


Owatonna, MN Correspondent-On the surface, the U.S. pulling out of the Paris Climate accord seems like a negative for those who want to reduce the world’s carbon emissions, reduce greenhouse gases, and slow the rate of global warming and sea level rise. Those individuals and groups would prefer that the U.S. Government be the world leader in the discussion and decision making about how to solve this problem rather than abdicate its responsibility to the world.

I think there is a silver lining in this lack of federal leadership. The upside is that many state and local governments have redoubled their pollution-fighting efforts without the federal government’s blessing and will press on to reduce pollution in their jurisdictions. This decision may also compel individual citizens to take a hard look at their carbon footprint.

Those who think we should all be working for a solution to minimize the harmful effects of climate change more often seem to talk the talk without walking the walk. These people want everyone else to stop driving their cars, stop overheating and overcooling their giant houses, and stop overconsuming electronics, beef, pork, and other products that contribute to excess greenhouse gas. But they don’t usually lead by example and practice what they preach.

The only way we can minimize the adverse effects of global warming is for every single citizen in the modernized world to make radical changes in their lifestyle. We are the ones who create the most pollution. We can’t blame it all on big business or irresponsible governments. We are the ones who have put these governments into power, who in turn have allowed many large corporations to ignore anti-pollution laws or find loopholes and continue to pollute. If we as individuals realize we are the true agents of change in the pollution fight, not only will we increase our efforts to minimize our carbon footprint, but we’ll also increase our efforts to elect leaders at the national level who agree that the world can’t go on polluting and wasting natural resources indefinitely.

Gastonia, NC Correspondent-Depending on whose measurement you use, the U.S. is either the largest or the second-largest economy in the world. However, our withdrawal from the climate change accords won’t damage the overall global efforts to fix the damage caused by humanity. Right now, the U.S. is behaving like the drunken father of a large family. He’ll go off for a week, come home and pass out and generally behave in a manner that does nothing to improve the lot of the family. So the brothers and sisters band together and do what’s necessary to keep the house intact and the daily business continuing. Mom (perhaps Germany?) helps as much as she can, and eventually Dad is left to molder in his recliner while the family learns to live without his influence and sporadic assistance.

We risk becoming irrelevant on the world stage by our withdrawal from the climate change accords. Our image overseas is already nearing “class clown” status, with foreign governments seriously doubting whether Trump’s word can be counted on anything, since he seems capable of changing his attitude mid-sentence and routinely pretends that things he said just a few months prior no longer count. When the rest of the world moves to green energy and lowers its carbon emissions to within tolerable limits, the U.S. will be the drunken father, and will eventually no longer be included in the “family gatherings” and largely forgotten.

Sheffield, Jamaica Correspondent-I’d like to add that President Trump was a douche for backing out of the Paris Climate Agreement. That decision shows his dunderheadedness and disregard for the affairs of the day.

It also shows that as the President, he’s clueless about the effects of climate change on the environment and is only bent on “representing Pittsburgh”, as he said. That’s the stupidest statement I’ve ever heard, as climate change affects the entire world.

Sadly, Trump’s decision to withdraw from the accord will have an impact on climate change. The over 200 countries who are a part of the agreement will undoubtedly do what’s necessary to pull their weight, but the practices conducted in the U.S. could make their efforts less effective.

According to a little research I dug up, the United States is the second largest country (behind China) involved in carbon emission.

Carbon emission is responsible for climate change which raises global temperatures. If the United States does not put things in place to reduce carbon emissions, the efforts of the Paris Climate Agreement will not be effective.

Without Trump in the agreement, things could work. However, he has to pull his weight. He has to put things in place that would reduce carbon emissions at the city and state level. Without those regulations in place, the agreement will fail or at least lose its effect.

Cartwright-The Paris Climate Accord was nothing more than a massive redistribution of wealth from countries like the United States to the rest of the world. President Trump was right to withdraw the United States from the treaty. If the rest of the world is so concerned about this issue, let them fix it. You don’t see China or India doing anything to help; they’re simply making matters worse.

I don’t know whether the whole global warming thing is real or not. I think it’s a great political talking point for certain politicians and activists, but I highly doubt the veracity of some of the claims of the most ardent supports who pull up to conferences and get out of gas guzzling SUV’s with their bottled water. I take what they say with a grain of salt.

I’m very simple when it comes to this issue, as I’ve explained many times in the past. I want clean air, clean water, and a clean environment. I want all of us to be good stewards of the environment. To accomplish this, we can do a couple of things immediately. First, we need to stop deforestation and start planting more trees. As I recall from elementary school, trees and plants remove carbon dioxide from the air and turn it into oxygen. Since carbon dioxide is one of the main causes of “global warming,” isn’t an easy fix to add more trees and plants that remove one of the main greenhouse gases from the environment? We’re cutting down forests at a rapid rate all over the world. This is removing the earth’s ability to remove the greenhouse gases from the air. Makes sense that as the amount of trees declines the amount of greenhouse gases increases.

Second, the world’s population is increasing rapidly which is placing strains on all of our natural resources and increasing our pollution. Let’s reduce the rate of population growth and thus reduce the number of cars, for example, in the world that are pumping out greenhouse gases.

If we reduce the things contributing to the rise in greenhouse gases and increase the things that help remove greenhouse gases, shouldn’t this solve the problem?

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