Day 43–46: Climate Change Sparks Debate in the White House

WASHINGTON D.C. – This week, the world of politics was figuratively heating up as the globe was literally heating up following Donald Trump’s continued verbal attack on the Paris Agreement. The New York Times revealed Thursday that there is turmoil within the White House and, supposedly, the administration is fiercely split on this matter. Trump’s senior advisor and resident puppet master, Stephen Bannon—and his advanced knowledge of global climate change—is urging Trump to break ties with the agreement that essentially requires every country to make efforts to reduce its carbon footprint.

Daughter Ivanka Trump (Ivanka, sweetie, it isn’t take your daughter to work day so run away from your father’s chaos as fast as you can for your own good) and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson urge strongly against breaking the accord in fear of negative diplomatic relations.

In January, The Guardian published an article on Donald Trump and his views on climate change in which it asserted, “There’s no doubt the world will lose out if America decides to relinquish global leadership on battling climate change.” Diplomats from countries such as France and Mexico have threatened to place punitive carbon tariffs on all American exports, meaning that industries in the U.S. that create high levels of CO₂ emissions would be taxed heavier to export their goods to other nations.

At the end of 2015, around the time everyone stopped complaining about President Obama and starting wishing they could vote for him again, the United Nations began its convention on climate change. The Paris Agreement opened for signatures April 22, 2016 (Earth Day) and was signed by 194 countries, including the United States. The Paris Agreement has three aims:

• Hold the increase in the global average temperature to below 2° C.
• Increase the ability to adapt to the adverse impacts of climate change and foster resilience and low greenhouse gas emissions
• Make finance flows consistent with a pathway towards low greenhouse gas emissions and climate-resilient development.

The exact language can be found on the UNFCCC’s webpage.

The Paris Agreement will not go into effect until 2020. Facilitative dialogue about the details of the agreement will begin next year, including changes in fiscal policy to make the free market more eco-friendly and to push public and private sectors to involve themselves to make these goals possible.

But remember, folks, global warming is a “hoax” so really we have nothing to be worried about, right?

Because Syracuse is always in the 60°F range one day and snowing the next.

Just because you call something a hoax (multiple times) does not mean it is actually a hoax, particularly one that is “created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive." Talk about one solid conspiracy theory.

Backing out of the Paris Agreement could not only have detrimental effects on diplomatic relations but will most definitely have a negative impact on the environment. The U.S. is ranked second in the world in total greenhouse gas emissions, creating about 15.6 percent of global emissions. (See the rankings.) Further, global average temperatures have already increased by 1° C.

Unfortunately for polar bears and snowman families everywhere, Trump simply does not care about anything he won’t make money from.

So next time you go for a winter-walk through the woods, remember to take your swimsuit and sunscreen, because in the words of Smash Mouth, “The water’s getting warm, so you might as well swim.”