On Andrew Guzman's WAC Presentation

     Last night, a few colleagues and I went to the World Affairs Council in San Francisco to listen to  Harvard Law graduate and esteemed economist Andrew Guzman. The topic was climate change. before yesterday, I was steadfast in my stance on global warming. I was certain that changes regarding air pollution in America were needed , but I was insistent that the government should should limit its involvement to existing laws and regulations. A high degree of regulation is expensive and generally does not align with my views on what the role of government should be in the United States.
     The main idea of Guzman's speech was that global warming's effects are more than a rising ocean level (although he emphasized on the seriousness of rising oceans by bringing up the Maldives as well as the fact that Bangladesh would lose 17 percent of its land if the global temperature went up 2 degrees Fahrenheit). Climate change depletes people's access to fresh water, which has a directly negative effect on food supply. Guzman described the decrease of fresh water as a "danger multiplier" in areas of conflict such as India and Pakistan and Israel and Palestine that are already relatively deprived of water. Wars may eventually be fought over rivers and reservoirs as access to glacier water decreases dramatically. In the two aforementioned conflicts, the risk of nuclear proliferation is always existent. A decrease in water would bring this risk to an entirely new level.
     Needless to say, I changed my view on government involvement. While I do not believe that cap-and-trade and carbon credit programs should be overly burdensome and have the ability to kill small businesses, the government should create reasonable regulations that allow future generations to live comfortably without as much war and suffering.
     Citizens have a commitment to this as well. By living on Earth and reaping its benefits, humans make a negative impact on the environment. They always have. We can lessen our impact slightly, however. It does not hurt to recycle more or drive a little less. We don't have to live off the grid or sell our cars. Just acknowledging our impact on the world and slightly changing our habits accordingly makes a monumental difference.