As this ever-growing problem of changing climates is already showing negative effects and is expected to have deadly outcomes in the future, an effective solution is incredibly needed. As climate change is caused by human activity, individuals need to watch their actions threatening the environment. More effectively though, the world's leaders need to combine efforts. 

     Climate change is a global issue. When working to stop climate change, nationalism and separate interests of countries only combat efforts to solve the issue once and for all. When an issue comes up that puts people around the world at risk, nations should be working together with the same intention, which is to keep the environment safe.

     One of the ways that the U.S. could make a big dent in climate change is by rejoining the Paris Climate Accords, an agreement made in 2015 to unite the world communities and combine efforts to tackle rising temperatures and regulate greenhouse gas emissions. The goal is to keep the surface temperature from increasing more than 2°F going forward. The Paris agreement was seen as the biggest chance the world had at stopping or at least slowing climate change effects.

     But on June 1, 2017, President Trump withdrew from the Paris climate agreement, taking the economic interests of the U.S. over the interests of the international community to prevent rising temperatures from having dangerous effects. 

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     “...the Paris accord is very unfair, at the highest level, to the United States.”, he said at the speech where he announced the withdrawal on June 1, 2017. Trump withdrew from the accord because he believed that it would harm the economy. “It would be very hard to compete with other countries (while still being a part of the climate accord).”. He said that the withdrawal was made because of economic reasons (most likely the strict coal burning restrictions and regulations damaging the coal industry) rather than his opinions on global warming and the agreement. 

     Back in the election, President Trump promised the coal industry that he would reverse environmental restrictions and regulations that were keeping companies from mining and burning coal, and bring back lost coal mining jobs and a successful coal industry by doing so.

With the United States being the second largest emitter of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases,  the other 194 countries in the Paris climate agreement will have a hard time going forward slowing the effects of climate change without the help of one of the main countries causing the issue.​

     Furthermore, temperatures can be prevented from rising if governments of the world invest in renewable technology and more environmentally safe technologies. For example, Neeti Upadhye of the New York Times writes on January 5, 2017, China intends to spend more than $360 billion through 2020 on renewable power sources like solar and wind, the government’s energy agency said. This will not only make China's energy industry and economy thrive, it will incredibly contribute to the efforts to stop climate change.

     Coastal regions around the world could be submerged in water in just decades, continents could be underwater in just a few centuries. If we want to stop that from happening, we must start now.

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/05/world/asia/china-renewable-energy-investment.html

 

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