One of the biggest issues in today’s political climate is change. More accurately, climate change. Climate Change is an issue that should never be polarizing but for some reason it is. For all the scientific research into the topic, it is largely puzzling how the majority of politicians in the United States ignore this key issue. As on the current track the earth is on, in 20 years, there will be no turning back. As NDRC writes “To avoid global catastrophe, according to the report, we’ll need to reduce global carbon emissions by as much as 40 percent by 2030”. This analysis is really good as it is based off of experiments done by 90 different scientists from different countries. This eliminates bias and any type of corruption in the study as it is a vast study. Other countries have started to find solutions, such as the new green tech employed by China’s “Belt and Road Initiative”. The US is very behind on this issue. Initiatives such as “The Green New Deal” and others like it have all been rejected by the US government and people for reasons such as feasibility and funding. In 2017 however, the entire political system was shaken from Former President Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement. This was a really big step backward from the small steps forward that the world was making in order to fix climate change. Now that we have established both the danger of the current climate change policies and the steps backwards that have been taken in the recent years we should look at some possible solutions that could be taken. One of the biggest causes for climate change is Arctic Drilling. Drilling in the Arctic has only been increasing year by year and it is one of the biggest causes of climate change. The gases that are used and released during this drilling have a total of 6.5 degrees in fahrenheit accrued due to it. While this number does not seem that big especially in terms of total degree, it is a large amount as only 30 degrees is needed to reach this “peak” point where the world will overheat. Biden has promised to stop Arctic Drilling and add more restrictions to it which is one of the biggest steps that we can take to stop this issue. The second is a “Cap and Trade” solution. Cap and Trade is a reference to a California Law, in which Companies which are the main cause of Carbon Emissions economic benefits if they remain below of Carbon thresholds. Historically, this solution has worked pretty well and if implemented on a national scale would hopefully have great effects and would help America to stop this massive carbon issue.
Aton, Adam. “INTERIOR: Drilling Could Cause Extinctions in a Warming ANWR - Agency.” INTERIOR: Drilling Could Cause Extinctions in a Warming ANWR - Agency -- Friday, September 13, 2019, www.eenews.net/stories/1061115445#:~:text=The%20agency%20estimates%20that%20drilling,metric%20tons%20of%20carbon%20dioxide.&text=Temperatures%20around%20ANWR%20have%20risen%206.5%20degrees%20Fahrenheit%20since%201949.
Hersher, Rebecca. “U.S. Officially Leaving Paris Climate Agreement.” NPR, NPR, 3 Nov. 2020, www.npr.org/2020/11/03/930312701/u-s-officially-leaving-paris-climate-agreement.
“How Cap and Trade Works.” Environmental Defense Fund, www.edf.org/climate/how-cap-and-trade-works.
Turrentine, Jeff. “Climate Scientists to the World: We Have Only 20 Years Before There's No Turning Back.” NRDC, 16 July 2020,
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