With the recent election of President Donald Trump, the US has continuously showed little regard for the 2015 Paris agreement. This pledge that Obama signed on behalf of the US in 2015 stated that the country would lower their greenhouse gas emissions by at least twenty six percent, which is stated in the New York Times blog. However, Trump has displayed various actions that demonstrate he has little regard for the agreement. He claims that loosening various regulations on transportation and industry (largest contributors to carbon dioxide emissions) is better for the economy.
Although Trump evidently values the economy much more than the environment, it is not entirely ethical to disregard the agreement that US agreed upon. Over 140 countries came to a consensus in Paris and all of them have made an effort to reach their emission regulation goal. However, with Trump in power, the US is now on pace to have higher emissions than they have ever had, which is not even close to their goal.
Another reason this is not ethical on behalf of the country is because climate change doesn’t only affect the US. The rising in temperature has proven to have a major affect on the entire globe. Factors such as increasing heat waves and rising sea levels could leave millions of people inhabited.
Overall, the US has displayed little regard for this agreement and Trump seems not to care, being that there seems to be no consequence for breaking the agreement.
word count: 235
sources:
- https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/03/28/climate/trumps-executive-order-pushes-the-us-climate-pledge-further-out-of-reach.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=b-lede-package-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news
- https://climate.nasa.gov/effects/
- http://unfccc.int/paris_agreement/items/9485.php