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Sample Response to GMAT AWA Issue Questions
2. “It is unrealistic to expect individual nations to make,
independently, the sacrifices necessary to conserve energy.
International leadership and worldwide cooperation are essential if we
expect to protect the world’s energy resources for future generations.”
Discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the opinion
stated above. Support your views with reasons and/or examples from your
own experience, observations, or reading.
The statement asserts that international leadership in energy
conservation is required for the world’s energy resources to be
conserved for future generations and that individual nations are unable
to do this on their own. I disagree with this statement. Firstly,
individual nations have been driven to adopt energy conservation
initiatives without international leadership; they will be motivated to
do this simply to preserve energy for the benefit of their nation.
Furthermore, often international leadership and worldwide cooperation
fail to influence the entire world to conserve energy. Therefore, it is
not unrealistic for individual nations to make sacrifices to conserve
energy, and international leadership and worldwide cooperation is not
always required.
Factors other than international leadership or world cooperation have
driven individual nations to conserve energy. For example, most nations
in Europe develop and use automobiles that are highly energy efficient.
This is not the case worldwide. Such nations are motivated to conserve
energy purely for the benefit of their own nation as they recognize that
the earth’s resources are limited and must be conserved for future
generations. Energy efficient transport in such nations is not just
limited to automobiles but public transport as well. The governments and
society in these individual nations have chosen to find ways to conserve
energy, which proves that it is not unrealistic to expect the sacrifices
necessary to conserve energy.
Although the goals of international energy conservations and other
environmental initiatives are to encourage all nations of the world to
conserve the earth’s resources, they often fail in reaching their
objectives. For example, the Kyoto treaty was designed to reduce the
world’s green house emissions and many countries have signed this
treaty. However, the United States refuses to enter the treaty as it
believes that following the Kyoto protocol will have negative
ramifications on the economy due to loss of jobs and other consequences.
In turn, Australia refuses to sign the treaty unless all developed
nations are involved, its view being that it will be unable to remain
competitive if its energy consumption is limited whilst its competitors
will not have such impositions placed on them. McDonalds is an example
of a food chain, with franchises in many countries that strives to
conserve energy. It has adopted the use of energy saving lights and has
tested, only in the United States, 5 advanced energy saving restaurants.
Although, this is a great accomplishment for energy conservation, this
has not led franchises within other countries to follow suit. These
examples show how international leadership is not always able to induce
the nations of the world to conserve energy.
In conclusion, it is not unrealistic to expect individual nations to
make the sacrifices necessary to conserve energy. Furthermore,
international leadership and worldwide cooperation that aims to promote
energy conservation does not always succeed in finding support from all
nations of the world. Therefore such initiatives cannot be relied upon
to persuade individual nations to conserve energy and that it still
possible to achieve energy conservation without international
leadership. |
