A Global Agreement By: Makayla Merrell

The Paris agreement was signed by Obama on Earth day, April 22nd 2016, it is a global treaty to have every country submit emissions used as well as plans to reduce them. The idea is that each country who cooperates in the agreement would put diplomatic pressure on one other to reduce emissions below the 2005 levels. The treaty is the first true global pledge to address climate change.

The current EPA administrator, Scott Pruitt, reopened a review for fuel standards which announced that existing oil and gas well operators no longer need to provide information about methane emissions. If we are not reporting how much emissions are being reported then how do we know which one is the largest emitter? We won't!

Trump wants to basically "ignore" the entire Paris Agreement during his year in office. He also wants to cut back the Clean Power Program and Energy Star grants, which help fund the Paris agreement as well as research about climate change. This would cut back the EPA funding by 25 percent. Originally they were funded 8.2 billion dollars to research climate change, by cutting the funding this would drop it down to 6.1 billion. Not only would money be effected, but the staff who helps with these projects would also be cut by 20 percent.

This effects everyone around the world, by the temperatures rising it provides less fresh water to third world countries who are already struggling! The salinity levels from the ice caps melting is leaked into their water, which severely impacts their health and causes diseases. An increase in global temperature’s would also affect farmer’s crops by having a surplus of water, causing them to die. The outermost states like California, Florida, New York, Washington, etc. would all drown with the ocean levels rising. Not only are humans affected but our wildlife and forests would become severily endangered or extinct.

So what can we do about it? Well congress would have to agree with Trump to pass any bills that would disregard the agreement. Around 50 countries have committed to the agreement so if we don't then we will look bad. The more states we have participating in trying to reduce the emissions the easier it will be to lower them. Phasing out fossil fuel, especially carbon and coal, could be a big step in reducing our emissions put out. Developing new low-carbon technology is essential to research for the next generations to come in keeping our planet sustainable. We only get one planet so it is important that we come together globally to try and save it by lowering emissions.

Created By
Makayla Merrell
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