
Looking through our history, Earth as we know it was a very different place from what it once was. With evidence of raging volcanos, extreme temperatures, and blistering hurricanes, the atmosphere has changed dramatically from the state it was once in. Though still not as harsh as it once was, we as people have come to realize how much of an important issue the developing problem of climate change really is. In today’s world, the matter of climate change has shifted from an environmental issue to a political problem. With the recent inauguration of newfound president Donald Trump, the shift in climate change support policy has changed drastically from where it once was in the Obama administration. The argument within the different sides of this subject is: Is climate change really influenced by man? Or is it some sort of phenomena in which the Earth will return to its normal state? When analyzing the evidence overlooking centuries of climate change data, the answer seems to be quite obvious. The development of climate change is not only a growing natural problem, but is also going to be accelerated by man through President Donald Trumps’ policies to come. 

In order to understand the danger our environment faces due to climate change it is important to understand how and when climate change first became noticeable. In the early seventeen and eighteen hundred’s, the world went through the first two industrial revolutions, which involved major upgrades in technology and industry. These new inventions and processes helped to grow and develop the world into what we know and love today. However, as time transitioned into the early and mid-nineteen hundreds, scientists began to notice effects in the climate such as slightly rising temperatures and rising sea levels due to these new inventions (BBC News). After this period, getting closer and closer to current day, the stray from natural climate weather patterns became largely apparent and began to take a large role into politics and environmental issues. With countless international meetings, agencies, and other efforts to stop climate change, we see how serious this topic has become in the earth, and how rapidly it’s changing with new technological developments every day.

 In the past, presidents, regardless of party affiliation, have generally always worked with other parties in order to do what was best for the climate (BBC News). In the present however, the topic of climate change has shifted to a political issue rather than one dealing with only the environment. Trump’s administration is extremely conservative in relation to past presidencies, and this means that Trump’s administration has a strong stance siding with the disbelief of climate change. Furthermore, with the recent presidential inauguration, and all this information provided about the changing of the climate, we would think that our leader being elected would be more mindful looking to the future of our world in terms of climate. Yet, we see that this is largely untrue, and the future of development of climate change support is in jeopardy. 

Further building off of President Donald Trump’s inauguration, one must first also be able to understand the opposing side’s viewpoints on the matter. Starting at the beginning, opinions were very mixed on the subject between the Republican and Democratic parties. In Rebecca Kaplan and Ellen Uchimiya’s article, “Where the 2016 Republican candidates stand on climate change,” they give a brief history on climate change and show that through time, Republican views generally tended to shift towards the belief that climate change is not a priority for the government (Kaplan and Uchimiya). The Democratic Party nonetheless stayed true to the belief that climate change is a very important and growing topic from recent climate research (Kaplan and Uchimiya). This all led to the buildup of recent conflicts between both parties in elections and such, and there has only been a strengthening in the divide on the subject simply to drive the parties further apart (Kaplan and Uchimiya). People generally feel very strongly towards their party association on political matters, and Donald Trump has done a great job on capitalizing this in order to obtain votes. In the article, “What’s Donald Trump’s position on climate change? All of them” written by, Phillip Bump, he talks about Trump’s shifting of political positions and says, “A hallmark of President-elect Donald Trump's political positions has been that they often flow with popular sentiment. There's immigration policy restructuring, which he (along with the Republican establishment) championed shortly after the 2012 election. And there's climate change” (Bump). This shows that Trump may not necessarily believe that man does not have an impact on climate change, but will pass any harmful policy on climate in order to gain popularity. With only about fifteen percent of people in the Republican Party believing climate change is an issue, Trump will have no issue passing legislature that challenges that of the liberal Obama administration (Bump). As time gets further through Trump’s presidency, we will be sure to see that Trump will pass policies that puts our environment at great risk based on his policy agendas he has alluded to in speeches plus the actions he has already taken such as the appointment of Scott Pruitt to chairman of the EPA. 

In Donald Trump’s recent election, he clearly states how he has every intention to eliminate any climate change policy efforts to slow factory production, which will in turn set back any efforts made to help the slow the climate change process. To begin, in the article, “Trump Tries to Pave the Way for Development by Accelerating Environmental Reviews,” written by Darryl Fears, we are introduced with one of the political policies Trump has in mind to put in place. He talks specifically to the fact of how Trump is planning to change policy in the service and industrial sector. He speaks about how Trump has developed a plan to freeze all grants and contracts from the Environmental Protection Agency that inhibit the amount of mercury smokestacks can emit into the environment (Fears). By doing this, mercury will be free to go into our atmosphere from large factories, which has been proven to be extremely harmful to human health. On the Environmental Protection Agency’s website, they speak about mercury’s damaging effects on the environment and say, “Once mercury is emitted into the air, it eventually settles into the atmosphere where it permanently pollutes the ozone layer” (Ankrah). The environment has never before felt the harmful effects of what these emissions could possibly do, so it will be tragic to see what is to come. The detrimental health effects now however are beginning to be seen. In a CNN article titled “EPA regulation cuts likely to hurt children most, experts say,” written by Marisa Endicott, highlights the health effects that Trump’s thirty one percent budget cut for the EPA will have. The climate and harmful gasses in the air are going to impact the development of children, and is going to cause irreparable harm. The effects of Trump’s current policy that he has now successfully passed is a foreshadowing of what is to come, and what experts warned us of in the past (Endicott). In current day, Though Trump has only been in office for a few months’ time, his views on business relative to the economy will be a major setback to the saving of our climate.

Trump’s policy is also going to accelerate climate change through his efforts to rebuild the country’s infrastructure. In his proposed plan in his campaign, Trump states that environmental reviews and approvals often waste time and money for the government who are “just trying to get the job done.” His goal of speeding up this process and eliminating these “unnecessary” checks will largely increase the amount in which commercial businesses can exploit policies regarding the law. Going back to Darryl Fears’ article, “Trump Tries to Pave the Way for Development by Accelerating Environmental Reviews,” he talks about the specifics of what the Republican Party’s interests are in this matter. By allowing this policy change, Trump no longer would have to follow any restrictions set by agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency, making this a large central problem to the development of climate change. Trump and his fellow Republicans are facing problems with this deal, however; because they are unsure as to where they are going to receive funding (Fears). However, if they do in fact find a source for funding, this proposal could be devastating to our climate due to the broad emissions and impacts this could have on our environment.

With our atmosphere heating in the wake of natural climate change patterns, Donald Trump’s ignorance to will only rapidly increase the effect of which our Earth will be permanently changed. To provide some background, in the article, “Causes of Climate Change,” written on the Environmental Protection Agency’s website, Earth’s natural state for the past thousands of years has been a fluctuation between a constant warming and cooling state. Currently, however, we are in a state where the Earth is generally projected to cool, but we have strayed away from natural patterns to a point in which where we are still warming (EPA). In the EPA’s research on heat retention in the atmosphere, we see how the greenhouse effect is extremely effective in the changing of our atmosphere. The EPA says, “Over the last several hundred thousand years, CO2 levels varied in tandem with the glacial cycles. During warm "interglacial" periods, CO2 levels were higher. During cool "glacial" periods, CO2 levels were lower” (EPA). What the EPA is trying to say in this sense, is that climate change in glaciers can be directly related to Carbon Dioxide levels in the atmosphere, which is a large byproduct of business. According to the EPA, the global industrial sector accounted for about 15% of the total carbon dioxide emissions during 2014, releasing a little over one billion metric tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. If you include the emissions from burning fossil fuels to produce electricity, which is technically a business in itself, the total emissions from global industry would be over three and a half billion metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions. In total, industry accounted for over 50% of emissions which significantly contributed to the deterioration of the northern glacial caps.

When and if Donald Trump does successfully pass his climate change policies, they will advance our climate into a state of catastrophe, with no return. In The Guardian article, “Global Warning: 24 hours on the climate change frontline as Trump becomes president – as it happened,” written by Michael Slezak, talks about how efforts the world and the United States has put to this point to help climate change may be put to waste. He says the bold statement, “We are no longer fighting to stop climate change, but fighting to stop a runaway catastrophe” (Slezak). With Trump’s policies at the forefront of when the world would need climate change resolutions the most, it’s no longer the question of whether or not climate change by man exists, but what we are going to do to help it. He goes on to further elaborate on the effects that climate change is having on other countries, and talks about what we need to do to save them. He says, “Governments must step up and take action. But in the meantime, we must all do what we can” (Slezak). This is a warning saying that not only are people in the world already feeling the brutal effects of what climate change can do, but it is only going to get worse as president Donald Trump’s policies get passed through legislature. Only time will tell when Donald Trump will be able to pass his policies in office, and when the climate will further advance into a state of disaster.

With the development of research in climate change today, the effects of both natural and manmade climate change are proving to be a large issue, and will only be further sped up by policies from President Donald Trump to come. Through years of conflict between political parties on the stance of climate change, it is obviously quite hard to shift the opinions of those who believe in either side. With different arguments and facts to build further upon both sides’ viewpoints, these opinions in the end all boil down to the question: Is our climate going to return to the state it was once in? This is the question that has been talked about for decades and has developed into a big problem. We as people need to take action within our everyday lives, and the first step is being aware of the problem at hand so this issue can be prevented before it is too late.
