Column by Emmy Trivette, Nighthawk News Magazine

The Paris Climate Change Accord is a unification and legal document between 195 countries (not including the U.S.) to ensure that the global temperature does not rise more than another two degrees Celsius.

“The ravages of climate change are likely to become catastrophic and irreversible,” a press release regarding the Paris Agreement said. According to the Climate Science Special Report:

• “Human activities, especially emissions of greenhouse gases, are the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century.”
• “Global average sea level has risen by about 7-8 inches since 1900.”
• “A (sea level) rise of as much as 8 feet by 2100 cannot be ruled out.”
• “Over the next few decades (2021–2050), annual average temperatures are expected to rise by about 2.5°F for the United States.”
• “The last few years have also seen record-breaking, climate-related weather extremes, the three warmest years on record for the globe, and continued decline in arctic sea.”

The facts above are from a government report released in November recognizing global warming as a real threat to the earth, and not fake news. Understand how big of a deal this is. The government released this. It was just last summer when President Obama had to use executive action just to sign the Paris Accord, because the opposition in Congress wouldn’t even listen to a sentence with the word “climate” involved.

On June 1, the United States, under Trump’s administration, began the process of withdrawing from the Paris Accord, and will be fully withdrawn by 2020. However, Syria — a country devastated by civil war — has emerged from the ashes to become the 195th signatory on the Paris Accord.

When I heard this announcement, I was shocked. How can you deny the validity of climate change? There is proof. It’s here. It’s happening. Climate change is real, and we (the U.S.) have the opportunity to do something about it, but instead we’re going to do nothing but sit and watch 195 other countries try their best to save our planet.

Here, the government is releasing reports that have actually recognized global warming as an issue. Surprising, when you consider our recent change in leadership.

“The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive,” President Donald Trump tweeted in 2014.

This astonishing tweet came from the (small) hands of our president. President Trump (I’m trying to process this) said that China invented the concept of global warming. Just think about that: This is the man we elected to run our country and deal with international affairs, and he’s going around saying China created the concept of global warming? I have no idea how Trump is supposed to run our country for the next four years.

Since our change in government, the United States has become the self-centered, spoiled, rich child of the world. Especially after our new president’s most recent decision in withdrawing from the Paris Climate Agreement.

What I want to know is: Why? Why would the U.S. (more specifically, Trump) refuse to support an agreement that is supposed to help save our climate? Global warming is real, it’s happening. If you want more evidence, I recommend looking up the Climate Science Special Report to find your proof.

In today’s world, I bet you can’t find a single environmental academic who can’t tell you there is some kind of change going on with the earth’s climate.

“The entire country is FREEZING – we desperately need a heavy dose of global warming, and fast! Ice caps size reaches all time high,” President Trump tweeted in 2014.

On June 12, 2017, 12 days after Trump announced the U.S. was going to withdraw from the Paris Agreement, NASA reported that “an iceberg the size of Delaware” broke off part of Antarctica’s main ice shelf.

Those are two statements that strongly contradict each other, and I think I’m going to believe the one supported by evidence.

If we withdraw from this agreement, the nations supporting the accord will lose some of their primary funding and resources.

The plan’s main goal is to help less-developed countries become more energy efficient, so without U.S. funding the accord just lost one of its primary sources and also the support of a powerful delegation.

Some experts, however, have suggested that even with the U.S., there is still only a slim chance that this agreement could work. It’s not that the plan itself wouldn’t work, it’s just that it might not work in the amount of time we need it to. We need to stay active as a nation with the Paris Agreement. If not, then we lose another chance to slow the climate change process.

“We’re closer to the margin than we think. If we want to avoid 2C, we have very little time left,” said Adrian Raftery, lead researcher of Natural Climate Change.

Trump has made it clear that the U.S. is not going to have any involvement in the Accord, but apparently California doesn’t agree with or have any intention of following his decision.

In 2018, San Francisco will be hosting a climate change gathering apart from the U.S. This is the first time a state will be hosting an international meeting separate from the country. Gov. Jerry Brown has taken it into the metaphorical hands of California to create a better name for the U.S. in regards to renewable energy.

“He (Trump) doesn’t speak for America,” Brown said during an interview with Rawstory in July.

The United States — the country with all the resources in the modern world at its disposal and a billionaire businessman as its president, can’t make a civil democratic decision as a nation to come together to sign a treaty that has a chance to stop the temperature climb another two degrees Celsius. Rather, as a nation, we’ve resolved to just sit in our comfy, cookie-cutter houses and do nothing but watch the ice caps melt as a state government desperately tries to save our climate and our reputation.

And Syria, the war-torn country that is much less developed than the U.S., can put aside its (did I mention this?) civil war to sign a treaty that could help make a difference on a global scale.

We need to remain in the Paris Agreement. We need to start a protest and take it to Washington. Our withdrawal is unnecessary and our elected officials need to know that we want them to do something about it, not just the great state of California.

Sophomore Emmy Trivette can be reached at trivetteem0626@daretolearn.org.