US should join climate accord
In this age of global markets and global climate change, it’s time to update John Donne: No nation is an island unto itself.
Our planet is an integrated physical and biological system. When it comes to the global climate, the nations and people of the world are fully integrated. It is simply unreasonable for the United States of America to back away from the Paris climate accord, not because of the specific details of the voluntary commitments made by 195 out of 198 of the world’s nations, but because of its collaborative nature and because it represents a truly global commitment to make progress as one people.
Though not the end-all answer to climate-change problems, the Paris agreement is an important step in the right direction; it represents the spirit of international cooperation that is essential to working toward a global solution. President Trump’s decision to sit this one out brings peril to our planet, to the U.S. economy, and to our nation’s reputation as a global citizen.
Over the past several decades, scientists have sounded the alarm about global climate change only after thousands of studies in many disciplines came together to show a pattern — that current atmospheric warming, driven by human activities, has the potential to change the planet in ways that could profoundly negatively affect human livelihood in many parts of the world. Yet, the science was the easy part. Devising a fair, ethical, economically viable solution to climate change will be the true intellectual triumph of the human race; we should be part of that triumph. We can put “America First,” only if we first put America at the international negotiating table in good faith to talk with our global community about our many options for tackling climate change.
The solutions will require the ideas and creativity of all disciplines – the humanities, the social sciences, and the natural sciences — and all stakeholders — from small island nations that are already becoming uninhabitable due to rising seas to larger nations whose wealth depends, for the moment, on an energyintensive economy built on fossil fuels. New technology is giving us many reasons to be optimistic, but if we aren’t there to share our vision for the future, the world will, and should, proceed without us, and without regard for how new climate policies will affect our nation.
We are deluding ourselves if we think we can act alone in a world that is more intensely interconnected than ever before. Carbon dioxide and its effects know no borders. The only good thing that has come out of Trump’s refusal to be part of the Paris Climate Agreement is that so many entities are stepping up to fill the void. States, cities, businesses, and universities, including Ohio Wesleyan University, have pledged to uphold the Paris climate agreement.
Polls show that most U.S. citizens want to be part of the agreement. The American people recognize the value of engaging meaningfully in a global conversation about climate change, even if they differ in how we should address this problem.
Laurie Anderson Professor of Botany-Microbiology Ohio Wesleyan University Delaware Columbus