Creating A Coalition : Senator Smith

In his essay titled “Climate of Denial”, Al Gore, a well known environmental advocate and former vice president, verifies the reality of climate change and global warming. The piece is an attack on corrupt companies and news outlets that attempt to persuade the public that global warming is not a critical issue. Gore also earnestly conveys our environment’s current state and offers possible solutions that would increase awareness about global warming and begin to revert the planet back to a healthier, more sustainable state. The overarching purpose of Gore’s work is to call attention to the widespread climate change that is occurring. However, he also focuses on the corruption and bias within the media, and their attempts to conceal the truth about global warming. Writing to those who are conflicted about who to believe, he makes a valid argument that defends the beliefs of he and his fellow activists and encourages others to become more active in the climate change issue.

As a kid who has cared about nature his entire life, and an avid modern environmentalist for four years and counting, this issue has been at the center of my psyche for quite some time. I have seen public perspective on this issue change before my eyes. From the original rejection of Al Gore’s Inconvenient Truth movie on “global warming” to personally marching alongside 300,000 people in our nation's capital to raise awareness on climate change. However, despite all of these avenues the issue is still spoken about as this distant idea that eventually will be a disaster. Many politicians and news networks speak of the need for slow implementation of policies and programs to right our environmental wrongs. The best way to paraphrase the common narrative of this issue would be to say, climate change is going to happen down the road, it will probably be bad and trying to fix it in the near future would be a good idea. That weak call to action shoves climate change onto the long to-do list of the leaders of our world. Not only does it not create the urgency needed to actually curb the effects of our environmental ignorance, but it does not accurately describe the threat of a changing climate. Treating this like a political issue will not allow for the rigorous changes needed to address such a problem in the timely manner that is required.

Democrats and Republicans highly differ when comparing views on climate change. The Democrats accept human role in climate change while many Republicans question if climate change is even real. In the 2016 Democratic Party Platform (27), they state “in the first 100 days of the next administration, the president will convene a summit of the words best engineers, climate scientists, policy experts, activists, and indigenous communities to chart a course to solve the climate crisis.” This is highlighted previously when President Obama, a Democrat, traveled to Paris for a convention about climate change where he met other leaders around the world to make a plan to help fix the issues surrounding climate change. This shows the basic principles of the Democratic Party as internationalist and having the large government—as it states in the

However, the bigger question is how elected officials and administrative leaders reach a tipping point to take action that is meaningful knowing that resources will be required to make such a change. In the article “Tipping Point Leadership” by Kim and Mauborgne such an opportunity presents itself when “a critical mass of people are engaged…(then) such a movement can be unleashed only by agents who make unforgettable and unarguable calls for change, who concentrate their resources on what really matters.” All decent leaders likely realize that resources must be found to battle issues such as climate change, but the great leaders do not look for additional resources they reallocate resources or “change key

Jefferson Smith: The Unlikely yet Perfect Senator Imagine this: your governor wants someone to become your state’s Senator and its between them and his corrupt political boss’s selection. He decides to flip a coin to choose, which happens to land on its side.

Presently in today 's congress, the job of congressman/woman is becoming very difficult. With the senate being controlled by democrats and the House of Representatives being controlled by Republican. The part of the Job to be a consensus builder is proved to be very long and difficult. Two very different political parties with very different political ideas. Agreeing on such ideas between the two can be long and tedious. Especially when drafting and creating laws. This disagreement between parties can be be interpreted by the public and especially the media as Congress being lazy and doing nothing.So what are they actually doing? Why does Congress seem to be doing nothing? The answer is not whether congress’s has good work ethic , because according to a recent article in USA Today a congressman works on average 70 hours a week while in Washington and a 59 hour week while back in their home districts.(Korte) The 112th congress, are now Congress

Nevertheless, when H.R 5175 made it to the Senate under the title of S.3628 the journey to its passage would be far more complicated. This complication is due to the Senate’s institutional design that protects the minority party in the Senate. During the 111th Senate, Democrats also controlled this chamber with 57 Democrats, 2 independents who caucused with Democrats and 41 Republicans. This majority allowed democrats to take introduce their bill in the Senate, and move to proceed all within the same day. That said, while the Democrats may have the majority in the Senate they do not have nearly as much power as a majority party in the House. Individual senators have for more power than a representative, when it comes to producers within

Frank Capra portrays many examples of the senate in Mr. smith Goes to Washington. Through the film he uses characters with and without knowledge about the senate to explain the complexities of the senate. There are good examples made to teach the audience what people do in the senate and how bills are proposed and finalized. In addition, the film shows that the person you thought was your friend in politics, goes behind your back. Senators may work together but in the end, it is each man for himself.

First, I am going to consider the issue, “impacts of climate change”, voted in 2014. This is an offer for an amendment to the Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriation Act. This act is to prohibits federal agencies to consider

The United States Congress, comprised of the House of Representatives and the Senate, composes the Legislative Branch of the federal government of the United States. Congress is supposed to be extremely effective at enacting legislation dealing with major national issues, both at the domestic level and the foreign level. However, in recent years, members of Congress with differing views have not been able to find middle ground and enact much-needed legislation, although they often did in the past. This inaction, or congressional gridlock, has existed for a while but has become an extremely prevalent issue in recent years. In fact, according to a paper by Sarah Binder, a researcher at the Brookings Institution, the frequency of legislative

Attending the January 13, 2016, Climate Change Research and Action in Washington State symposium, gave me hope for common and individual action. One of the keynote presenters Dr. John Byrne, was at the UNFCCC COP 21 in Paris, France and he spoke of how internationally, we are struggling to address concerns, but nations, states, and towns are making things happen. A polycentric approach to our local and global concerns. Local people, helping people in our individual communities. However, Dr. John Byrne at his meet and greet prior to the symposium, eluded to a lack of discussion for those who are disadvantaged in society. We are still struggling for democracy.

The climate change impacts of greenhouse gases threaten the economic development and environmental quality. These threats indicate that all nations regardless their economic growth should work collaboratively to reduce the emission to a certain level. Hare et al. (2011) argued that “climate change is a collective action problem” thus requires a global coordination from all countries. This indicates that actions from several countries would never be sufficient to address the climate change problem. If a global target to limit warming to 2°C or below is about to achieve (UNFCCC 2010, p.4) a broad range of participation is required (Hare et al., 2011). However, the increasing complexity of negotiation processes is inevitable. Each country will pursue its own interests during the

What’s at stake for the key parties, including those that may disagree with you? What is important to them? What does the target value and why?

International Research Journal , September 2010 ISSN- 0975-3486 RNI: RAJBIL 2009/30097 VOL I * ISSUE 12

A meeting discussing global warming and the ongoing climate change (and the impact CO2 emissions have on the growing problem) has been in session in Peru for the past few days. Dozens of world leaders are gathering to discuss possible changes that can be implemented to halt the increase in temperature seen around the globe. However, many prominent scientists have stated that it may be too late for these world leaders to make any significant impacts (Associated). These scientists, and many other people around the world, believe that humans have contributed significantly to global warming, and as a result mankind needs to do whatever it can to combat this ongoing crisis. Nearly 3,500 miles away from Peru, United States Senator James Inhofe is in Washington D.C., representing Oklahoma in the United States Senate. Senator Inhofe is one of the loudest preachers of the belief that global warming is not the dire threat that so many scientists make it out to be. Inhofe has claimed that it is “arrogant for people to believe human beings are able to change what He (God) is doing in the climate” (Tashman). The Senator believes that only God controls the climate and the environment, and to even think that humans are impacting the earth’s climate is misguided (Tashman). These two opposing viewpoints bring with them questions of religion, politics, human responsibility, and ultimately the fate of the planet. On one side, there are those who say that the science is so concrete, and the