White Plains Public Schools



Copenhagen and Climate

Global History and Geography Name: _____________________________

E. Napp Date: _____________________________

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List the words images that help give the cartoon meaning:

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Explain the meaning of the cartoon: _____________________________________________________________________________

Is the cartoon effective? _____________________________________________________________________________

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Adapted from

UN Climate Change Conference

Read the following passage and then answer the questions on the following page:

The United Nations Climate Change Conference taking place in Copenhagen, Denmark, in December is widely seen as the last chance to stop average global temperatures from rising by two degrees Celsius by the end of the twenty-first century.

Most of the world’s scientists agree that global warming is a serious problem, that it is being caused by a buildup of greenhouse gases in the Earth’s atmosphere due to human activities such as fossil fuel burning and deforestation, and that a two-degree temperature rise will have a disastrous environmental impact in some parts of the world.

There is much less agreement among the world’s politicians, however, about how the burden of cutting total emissions of greenhouse gases should be shared. Many developing countries want the world’s richest countries to reduce their emissions to at least 40% below 1990 levels by 2020 – but the United States, for example, has been reluctant to make specific commitments, while the European Union aims to reduce emissions to 20% below 1990 levels by 2020 (and would aim for a bigger reduction if other countries made similar efforts).

It is undeniable that the world’s most developed countries, despite having only a small proportion of the world’s total population, have been responsible for a large proportion of greenhouse gas emissions, but fast-developing poorer countries with large populations are also contributing to the problem. China, in fact, is now the world’s biggest producer of greenhouse gases, with the United States in second place.

It now seems unlikely that the Copenhagen conference will produce an international environmental treaty in which countries adopt legally binding commitments with regard to emissions cuts. If there is an agreement, it will probably just be on basic principles – namely that developed nations must make substantial cuts to their emissions, that developing countries must agree to limit the future growth of their emissions, and that rich countries must provide financial help to poor countries to help them achieve their targets and cope with the effects of global warming.

Time, of course, is running out. In fact, the most pessimistic scientists think it is already too late to stop global temperatures rising by at least five degrees Celsius by the end of the century. Because global warming leads to a rise in sea level, some areas of land might already be underwater by 2100. The Maldives, a group of low-lying islands in the Indian Ocean with a population of about 300,000, are particularly threatened – a fact the president of the country recently called attention to by holding a cabinet meeting on the ocean floor, five meters underwater, with all the ministers wearing scuba diving equipment. It was a memorable publicity stunt, but will it have any positive effect?

Exercise: Decide whether the following statements are true (T) or false (F), or if the text doesn’t determine (D).

1. The United States is the world’s biggest producer of greenhouse gases.

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2. There has never previously been an international environmental treaty involving legally binding commitments with regard to greenhouse gas emissions.

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3. Global warming affects sea level.

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4. The European Union has a specific aim with regard to reducing its emissions of greenhouse gases.

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5. Most of the world’s scientists agree that a two-degree temperature rise will have a disastrous environmental impact everywhere.

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6. The Maldives are mountainous.

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7. Most of the world’s scientists are still not sure about the cause of global warming.

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8. Most countries have already refused to sign any international environmental treaty involving legally binding commitments.

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Answer the questions below.

1. What do the world’s politicians not agree about?

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2. What target do many developing countries want the world’s richest countries to adopt?

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3. Why did the president of The Maldives recently hold an underwater cabinet meeting?

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4. What will probably not be achieved at the Copenhagen conference?

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5. What prediction do the most pessimistic scientists make?

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6. In what way were the ministers in the government of The Maldives unusually dressed during their recent cabinet meeting?

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7. What has caused the buildup of greenhouse gases in the Earth’s atmosphere (according to most scientists)?

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8. What are the three principles on which there might be agreement in Copenhagen? ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

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Adapted from

“EL ALTO, Bolivia — When the tap across from her mud-walled home dried up in September, Celia Cruz stopped making soups and scaled back washing for her family of five. She began daily pilgrimages to better-off neighborhoods, hoping to find water there.

Though she has lived here for a decade and her husband, a construction worker, makes a decent wage, money cannot buy water. “I’m thinking of moving back to the countryside; what else can I do?” said Ms. Cruz, 33, wearing traditional braids and a long tiered skirt as she surveyed a courtyard dotted with piglets, bags of potatoes and an ancient red Datsun. “Two years ago this was never a problem. But if there’s not water, you can’t live.”

1- How and why has Celia Cruz’s life changed? ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The glaciers that have long provided water and electricity to this part of Bolivia are melting and disappearing, victims of global warming, most scientists say. If the water problems are not solved, El Alto, a poor sister city of La Paz, could perhaps be the first large urban casualty of climate change. A World Bank report concluded last year that climate change would eliminate many glaciers in the Andes within 20 years, threatening the existence of nearly 100 million people.

2- Why has the water stopped running in people’s homes in El Alto, Bolivia? ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

3- How many people could die? ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

For the nearly 200 nations trying to hammer out an international climate accord in Copenhagen, the question of how to address the needs of dozens of countries like Bolivia is a central focus of the negotiations and a major obstacle to a treaty. World leaders have long agreed that rich nations must provide money and technology to help developing nations adapt to problems that, to a large extent, have been created by smokestacks and tailpipes far away. But the specifics of that transfer — which countries will pay, how much and for what kinds of projects — remain contentious or likely to cause controversy.

4- What are representatives of nearly 200 nations trying to do in Copenhagen, Denmark? ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

5- Why do world leaders agree that rich nations must provide money and technology to help developing nations? ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Last week, a group of the poorest small countries debated whether they would stage a walk-out in Copenhagen if rich nations failed to provide enough money. Todd Stern, the lead negotiator for the United States, while reiterating that the United States would help pay, bridled at the idea that the money was a “climate debt.” And on Friday, the European Union made an initial pledge to pay $3.5 billion annually for three years to help poor countries cope — though economists project the total cost to be $100 billion or more.

6- Why did a group of the poorest small countries debate consider staging a walk-out? ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

7- What is the problem with the European Union’s pledge of $3.5 billion? ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

With its recent climate-induced catastrophes, Bolivia has become an angry voice for poor nations, demanding that any financing be paid out in full and rapidly. “We have a big problem and even money won’t completely solve it,” said Pablo Solón, Bolivia’s ambassador to the United Nations. “What do you do when your glacier disappears or your island is under water?” Scientists say that money and engineering could solve La Paz-El Alto’s water problems, with projects including a well-designed reservoir. ]

8- Why are Bolivians angry? ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The glaciers that ring the cities have essentially provided natural low-maintenance storage, collecting water in the short rainy season and releasing it for water and electricity in the long dry one. With warmer temperatures and changing rainfall, they no longer do so. “The effects are appearing much more rapidly than we can respond to them, and a reservoir takes five to seven years to build. I’m not sure we have that long,” said Edson Ramírez, a Bolivian glaciologist who has documented and projected the glaciers’ retreat for two decades.

9- How long does a reservoir take to build? ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

10- Why may Bolivians not have that long? ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The retreat has outpaced his wildest dreams. He had predicted that one glacier, Chacaltaya, would last until 2020. It disappeared this year. In 2006, he said El Alto water demand would outstrip supply by 2009. It happened. But global warming alone cannot be blamed for the longstanding woes of this exotic but desperately poor landlocked country, where per capita income is around $1,000. Urban water supplies are also taxed by population growth.

11- State another factor that has contributed to Bolivia’s problems? ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

“These are populations at the brink of surviving anyway, and then you have the extra stress of climate change and you have huge social problems,” said Dirk Hoffmann, head of the climate change program at the Universidad Mayor de San Andrés in La Paz. “What’s at stake is conflict — you wouldn’t talk about civil war exactly. But it will be unrest.” In fact, when taps dried up in Celia Cruz’s neighborhood, the Solidarity District of El Alto, rich La Paz residents still had water. In a nation that has rallied behind socialist rhetoric and indigenous rights, there were complaints. “The sense of injustice is palpable,” said Edwin Chuquimia Vélez, an official in El Alto formerly in charge of water.

12- What might happen as the glaciers continue to melt? ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

List the words images that help give the cartoon meaning:

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Explain the meaning of the cartoon:

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