New US government report finds human activity is leading cause of global warming
On Nov. 3rd, 2017, the United States government released its National Climate Assessment, the first within the Trump Administration. By law, the government is required to release this document every four years. Why are people still in denial of climate change after the government admits it’s a problem primarily caused by humans? Most importantly, how will this affect the state of the world and our future?
Over the past couple of years, scientists have been frantically spreading the news of the symptoms of climate change, as well as the near certainty of its worsening effects over the coming years. There have been warnings of, among other things, droughts, blizzards, famines, and rising sea levels.
Yet, the government has yet to reveal what they plan to do about the climate change in the future. According to Vox News, Trump was shown in the past his distaste towards climate related issues: He’s tweeted a total of 115 times about his skepticism towards global warming. He also withdrew from the Paris Climate Agreement this year, an agreement that would allow nations to voluntarily pledge to reduce carbon emissions and provide updates of their progress. Furthermore, in July of 2017, Trump stated his plan to repeal the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) regulations that “kill jobs, hurt family farmers and ranchers, and raised the price of energy so quickly, and so substantially,” according to his statement to CNN.
PHS Biology teacher Kathy Clowe said that “According to 2016’s National Labor Statistics, there are only 175,000 jobs related to coal in the country- and only 11,000 of those are reserved for mining.” Her data closely resembles a recent DOE report; which found that there are only 187,117 workers are employed at coal, oil, and natural gas power plants compared to nearly 374,000 people in the solar industry alone.
Trump has made some steps towards the use of cleaner energy sources. At a press conference, Trump said he planned to increase spending on the creation and upgrading of nuclear power plants in the United States. According to federal government sources and conserve-energy-future.com, nuclear energy has a number of benefits; including low pollution, low operating costs, greater reliability, and are more effective than fossil fuels. An endorsement from the president can de-stigmatize the fear that surrounds nuclear energy.
Terese Robichaud, honors and AP Biology teacher at Poolesville high school, said, “For a long time, there’s been a fear associated with the use of nuclear energy. Our parents and grandparents witnessed the effects of nuclear weapons, and overtime have instilled in us the same fear they have. There’s a safety within the statues quo of natural gas and coal; people are content the way they are now and don’t want to change, despite what scientists are saying.”