Supreme Court’s Blow to Emissions Efforts May Imperil Paris Climate Accord by Coral Davenport
A coal-fired power plant behind homes in Poca, W.V., in 2014. Robert Galbraith/Reuters
Although
president Barack Obama had claimed that the United States was in full support
of the Paris Agreement to significantly cut back carbon emissions, the Supreme
Court recently interrupted the process. This decision to stop the progress of
President Obama’s climate change regulation could greatly impact global
warming. The commitments president Obama had made were to decrease emissions
from 28 percent to 26 percent. Although the court did not stop the rule
completely, it is currently at a stand still and it most likely set the United
States back for years. Although China currently has the role of biggest
polluter, the United States is the largest historical greenhouse gas polluter.
Because of this decision, other countries are questioning how committed the
United States is to helping make positive changes in regard to pollution. It
would have been possible to reach the goal of emissions globally if the United
States was on board, but because they currently are not giving their
commitment, this could be detrimental to the “low-carbon policies”. Another
issue with the United States not being totally committed is that this may cause
other countries to not agree to decline their emissions. Many experts are
claiming that the Supreme Court decision might be the first of many issues in
the deal. The United States is not the only country that is resisting the
agreement. It is believed that if Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders get into
office next that they will continue on with President Obama’s plan. However, the
Republican candidates, which include Donald Trump, Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio,
are unlikely to agree to the Paris Agreement. They reject the science of
human-caused climate affects and have denounced climate change regulations.
This topic relates well to the
course because it ties in with the ecological footprint. The United Sates is a
country that has a very large ecological footprint and we should be doing
everything we can to reduce it. If we do a better job of regulating the
emissions produced in the United States it would have a large global affect.
Reducing emissions from power plants, cars, buildings and other sources could
do this. There are many ways to ensure a better future, other ways we talked
about in class include eating less meat, conserving water and traveling less.
I believe that we should continue
with President Obamas plan to support the Paris Agreement. I was surprised to
learn that the Republican candidates question the fact that something should be
done. It is a huge issue that should be taken into account. There is so much
that the United States could do to impact this issue globally so I believe that
we should step up, be a good example for other countries and try hard to reduce
our ecological footprint.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/11/us/politics/carbon-emissions-paris-climate-accord.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fscience&action=click&contentCollection=science®ion=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=8&pgtype=sectionfront&_r=0
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ReplyDeleteI don't find it shocking that Republicans feel human activity is not harmful to the enviornment. They tend to put businesses and technology as more important life factors. Liberals see the enviornment as something that needs to be preserved and protected. I do, however, find it alarming that so many government officials believe that humans actions do not affect climate change. We have learned how our actions directly affect the globe and we are actually making the earth warmer. I think its crazy that people take science and treat it more like a religion instead of an important insight on the world. Science is used to understand the world and predict whats going to happen next so we can be prepared. Officials should be more open minded to what's going on before its to late.
ReplyDeleteIt will be interesting to see how the newly appointed Supreme Court Justice will impact legislation like this in the future. If a republican gets appointed then it seems like things will remain the same. But if a democrat gets appointed this may be a different story. I just wish the House and the Senate were on board. I hope they were listening the Leonardo DiCaprio's speech the other night
ReplyDeleteIt will be interesting to see how the newly appointed Supreme Court Justice will impact legislation like this in the future. If a republican gets appointed then it seems like things will remain the same. But if a democrat gets appointed this may be a different story. I just wish the House and the Senate were on board. I hope they were listening the Leonardo DiCaprio's speech the other night
ReplyDeleteI unfortunately am not surprised many Republicans have attempted to block President Obama's recent Paris Agreement regarding climate change. However, the facts are indisputable: man activities are contributing to the rising global temperatures. In fact, a new report shows that last month of March has set the record for the warmest March on record. This follows January and February of this year setting the warm record for their respective months.
ReplyDelete