Race for "the Cure" ?

As Adrienne said in her response, “the US loves a good competition especially if they think they can win.” China is ahead in engineering and science based innovations, while the US priority or mentality streams from creating larger economic benefits, putting " green" technology second. The US always sees economic gains whether from national ingenuity or benefits from abroad. We put more focus on the green economy rather than the green initiative. With china depending on US tax dollars to fund their environmentally sustainable programs, the US jumps ahead in he race. After all, what everything always comes down to is money, profit and raising GDP.

This "race" blinds the overall importance at hand and it doesn't make sense to me. Why are countries “competing,” when the environmental problem is a global problem? This seems to emphasize the standard view of the environment, at least in the terms of the US. While the US may make a somewhat radical change with efforts to deplete the strain on the environment, such as a bag tax or implementing legal restrictions on industrial corporations, the government will not necessarily support the engineering or science based changes without an immediate benefit to US GDP. The US values the economy more than its ecosystem and will only take necessary action upon or after catastrophe, thus the standard view.

Therefore, I feel that a larger concentration is needed in refocusing the environmental problem on technological advances rather than economic gain. The ultimate priority of the US government needs to switch putting innovation above money, and if the GDP flourishes in effect, that's great. However, relating back to the standard view, innovation is not a complete fix. By manufacturing greener products, a company is in fact still manufacturing. While China is taking the push towards cleaner and more sustainable technologies on a long term beneficial scale, I feel the US is more focused on short term benefits, placing all the focus on creating greener products, such as cars, cleaning products and foods. A balance between industry and the “free market” economy, as well as cooperation among nations is needed in order to sufficiently tackle climate change.