heating, etc)
    - Requires big government involvement/involvement from a higher power (not religious)
  - How effective is adaptation (usually follows prevention, involves changing society to fit/survive in new climate conditions)
    - Better alternative to "undoing climate change" - more likely to actually happen in the future
    - May include:
      - Creating new tech to cool down homes sustainably
      - Genetically modifying crops to grow better in harsher climates

Motion Examples:

THO the glorification of international travel

THS the expansion of nuclear energy generation

THW force countries that are major polluters to accept environmental refugees

THW remove all patents on green technology

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