The Role Of The Federal And Provincial Governments In Compliance With Essay

The Role Of The Federal And Provincial Governments In Compliance With Kyoto Protocol While Increasing Oil Gains In Alberta - Essay Example Over the past century, man-made emissions have increased markedly and the vast majority of scientist, in a growing volume of established studies, have concluded that the earth's climate is changing rapidly due to the alarming amount of green house gases released into the atmosphere as a result of human activitiesiv. The gases that are categorized as Green House Gases include: carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, methane, chlorofluorocarbon, hydroflourocarbons and tetraflouromethane. Of these gases, carbon dioxide is the most prevalent and appears to carry the largest chunk of green house gases emitted by human activities. Scientist have demonstrated that these gases accumulate in the atmosphere, and that in large concentrations, they are capable of trapping heat within the earth's surface and in the process, overriding the planet's natural climatic variability resulting in irreversible climatic changev. This essay therefore intends to look at the problem of green house gas emission as it affects Canada's oil production, especially in the Alberta oil sands. The paper will specifically analyze how the federal and provincial governments are working towards solving this problem, with respect to the moral and legal obligations imposed on the country through the ratification of the Kyoto protocol and the competing interests of oil companies. The federal and provincial government, though sincere about attaining the emission reduction targets set by Kyoto, do not want to compromise the wealth that accrues from the Alberta oil production. In essence, though emission reduction is gradually being achieved through the several policies and programs, the oil companies are still allowed to increase their green house gas emission, accounting for this through the purchase of emission permits, either domestically or through international alliances. From this, it can be inferred that the oil companies are willing to cooperate with the government in achieving emissions reduction, as long as it does not impact negatively on their profits. This essay will demonstrate the tensions and compromises made between the governments and oil companies in their attempts to satisfy both economic and environmental concerns. In doing so, the first part of the essay shall take a look at the idea of ecological modernization

Debating Globalisation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words - 1

Debating Globalisation - Essay Example (Globalization, n.d.) Increasing international trade and financial flows are integrating the economies. Some countries integrate with the world economy more aggressively than others. For small economies openness to the world economy allowed flow of goods and services and capital inflow that the domestic economy could not provide. In some cases the geographical area of the country can also help in increasing globalization of the economy. The multinational companies acted as the key initiator of globalization. The process of globalization gained momentum in the second half of the 20th century and significantly developed over the last 20 years (Schlamberger, n.d., Kearney, 2001, pp 56-58: OECD, 2005, p.16). In order to understand the true meaning of globalization one needs to study the changes in a country’s environment due to the phenomenon and measure it properly to justify the changes. Measurement of globalization Globalization cannot be directly measured but its level might b e gauged through different indicators. The method is quantitative and statistical which conducts classification based on globalization of operations. Traditional use of statistics will not be enough in measuring the magnitude and the extent of globalization and needs to be supplemented with other indicators. Many new concepts are developing in the global economy, which needs to be defined properly and added to the existing tools, for constructing a suitable analytical framework. Moreover the existing International Standards need to be adjusted for considering the new developments through globalization. The two group properties that need to measure are the degree of globalization and the result of globalization. (Schlamberger, n.d.; Vujakovic, 2010) Globalization needs to be measured in three broad dimensions, the social, political and economic aspects (Globalization, n.d.). The elements of globalization are increase in the free movement of goods and services across borders, increase in the unrestricted flow of capital and labor across national boundaries and also transfer of technology. Along with this globalization also include flow of different ideas, information and culture from one county to the other. Though globalization is not a new phenomenon and has its roots in the industrial revolution of the east but the present wave has been initiated by a set of new factors like deregulation of financial services in many economies, emergence of modern and smooth transport and communication system and the development of the emerging economies most importantly. The transition in the field of information technology and the third generation revolution of technological changes boost the process of globalization as a whole. The key measures of globalization are firstly the share of the international trade in the total gross domestic product of the country; secondly the inflow and outflow of foreign direct investment in the country, and the inflow and outflow of portfol io investment as measured by the percentage share in GDP. The third indicator is the cultural measure of globalization indicated by the percentage of international tourists in the total population of the country and the measurement of income from tourism as a share of the total income of the country. The record of the international telephone calls of a country along with the percentage of Internet user of the country in the total popu