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The Brazilian ecological footprint is 2.9 hectares per inhabitant, if we relate my footprint to that of my country, we will see that there is a considerably good decrease. Over the years, especially during colonial times, Brazil was economically and environmentally exploited by its metropolis. There are trees known as "Pau-Brazil," which produces a paint used to dye fabrics and furniture that attracted a lot of attention in Europe, making it very valuable, which resulted in deforestation and few survive. Climate change can have natural causes such as changes in solar radiation and Earth's orbital movements or may be a consequence of human activities. Since the Industrial Revolution, man began to emit significant quantities of greenhouse gases, especially carbon dioxide. During this period, the original concentration of this gas increased, significantly intensifying the greenhouse effect. Thus, human activities had an important influence on climate change. We can cite as a climate change the greenhouse effect which is a natural phenomenon indispensable to keep the surface of the planet heated. The developed countries that most emit carbon dioxide in 2004 were in this order: USA, Japan, Germany, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, Italy, France, Spain and Poland. In Brazil, burning in the Amazon is responsible for most of the greenhouse gas emissions. This gigantic region needs conservation measures. When you drop a tree, the carbon dioxide that was stored in it goes into the atmosphere. The problem requires changes in many consumer habits. Citizens around the world, as voters, have the power to pressure their governments to impose limits on emissions and to adopt renewable energy sources.
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Hi Pedro,
You have connected many important concepts including climate, economy, and colonization. I appreciate that you provided a historical context with the industrialization and natural causes of climate change. Do you think there is a power imbalance between these countries with the larger carbon emissions and other countries? You have also touched on a potentially important factor for change with citizens using their powers to pressure their governments. Do you think that governments may also have to guide citizens to change their ways? It is great that you have referenced sources on carbon dioxide emissions; however, I would encourage you to find the most recent data that is available as 2004 was quite a while ago now. I live in China and the pollution is very bad here and I was surprised to see it was not on the list. Here is one example of statistics from last year. https://www.statista.com/statistics/271748/the-lar... Great work so far.
Allison
Allison Bruce
Oct 2, 2017