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Baldeep Kaur
Small
AP Comp Gov Periods 1/3
20 March 2015
Is Climate Change Real? Is the Government Real?
The people are unhappy with the UK government. Why? Because the government has
not taken a strong enough stance on climate change and energy issues. After the winter flooding
in the United Kingdom during 2013 and 2014, more of the citizens were concerned about climate
change. Dr. Stuart Capstick, from Cardiff University said, Public acceptance of the basic reality
of climate change and public acceptance of the human component of climate change have both
risen quite sharply over the last one to two years. This is something on the public's radar now
(McSweeney). At this moment, the UK government should step in to help limit the negative
effects that are damaging the environment, instead of hindering attempts to control the issue.
The Environment Agency advises against house-building on floodplains, but this warning
is getting completely ignored. Chair of the Committee, Joan Walley MP, has said that
continuing to build houses on floodplains at high risk of flooding is foolhardy as this is merely
storing up risk and costs for the future. With flooding likely to increase, the government should
enforce existing powers to require sustainable drainage systems in all development1 (Hussein).
As shown by the Adaption Programme, politicians give no nod to the fact that flooding is the
biggest risk in the UK (Hussein). Even though there are some dissenters from the common
viewpoint that profit is more important than the environment, like Walley, but enough is not
being done to dissuade people from harming the Earth in order to get more out of the world
short-term instead of long-term.
1 Italics are added in at my discretion.

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Another example would be what the government is doing with oil. George Osborne, the
chancellor, announced earlier this week that part of the budget was designed to help boost North
Sea oil production in the face of dropping global oil prices. The Green party is now concerned
about why the government was providing even more support for burning fossil fuels, especially a
government that prides itself on being green. Andrew Cooper, party spokesman on energy, said
that the Liberal Democrats/Conservative coalition government started claiming to be the
greenest government ever, and ended up giving huge subsidies to the oil industry. More
investment is really needed in energy efficiency and renewable energy, precisely the areas this
government has cut this government are climate-change deniers in all but name (Ball).
The US Environmental Protection Agency proposes that each barrel of oil burned emits 0.43
tonnes of carbon dioxide on average, which suggests that a weighty 50m tonnes of carbon
dioxide would be added to the UKs emissions if the UK budget measures succeed in producing
an extra 120m barrels of oil in the next five years. There have been conflicted opinions
throughout Parliament, even within a single person. Ed Davey, the energy secretary, pledges his
support to the Guardians keep it in the ground campaign earlier this week, but also is
defending the decision for North Sea oil extraction. On one hand, he is supporting a campaign
that urges keeping most of the discovered fossil fuel deposits in the ground to avoid calamitous
climate change, but on the other hand, he would rather keep the money in the UK using this
short-term fix than depend on Russia and the Middle East for energy resources even though that
would better suit the environment.
As shown by the research of Duncan Clark, a researcher at the UCL Energy Institute,
with the current trends, we will blow the global carbon budget and lock in more than 2C of
global warming in around 17.8 years and decreasing, which is around the time I would turn 35.

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Something needs to change with the way the government is dealing with the environment, and it
needs to be done quickly.

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Works Cited
Ball, James. "Coalition branded climate-change deniers over North Sea oil boost." Environment.
Guardian News and Media Limited, 19 Mar. 2015. Web. 19 Mar. 2015.
<http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/mar/19/coalition-branded-climatechange-deniers-over-north-sea-oil-boost>.
Hussein, Jamil. "UK Government must "grasp climate change adaptation challenge," MPs say."
Climate and Environment. The Weather Network, 11 Mar. 2015. Web. 19 Mar. 2015.
<http://www.theweathernetwork.com/uk/news/articles/uk-weather/uk-governmentgrasp-climate-change-adaptation-challenge-mps-say/47008/>.
McSweeney, Robert. "UK flooding pushes public acceptance of manmade climate change to
five-year high." Analysis. Climate Brief Ltd, 29 Jan. 2015. Web. 19 Mar. 2015.
<http://www.carbonbrief.org/blog/2015/01/uk-flooding-pushes-public-acceptance-ofmanmade-climate-change-to-five-year-high/>.