Economic Impacts of Climate Change

Economic Impacts of Climate Change Economic Impacts of Climate Change and Variability on Agricultural Production in the Middle East and North Africa Region 1. Introduction The accumulation of scientific evidences indicating that growing greenhouse gases will warm our planet becomes clearer. Higher temperature and changes in precipitation level will shrinkage crop yield in many countries. IPCC (2007) reported that most land areas will experience an increase in average temperature with more frequent heat waves, more stressed water resources and desertification. Stern and Treasury (2006) noted, that the â€Å"the poorest countries and populations† will bear the greatest costs of climate change. Therefore, the impact of climate change on agriculture has received increasing attention in the last decade literatures. Climate change coupled with population growth will deeply affect the availability and quality of water resources in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region (Alpert, Krichak, Shafir, Haim, Osetinsky, 2008; Evans, 2010; Gao Giorgi, 2008). In a similar way, Sowers and Weinthal (2010) argued that since most of the MENA region is arid and hyper-arid, slight changes in water accessibility and arable land have substantial consequences for human security. It is worth to take into account the climatic variability in addition to climate change in order to provide an integrated analysis of the impact of climate variables. Selvaraju and Baas (2007) stated that climate variability is the way climate fluctuates yearly above or below a long-term average value while climate change is the long-term continuous change (increase or decrease) to average weather conditions or the range of weather. In this study, we consider the possible impacts of climate changes and climate variability on agricultural production, with a focus on the region of Middle East and North Africa, where the deleterious impacts of climate change are generally projected to be greatest. In order to achieve such objective, Fixed Effect Regression (FER) is used to Estimate the agricultural production function using cross-section time series data of MENA countries. The advantages of panel data analysis are; getting actual responses is more informative to policy makers than resul ts from field trials. Second, country fixed effects capture all additive differences between various countries (Stock Watson, 2003). 2. Data Sources In order to estimate the production function, cross-sectional time series (panel data) are used. The panel set consists of 20 MENA countries for the time period between 1961 and 2009 including Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syrian Arab Republic, Tunisia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. Table 1 shows the data description and data sources. Due to unavailability of the data for few countries, some observations are missing therefore panel data in the model are unbalanced. The data set consists of two variables group. The first is economics variables such as net agricultural production index number in international dollar, agricultural machinery, total fertilizers consumed, labors, and land. The second data subset is climatic variables like temperature and precipitation. The monthly climatic data were available by meteorological stations rather than by country as shown in Table 2. Therefore, it was necessary to calculate monthly country averages of climate variables and summed up into seasonal data. Table 1 Data description and sources Variable Unit Description Source Agricultural production 1000 I$ Net agricultural Production Index Number (2004-2006 = 100) FAO statistics Agricultural machinery (tractors) Number Agricultural tractors, refer to total wheel, crawler or track-laying type tractors and pedestrian tractors used in agriculture. FAO statistics Fertilizers consumption Ton nutrients Total consumption of chemical fertilizers (N+P2O5+K2O) International Fertilizer Industry Association Livestock Head Buffaloes + cattle FAO statistics Labor Million Total economically active population International Labor Organization (LABORSTA) Land 1000 Hectare Total area of cultivated land FAO statistics Temperature Celsius Monthly mean temperature FAOClim-NET: Agroclimatic database management system Precipitation millimeter Monthly mean precipitation FAOClim-NET: Agroclimatic database management system 3. Climate change and agriculture in Mena countries According to the World Bank, The Middle East and North Africa is one of the regions that is most vulnerable to climate change, with the highest level of water scarcity in the world. The region has a total area of about 14 million km2, of which more than 87 per cent is desert. It is characterized by a high dependency on climate-sensitive agriculture and a large share of its population and economic activities are located in flood-prone urban coastal zones. Bucknall (2007) classify the MENA countries into three groups on the subject of water source and availability. First group is countries have adequate quantities of renewable water, but the within-country and within year variations are problematically large including Iran, Lebanon, Morocco, and Tunisia. Second group is countries that have low levels of renewable water resources and highly dependent on non-renewable groundwater sources and supplies by desalination of sea water like Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Libya, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. The last group is countries that mainly dependent on the inflow of transboundary rivers such as the Nile, the Tigris, and the Euphrates including Syria, Iraq, and Egypt. Table 2 Descriptive Statistics for Aggregated climatic variables during the Period 1961-2009 No. Metrological stations Temperature (c °) Precipitation (mm/year) Mean Std. Dev. Mean Std. Dev. Algeria 95 19.91 0.99 23.98 5.99 Bahrain 1 26.62 0.91 8.51 7.74 Egypt 52 22.42 0.63 4.14 2.15 Iran 67 17.31 2.70 20.03 9.05 Iraq 29 22.35 2.82 13.62 7.98 Israel 13 19.80 1.53 29.33 14.31 Jordan 15 18.95 1.08 15.77 5.04 Kuwait 15 25.91 1.23 13.73 7.49 Lebanon 12 18.49 1.78 56.58 17.08 Libya 27 21.14 0.80 14.74 4.12 Morocco 34 18.03 0.71 32.29 10.95 Oman 27 26.78 0.60 8.00 5.34 Qatar 2 27.46 0.70 6.40 5.05 Saudi Arabia 67 25.19 0.91 5.93 3.73 Sudan 47 28.30 0.89 48.51 57.62 Syrian Arab Republic 20 18.30 0.90 21.61 7.26 Tunisia 25 19.35 0.98 30.30 8.34 Turkey 315 13.03 0.89 51.31 7.73 United Arab Emirates 13 27.56 1.33 5.47 5.11 Yemen 12 25.52 3.52 9.70 7.44 4. Methodology There are various models can be employed to assess the impact of climate change on agricultural production. Ricardian model, Agronomic model, and crop simulation models are most widely adopted models for the climate impact studies (Lee, Nadolnyak, Hartarska, 2012). The Ricardian model estimates the examines the impact of climate and other variables on land values and farm revenues using cross-sectional data (Mendelsohn, Nordhaus, Shaw, 1994). Crop Simulation Models (CSM) restrict the analysis to crop physiology and compare crop productivity for different climatic conditions (Salvo, Begalli, Signorello, 2013). Because of the country level panel analysis, the production function model is adopted for the analysis in the present study. Model To estimate the impact of climatic change on agriculture production in MENA countries, an empirical production function for country i at time t net agricultural production index is a function of some economic inputs (Frisvold Ingram, 1995) and climatic variables: . Y represents the net agricultural production index,; M, F, L, A, and V are economic inputs which include agricultural machinery, fertilizer consumption, labor, cultivated area, and livestock respectively. T and represent temperature and precipitation. Number of agricultural tractors is used as proxy of agricultural capital stock and number of cattle and buffaloes is used as proxy of livestock production. For climatic variables temperature and precipitation, mean of the winter season (January, February, and March) , spring (April, May, and June), summer (July, August, and September), and Fall (October, November, and December) are involved in the model. Following (Barrios, Ouattara, Strobl, 2008; Belloumi, 2014; Lee et al. , 2012), The agricultural production model in the present study has the following specification form: (1) By taking the log on both sides, the fixed effect panel model is: (2) According to the fixed effect model, ÃŽ ±i (i=1†¦.n) is the unknown intercept for each country that absorb unabsorbed time variant effects and is a time varying effects. For climatic variables, both the linear and quadratic forms are integrated into the model in order to consider the nonlinear relationship between agricultural production and climatic variables. Variability As it is also sensible to estimate the impact of the variability of climatic variable along with the seasonal deviation and the mean temperature and precipitation, the squared of the mean differences of temperature and precipitation for each season observation is used in the second model. Then, This variability was measured by the seasonal coefficient of variation (CV) calculated as the seasonal ratio of the standard deviation to the mean of each climate variable for each country. 5. Results and discussion Review different papers to strengthen the discussion Table 3 shows the results of fixed effects regression analysis in which we estimated the impact of agricultural inputs and climatic variables on agricultural production in MENA countries. The results show that the regression coefficient of temperature is positive and statistically significant in spring, summer, and fall seasons. By contrast, temperature in winter has negative coefficient at significance level of 0.01. Regarding the estimated parameters of precipitation, precipitation during spring showed negative impact at significance level of 1%. The estimated parameters of nonlinear climatic variables indicated that each of the squared summer temperature has positive coefficient at significance level 0.05 while squared winter temperature has negative and significant impact at level of 0.05. In addition, squared spring precipitation showed positive influence. As expected, production inputs showed significant and positive relation with agricultural production except machinery and fertilizers consumption. As inputs and agricultural production are in logarithmic form, the regression coefficients reflect the production elasticity of each input. Therefore, 1 percent increase in each input of livestock, labor, and land, with keeping all other inputs the same, leads to increase in agricultural production by 0.16%, 0.98%, and 0.91% respectively. Table 3 Fixed Effects Regression analysis of climate change Variables Coefficients S.E. P value Intercept -0.0582 0.0160 -0.058 Winter Temperature -0.0582** 0.0160 0.000 Spring Temperature 0.0431* 0.0212 0.042 Summer Temperature 0.0730** 0.0213 0.001 Fall Temperature 0.0408** 0.0154 0.008 Winter Temperature Squared -0.0024* 0.0010 0.014 Spring Temperature Squared 0.0002 0.0016 0.892 Summer Temperature Squared 0.0043* 0.0019 0.028 Fall Temperature Squared -0.0005 0.0010 0.643 Winter Precipitation -0.0006 0.0004 0.128 Spring Precipitation 0.0004* 0.0002 0.050 Summer Precipitation -0.0001 0.0002 0.760 Fall Precipitation 0.0002 0.0003 0.438 Winter Precipitation Squared -5.0600E-06 5.1400E-06 0.325 Spring Precipitation Squared 3.8800E-06 6.2400E-06 0.535 Summer Precipitation Squared 1.5300E-05* 7.6600E-06 0.047 Fall Precipitation Squared -3.4000E-06 4.7100E-06 0.470 Machinery -0.0471 0.0282 0.095 Fertilizers Consumption -0.0269 0.0166 0.107 Livestock 0.1599** 0.0389 0.000 Labor 0.9802** 0.0481 0.000 Land 0.9128** 0.1000 0.000 R2 within 0.8932 R2 between 0.7827 R2 overall 0.7917 F test 120.8300 F-ui=0 951.88** Obs. No 980 The results of Fixed Effects Regression analysis of climate variability as explanatory variables and agricultural production are presented in Table 4. The results suggest that temperature variability in fall season seems to have significant and positive relation with agricultural production while it has negative relation in spring. Squared variability of temperature during winter and summer seasons have significant and negative relation. Furthermore, variability of winter precipitation have positive and significant relation. Likewise, the regression coefficient of squared variation of winter and summer precipitation showed significant and positive relation with agricultural production.. Table 4 Fixed Effects Regression analysis of climate variability Variables Coefficients S.E. P value Intercept 3.8918** 0.0422 0.000 Winter Temperature -0.2451 0.1818 0.178 Spring Temperature -0.5086** 0.1921 0.008 Summer Temperature 0.0418 0.1850 0.821 Fall Temperature 0.8505** 0.1929 0.000 Winter Temperature Squared -0.0825* 0.0408 0.044 Spring Temperature Squared 0.0204 0.0370 0.581 Summer Temperature Squared -0.0571** 0.0216 0.008 Fall Temperature Squared -0.0071 0.0487 0.884 Winter Precipitation 0.0425** 0.0090 0.000 Spring Precipitation 0.0269 0.0774 0.728 Summer Precipitation 0.1717 0.2138 0.422 Fall Precipitation -0.1943 0.1946 0.319 Winter Precipitation Squared 0.0221** 0.0062 0.000 Spring Precipitation Squared -0.0020 0.0034 0.558 Summer Precipitation Squared 0.0005* 0.0003 0.044 Fall Precipitation Squared 0.0056 0.0042 0.18 R2 within 0.793 R2 between 0.943 R2 overall 0.769 F test 11.620 F-ui=0 11.330 Obs. No 980 Marginal Impact analysis The excepted marginal effects of climatic change and variability on agricultural production appraised at the mean are calculated by the first-order differentiation of the equation 2 to temperature and precipitation respectively: (3) (4) The elaticities of climate change and variability of temperature and precipitation are derived from equations (3) and (4) respectively by dividing both equation (3) on and equation (4) on . therefore, the elasticities can be computed as : (5) (6) Where and refer to temperature change or variability and precipitation change or variability respectively. The marginal impact of climate change and climate variability on agricultural production in the MENA region are presented in Table 5. The impact and the elsticities of Climate change and climate variability are calculated using the regression coefficient and mean values of temperatures and precipitation. The results indicate that increase of temperature in winter season has negative impact on agricultural production as one percent increase in temperature during winter season will lead to a decrease in agricultural production value by 1.12 percent. Instead, increasing the temperature during the other seasons showed positive impact. Temperature variability negative impact on agricultural production during winter and spring as one percent increase of temperature variability, will lead to about 0.09 and 0.14 percent decrease in agricultural production. In regard to the impact precipitation changes, the results confirmed that increasing precipitation during winter and fall season have negative impact on agricultural production in MENA countries while it has positive impact in spring and summer seasons. Moreover, the results of the impact of precipitation variability showed that precipitation variability has negative impact during winter and summer seasons, whereas one percent increase of precipitation variability will lead to decrease in agricultural production in the MENA region by 0.037 and 0.013 percent respectively. However, precipitation variability showed positive impact during the season of spring and fall. Table 5 Marginal impacts of climate change and variability on agricultural production Climate change Climate Variability Marginal impact Elasticity Marginal impact Elasticity Temperature Winter -4.517 -1.115 -12.408 -0.087 Spring 3.746 1.567 -29.211 -0.139 Summer 4.130 2.025 7.039 0.027 Fall 2.897 0.927 41.713 0.265 Precipitation Winter -0.162 -0.092 -2.884 -0.037 Spring 0.019 0.005 1.038 0.013 Summer 0.272 0.046 -3.303 -0.071 Fall -0.040 -0.019 0.071 0.001 References Alpert, Pinhas, Krichak, Simon O, Shafir, Haim, Haim, David, Osetinsky, Isabella. (2008). Climatic trends to extremes employing regional modeling and statistical interpretation over the E. Mediterranean. Global and Planetary Change, 63(2), 163-170. Barrios, Salvador, Ouattara, Bazoumana, Strobl, Eric. (2008). The impact of climatic change on agricultural production: Is it different for Africa? Food Policy, 33(4), 287-298. Belloumi, Mounir. (2014). Investig

Life without mobile phones Essay

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Socialism and the South in Mark Twain´s Huckleberry Finn

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film crime Essay - 1549 Words

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The outside world was gloomyRead MoreSherwood Anderson Themes And Techniques1605 Words   |  7 PagesCarlstrom Mr. Kaplan English IV 6 November 2017 Themes, Styles, and Techniques of Sherwood Anderson Sherwood Anderson was a novelist, short story writer, and poet. He wrote with an intense personal connection to the project he was working on at that time. His connection with his works was so great that the work often reflected his opinions and life experiences throughout his writings. This connection is very apparent throughout his major themes: societal reforms, human sexuality and experienceRead MoreA Good Man Is Hard For Find By Flannery O Connor1655 Words   |  7 Pagesthe short story A Good Man Is Hard to Find, written by Flannery O’Connor, the theme that the definition of a ‘good man’ is mysterious and flawed is apparent. The reader must realize that it is difficult to universalize the definition of a good man because every person goes through different experiences. Thus, these experiences affect his or her viewpoint and in turn flaw ones view on a good man. O’Connor conveys this theme through her excellent use of diction, imagery, foresh adowing, and symbolism

What Does Flaubert Think of Emma Free Essays

Madame Bovary is about the life of Emma Bovary whose unhappy marital life has thrust her into illegitimate relationships with other men. Emma’s character serves to stand for the women of 19th century who found themselves in the web of unhappy life from which they failed to free themselves. The dominant theme of the novel is about the search of a woman for true happiness and independence but the irony of the novel is that she is deceived by the interplay of illusion and reality. We will write a custom essay sample on What Does Flaubert Think of Emma or any similar topic only for you Order Now Emma Bovary struggles to free herself from the conventions of the society through escapades in illusionary world and relationships which give her nothing in return. Emma’s character is criticized as that of a lustful woman but the way the author of the novel portrays and treats her is as important as the interpretation of the critics. The attitude of the author, however, has a considerable impact on the reader’s perception of Emma’s character and the readers come to see the character of Emma through the eyes of Flaubert. The novel is an admixture of ‘rebellion, violence, melodrama and sex, expertly combined in a compact plot’ (Llosa). What Flaubert thinks of his heroine is clear with his statement, ‘Madame Bovary, C’est Moi? ’ that implies that he can never think to imagine of the sufferings of Emma (Zarin). The story of Emma commences as she is married to Charles Bovary who is a physician. Charles undergoes an unhappy marital life before Emma where ‘his wife was a master’ (Flaubert 10). The author treats the character of Emma with a delicacy and sensitivity as she is presented as a romantic woman whose dreams are devastated as soon as she realizes that her choice to marry a physician was fatuous, ‘What exasperated her was that Charles did not seem to notice her anguish. His conviction that he was making her happy seemed to her an imbecile insult and his sureness on this point ingratitude’ (Flaubert 101). It seems that the author himself sympathyzes with Emma and wants to capture the reader’s attention towards her pitiful condition that is an excuse for the life she chose for herself. Another dominant theme of the novel is the interplay of illusion and reality which makes Emma to take decisions for her life. The callousness of her husband pushes her towards rebellion and she asks, ‘for whose sake, then was she virtuous? ’ (Flaubert 101). Emma finds escape in lascivious affairs with Leon Dupius and Rodolphe Boulanger. She ‘could not think that the calm in which she lived was the happiness she had dreamed’ (Flaubert 35). The sad fact is that Charles realizes his wife’s worth in his life after her death. Even when he has discovered the love letter of Rodolphe he admits that everyone ‘must have adored her’ and ‘all men assuredly must have coveted her’ (Flaubert 342). The attitude of Charles seems odd as well as he adores her as if a goddess and ‘she seemed but the more beautiful to him for this’ (Flaubert 342). But it is the choice of Flaubert who himself is found in love with his character that even after the enormous loss in the life of Emma she is treated with sympathy by the novelist. During her life the sole concern of Charles is ‘his reputation’, ‘fortune’ and ‘berth’s future’ (Flaubert 313). Emma commits suicide and does not realize her mistakes even after she is left by her lovers. The rites of passage does not appear in her life as she felt to be ‘disillusioed’ with ‘nothing’ to ‘learn , and nothing more to feel’ (Flaubert 35). The dilemma of Emma’s life, though, is that she fails to achieve perfect happiness and the victim of her rebellion was her daughter, Berth, who is bound to work in factory after the demise of her parents. Flaubert treats Emma as a woman who craves for wealth, joy and the superficial side of the things. The luscious style of life attracts her as the novelists describe ‘the silver dish covers’ that reflect ‘the lighted wax candles in the candlebra’ and the silk linen were the things that made her eyes glimmed (Flaubert 43). The ambitions of Emma lead her to sin and death are a part of western history of morality and religion (Llosa). The important aspect of Emma’s treatment of Flaubert is that the novelist portrays her character as a rebellious soul who is heroic in her own sense. Rebellion in Emma’s case’, says Llosa, ‘does not have the epic dimensions of that of the masculine heroes of the 19th century novel, yet it is no less heroic’ (Llosa). The attitude of the novelist towards the pivotal character is positive and he treats her as an Amazon of her own life but the fact is that Flaubert’s attitude inserts inverse imp act on the perceptions of the readers as they come to see her character as that of a lusty woman who bears no fidelity like that of women in other 19th century novels who came to compromise with the circumstances of their lives. The critics also criticize Emma Bovary for her impulses, her ‘incurable materialism’, her ‘predilection for the pleasures of the body’ than ‘soul’ and her ‘preference for earthly life’ which are also a part of a modern western woman (Llosa). ‘Here is the rebellion of an individual’, ushers Llosa, ‘and to all appearances a self centered one’ (Llosa). Emma Bavory represents women in 19th century society who are caught in unhappy marriages and aspire to obtain their wishes at every cost. Her story is that of a ‘blind, stubborn, desperate rebellion against the social violence’ (Llosa). She ‘violates the codes of her milieu’ only because she is ‘driven’ to act in the way as a consequence of her problems which she undergoes in her life (Llosa). The mastery of Flaubert lies in the fact that he links the thematic garb of the story with that of characterization. As the dominant themes of the novel include the struggle for independence by a woman, interplay between illusion and reality, theme of infidelity and betrayal. The interesting fact of Flaubert’s novel is that all of the themes are associated with the character of Emma Bovary who enjoys pivotal importance in the plot of the novel. This fact emphaizes the need to have a closer look at how is Flaubert’s own attitude towards the heroine of the novel and what he wants to imply through the portrayal of Emma. Emma is regarded as among the heroines about whose ‘appearance’ readers are ‘most likely to diagree’ (Barnes). Moreover Barnes finds it impossible to forgive Thackery for calling Bovary as heartless and callous. She is to be sympathized when she realizes that she is betrayed as she says to Rodolhe, ‘You never loved me. You are no better than the others’ (Flaubert 310). She was ;betraying, ruining herself’ for her ambitions (Flaubert 310). Flaubert shows that Emma’s engagements with the other men were due to the problems in which she was trapped and she was not disloyal to any one as Emma herself resolves to help her lovers when they needed, ‘I would have given you every thing. I would have sold all’ for the eternal love (Flaubert 310). Charles remains in the illusion that he had made her happy throughout her life, ‘Weren’t you happy? Is it my fault? I did all I could’ (Flaubert 316). The end of Emma’s life is presented with a divinity as ‘now’ a ‘twilight dimness was settling upon her thoughts’ (Flaubert 317) and she filled with joy on the ‘visions of eternal beatitude that were beginning’ (Flaubert 323). It was the ‘treachery’, ‘meanness’ and numberless ‘desires that had tortured her’, so she is rid of all the blames by the author (Flaubert 317). The character of Emma is presented by the author with such a sensitivity that it arouses the sympathies of the readers towards Emma’s character. How to cite What Does Flaubert Think of Emma, Papers

The Crucible the Great Gatsby free essay sample

GATSBY uses symbols to represent the hollowness of the upper class. East vs West is the first symbol he uses to make a separation between old and new rich. Another symbol are the unread books, which represents Gatsby as a fake; as a person who wants to show something he really isn’t. Daisy’s voice is the third symbol, and it represents the ambitious mind he had towards money. Money takes a fundamental role in the story, because thanks to it the characters change and become someone they really aren’t. Society has, indeed, a great part to play in shaping the identities of individuals. East vs west Egg made the separation between the social classes. â€Å"By comparison, West Egg is the locale of the American dream in miniature and East Egg is the home of those who are longtime captains of industry†. This was one of the reasons that shaped of each of the characters behavior. For example, Jay Gatsby didn’t have lots of money, but suddenly he was the most prestigious when compared to all of the characters. He thought that with all of his money the world could be the way he wanted to be and that he could get anything he wants. This reflects the kind of person he was and the carelessness he had. He didn’t care about others feelings nor something else, but money. This negligence was the first step for his hollowness, because later this lack of care will put people against him converting it into an obstacle in his life. In addition, the unread book reveals the real character of Jay Gatsby. Gatsby had an enormous library full of many books. Everyone was impresses and thought he was a very cultured man and intelligent. The real thing was that Gatsby hadn’t read the books and that he only had them as ornaments in his library. This shows the lack of genuineness of this character; he wants to show society the kind of person he really isn’t. With this example it shows the types of people the wealthy class are; they only care about putting a first class image in the society. This illustrates how they really don’t care about anything else but money. Other’s feelings were put aside and materialism as a priority. On the other hand, Daisy was ambitious, false, and superficial thanks to the money. In the story her voice was a symbol of her personality, when the narrator describes her of having a â€Å"voice full of money†. Unfortunately, her love of money drove her to finally decide in marrying Tom, again focusing on money and building a superficial relationship. On the outside, Daisy is fresh and pure just like the flower she is named after. However, in reality she is just like money in that she promises more than she gives. Thanks to her ambition, carelessness was very present in her person. Money drove her crazy; taking her to live an unhappy life because of it. By returning with Tom, and by not assisting to Gatsby’s funeral it clearly shows the lack of feelings she has and a person that is worthless. After watching The Crucible, one cannot help but wonder why when given the chance to confess to the accusations and live, did the characters choose to stay firm and die? For people today that question is not easily answered. In the past however, this was not a question at all. The answer is found within the strong religious background that most of the accused were raised on, and the feeling of pride and honor they felt in their hearts. John Proctor is the central character in the play. His tragedy is the most significant, for it emerges from a flaw deep within himself and is resolved by his own actions. John Proctor exemplifies the importance of a strong name through his actions and choices throughout the play; most significantly the fourth act when he chooses death over disgracing his name. Proctor shows the role of justice in his life, letting God be the judge of his actions in life and not their peers. Sometimes you have to stand for more. Throughout the play one of the central themes continues to be John Proctors, Giles Coreys, and Rebecca Nurses refusal to degrade their souls with lies of confession only to save themselves from the unjust accusations of witchcraft. In this time and era the people living in and around Salem, Massachusetts are from Puritan faith and live very strict lives. At the time of the witch trials in history there was still no separation between church and state, so the church had a major role in each individuals life. When Reverend Parris came upon the children of Salem dancing and conducting against their religion, they were accused of being in a pact with the devil by many of the towns people in the beginning. Rumors spread, and innocent people are charged of witchcraft. Some of the accused were, in every aspect, a perfect Puritan. Proctor does not want to confess to the lies he is accused of doing only to save his life. Proctor gets accused of witchcraft while trying to defend his wife, and he is later executed. For what is a name when you have no soul to go with it? That is what Proctor faces. The religious background of Proctor is the cause of his refusal to confess to the accusations toward him. Both Giles Corey and John Proctor believed in letting God be the judge of their faults. When Giles Corey refuses to answer to his indictment in order to preserve his lands ownership for his family, he is trusting in a higher power, God, even when death is his punishment. Proctor also feels this way, and when arguing with Danforth about his confession of adultery, he turns to God as his judge when he says, I have confessed myself! Is there no good penitence but it be public? God does not need my name nailed upon the church! God sees my name.