Profesora

ENGLISH PRESENTATION: “ENVIRONMENT LAW AND CLIMATE CHANGE”.


First of all, let me thank you for coming here today. Let me introduced myself. I’m Nancy Veronica Spelta. I’m lawyer and I’m here in my function as Director of Environmental Law Master Degree National University of La Matanza.
Let me just write that down for you so I really appreciate you taking the time to be here.
The subjectof my presentation is “Environmental Law and climate change”.
This topic is very relevant for us because all human activities, particularly the combustion of fossil fuels and the large scale transformation of land cover contribute to global temperature increase, which has a great impact on the environment.
That is very important, not only for us but for future generations.
I’ve divided mypresentation into three parts:
I’ll start with some ideas about the climate change.
Then, I’ll describe how climate change undermines the ambitious goals of:
a- the endangered species act.
b- The clean water act.
c- The clean air act.
I’ll end by mentioning the legal framework on climate change in Argentina.
My talk should take about fifteen minutes. Please don’t interrupt me. You’ll havesome time for questions at the end of my presentation.
By the end of this talk, you will be familiar with:
• Temperature changes
• Endangered species
• Water quality
• Air pollution.
• Environmental damage.
• Environmental legislation.

As a result of globalization, large number of industries were set up all over the world for which newer areas had to be discovered sopeople started destroying large forest lands. It affects ecosystems and it can create consequence on the environment. Changes in temperature, precipitation and water chemistry are altering it.
Global temperature has increased by 0.8°C over the last century. Climate scientists estimate that we are committed to an additional 0.5°C increase due to the amount of carbon dioxide that is alreadypresent in the atmosphere. Rising temperatures have been accompanied by a wide range of environmental changes, including, retreat of sea ice and glaciers, sea level rise, and changes in the intensity and frequency of storms and precipitation events. Rising carbon dioxide concentrations has not only changed the composition of the air, but it is also changing the chemistry of the water: carbon dioxide isabsorbed by the oceans, which forms carbonic acid, causing the acidification of the them.
These changes mean that regulations intended to protect natural resources and promote conservation will be applied under conditions significantly different from those that prevailed when they were drafted.
It is the reason, which is required decisive action to change regulatory practices to accommodate,offset and mitigate climate change. Three laws will be explored then: the endangered species, the clean water and clean air act.

The stated purpose of the first law is to provide a means whereby the ecosystems upon which endangered species and threatened species depend may be conserved. Today we see clear evidence that climate change creates new threats to already imperiled species by contributingto the disruption of ecological processes essential to entire ecosystems.
Some practices used to protect endangered species are: take permitting, recovery planning and listing, which stated that the major threats to the species persistence, such as: disease, elevated sea surface temperature and hurricanes, which are severe, unpredictable and all relate to climate change.
The most direct way toprotect the ecosystems in which these species live the mandate of this law, will be to address the cause of climate change: greenhouse gas emissions. However, because some impacts are inevitable, it is important that we also consider how implementation of it, can be used to reduce the vulnerability of imperiled species and aid in their recovery despite changing conditions.

The second law,...