Developed countries have a moral obligation to mitigate the effects of climate change.

Resolved: Developed countries have a moral obligation to mitigate the effects of climate change. My partner and I stand in firm negation of the resolution. We feel it necessary to define the following terms: Developed Country- is a sovereign state which has a highly developed economy and advanced technological infrastructure relative to other less developed nations. Moral Obligation- an obligation arising out of considerations of right and wrong. Morals are assessed based on the cost and benefits of a situation. Climate Change- Climate change, is a change in the typical or average weather of a region or city. Climate change is also a change in Earth's overall climate. This could be a change in Earth's average temperature. -NASA Contention 1: Humans have little effect on climate change and yet take on much of the blame for the situation. Subpoint A:Contrary to popular belief, humans have very little effect on Earth"s changing climate. Most changes to climate are a result of geological or natural events, which we have ZERO control over. These include Solar output, Volcanism, Earth"s orbital changes, and Plate tectonics. These might seem like they make minor differences, but these are responsible for short and long term climate fluctuations, including ice ages; and it can be agreed on that a massive cooling of the Earth for ten thousand years is a major change in climate. The earth has been going through cycles of cooling and warming for the last ten thousand years, and we have evidence which shows we are actually in a global cooling, which is part of Earth"s natural patterns. Why would us humans have any sort of obligation to mitigate the effects of climate change. Climate change is a natural process which we have no control over. Trying to change a natural cycle that has been going on for million of years is completely impossible, and we have no moral obligation to do something impossible. Subpoint B:Humans are incorrectly accused of the recent warming of the climate. However, this cycle of heating has been happening since humans weren"t even fully evolved. A quote from an article of Climate Physics states "About 450 million years ago the temperature dropped significantly even though the CO2 concentration was about 12 times higher than today. This disproves the hypothesis that CO2 causes global warming." This is also backed up scientifically. A graph titled "As carbon dioxide increases it has less warming effect" shows and explains how we can DOUBLE the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere with an almost unnoticeable increase in temperature. Increasing carbon dioxide levels also does not affect the atmosphere. This is because as the concentration of Co2 increases, so does the rate of photosynthesis, resulting in equal amounts of oxygen and carbon dioxide. Contention 2: Climate change won"t have a major impact on human lives Climate change as a result of human activities doesn"t have a major impact on human lives. Conclusion: Why we aren"t obliged Because humans are such a minor influence in climate change, we have no obligation to mitigate climate change. Why would we spend money to change the weather, and a lot of money at that. A book on globalizing renewable energy by 2030 states the cost to do so "might be on the order of $100 trillion worldwide, over 20 years, not including transmission." Alternate forms of energy also have major drawbacks, besides being very cost heavy, and these drawbacks do developed countries more harm than good. we have no control over climate change, and even if we did there is no need to worry, as the climate is just following natural patterns.