CQ Chapter 4 Response

This chapter in Urban Issues showed me that, like pretty much everything, there are two sides to this whole issue, each with legitimate concerns, and neither looking willing to budge. Whether or not you agree or not with what has been transpiring in this country regarding the way we are treating climate change, you have to see that the other side does have real claims that have to be heard and possibly dealt with. That is one thing I liked a lot about this reading; it gives you both sides of the argument in an unbiased manner, something extremely hard to find nowadays. As someone who is obviously aware of climate change and the effects it has, I did not know as much regarding the politics behind all of it. Reading this gave me a lot of information about the issues that arise with the government getting involved with climate change.

While there are still be people out there who would like to try and deny climate change and the effects that air pollution has, they are mistaken and can only realistically still hold on to that fallacy for a little while longer. However, the main issue that comes up with things like Obama’s Clean Power Plan is government regulations. Whenever that gets thrown into something, the issue automatically takes on a lot larger argument. People will never be fully comfortable with the government being the ones to tell private companies what they can and can not do. Regardless of if someone might agree with the what a certain bill or order accomplishes, they might oppose it solely because of it’s association with the fact that the government is now regulating something. So that is one major issue that come up in all this.

Another thing that the CQ spoke about was the effect that Obama’s plan would have on many families and individuals. There are many effects across the board, from rising prices of electricity to loss of jobs, and people are, rightfully, cautious about them. Naturally, as stated in the reader, many Republicans are the ones who voice these concerns and they are legitimate. The economy is always a central part of any discussion, and it is not only taking place here. Towards the end of this chapter it talks about how other countries will have to “find ways to implement they pledges they made” at the Paris conference and many of them will deal with the same issue of controlling how much we contribute to air pollution, while trying not to hurt their economy as much as possible.

Regarding the other side, the arguments for are pretty self explanatory. Just looking at the chart on page 75 shows the fact that air pollution has to be dealt with, one way or another. Government intervention and enforcement is definitely one way to go about it; however, as mentioned earlier that is not always so simple. Many argue that changes are already occurring and we should just let the adaption to better sources for cleaner air happen naturally. While that might be true, the changes that are taking place are likely not sufficient enough to have as much of an effect, as soon as they needed.

The fact of the matter is that this issue is not as simple as whether or not you believe climate change is a serious matter and whether it needs to be dealt with. Like most things, it can’t be boiled down to one issue. These 20 pages show that there are many things to take into account and they all must be discussed and thought about. At the end of they day, there will be things that both sides don’t like, regardless of whatever happens; but hopefully the negatives are left to a minimum and for the most part, compromises will be reached.