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Topic: Investing in the long term

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Ray
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Investing in the long term
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The future of our health and safety in the Shenandoah Valley requires us to change our attitudes is short run bottomline economics and invest in more sustainable long term solutions.  Just lessening how we consume energy and water is a classic example.  I am concerned today that so called "conservatives" do not see the connections of how important environmental protection is.  So we here must walk the talk and see that conservation matters for not just our children's future but the very survival here on this earth! 



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Debbie
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Since destruction of the environment is such a huge problem, a successful solution would require the cooperation of the world’s governments. In some cases governmental representatives have commendably displayed the courage necessary to recommend positive changes that would help the environment. However, real victories have been few and far between.


An example of this is the international summit that took place in Japan in 1997. Nations haggled and disputed over terms of a treaty to reduce emissions that are said to cause global warming. Eventually, to the surprise of many, an agreement was reached. This agreement came to be called the Kyoto Protocol. Developed regions, such as the European Union, Japan, and the United States, would cut emissions by an average of 5.2 percent by 2012. It sounded good. However, in early 2001, the U.S. government indicated that it was abandoning the Kyoto Protocol. This has raised many eyebrows, since the United States, with less than 5 percent of the world’s population, produces about one fourth of the emissions. Additionally, other governments have been slow to ratify the treaty.


The foregoing example shows how difficult it is for governments to come up with meaningful solutions. It is difficult to get various governments together, and it is difficult for them to agree on how to tackle environmental issues. Even when agreements are signed, some parties later back off from commitments. Others find the agreements difficult to enforce. In other cases governments or corporations feel they cannot accept the expenses involved in cleaning up the environment. In some places it simply boils down to greed, as powerful commercial giants exert strong influence on governments not to implement measures that would eat into corporate profits. Businesses and corporations have been known to want to get the most they can from the land without regard for future consequences.


To complicate matters further, not all scientists agree on how drastic the effects of pollution of the earth will be. Thus, government policymakers may be unsure about how far to go in restricting economic growth in order to control a problem that may or may not be as big as some think.



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