Preserve the Earth: Trump Trump

The United States is the second biggest polluter of the environment in the world – next to China. The countries with the largest greenhouse gas emissions in the world (with their corresponding percentage of total global gas emissions are China (20 percent); United States (18 percent); Russia (7.5 percent); India (4 percent); and Japan (3.8 percent). The Philippines share of global emissions is 0.34 percent.

In December 2015, after years of hard negotiations, 195 countries finally signed the Paris Climate Agreement on how to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions. This week, in a historic tragedy, President Donald Trump announced that the United States of America will join Nicaragua and Syria as one of only three countries in the world that will not join the Paris Agreement.

The reason for the withdrawal is because he wants to make America great again which in his view requires that American comes first and the rest of the planet Earth is second. In fact in November 2012, even before he became president, Trump tweeted: “The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make US manufacturing non-competitive.” Then in 2014, Trump tweeted again: “Is our country ( USA) still spending money on the GLOBAL WARMING HOAX.”

Greenhouse gas emissions

In order to appreciate the climate change debate and the reason for the Paris climate agreement, it is necessary to first understand the meaning of greenhouse gas emissions. Greenhouse gas in the earth’s atmosphere absorbs and emits radiation. This process is the fundamental cause of the” greenhouse effect.” Without the greenhouse effect the average temperature of the Earth’s atmosphere would be about -18º Centigrade rather than the present average of 15º Centigrade.

Carbon Dioxide emissions produced by human activities come from combustion of fossil fuels principally coal, oil, and natural gas along with deforestation, soil erosion, and animal agriculture. Since the year 1750 AD to the present year – 2017 – human activities have produced a 40 percent increase in the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. If the present greenhouse gas emissions continue, even at just the present rate, scientists estimate that as early as 2047, the Earth’s surface temperature would reach a level that would be extremely harmful to our ecosystem, biodiversity and the livelihoods of people worldwide. For example, changing weather patterns or water crisis can trigger or exacerbate geopolitical and societal risks such as domestic or regional conflicts and involuntary migration, particular in areas where there is already major conflicts like Africa and the Middle East.

The impact of climate change or global warming will vary from region to region. Some effects will be the rise of sea levels eroding islands and coastal areas; expansion of deserts in the subtropics; disappearance of glaciers in the Arctic; increase in extreme weather events like heat waves, droughts, heavy rainfall with floods; heavy snowfall; ocean acidification and species extinction due to shifting temperatures.

There will be threats to food security due to decreasing crop yields and abandonment of populated coastal areas due to rising sea levels.

Paris climate agreement

The goal of the Paris Climate Agreement is:” Hold the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2º Centigrade above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1. percentº Centigrade above pre-industrial levels, recognizing that this would significantly reduce the risks and impacts of climate change.”

This is the first global climate change agreement. However, it has several weaknesses. First, the contributions that each country will make, to achieve the worldwide goal is left to each country to decide. There are no consequences or penalties for countries who fail to meet their goals. Finally, even the original negotiators of the Paris Agreement believed that a 2º Centigrade target was insufficient. Instead, they originally wanted the target for the increase in global average temperature should be 1.5º Centigrade.

Environmentalists believe that the targeted increase in global average temperature should be 0º Centigrade based on the belief that the world has already reached a critical level of global warming and there should be no more deterioration of global temperature.

Mother Nature

Several scientists have identified nine key planetary boundaries that human must make sure we do not breach because breaching these boundaries could reduce Earth into a condition that would make it impossible to sustain modern civilization.

Thomas Friedman wrote: “The first planetary boundary is climate change – and we’ve already breached it...Mother Nature knows she’s getting a fever. NASA’s Vital Signs of the Planet report on global surface temperature noted at the end of 2015 the ten warmest years in the 134 year record all have occurred since 2000 with the exception of 2008. The year 2015 ranks the warmest on record. The climate system determines the growth environment for all living species, and that environment is heading into a zone well beyond the planetary boundary – threatening to make Earth into a hothouse the likes of which humans have never lived in before.”

Sylvia Earle, the renowned oceanographer puts it in very simple words: “What we do right now, or fail to do will determine the future – not just for us but for all life on Earth.”

For our sake and the for the sake of our children, grandchildren and all future generations, the world must stand together and trump the Trumps of the world in order to pacify Mother Nature and preserve Planet Earth.

Creative Writing Class for Adults

Awardwinning fictionist and former director of the Silliman National Writers Workshop Susan Lara will run a Creative Writing Workshop for adults on June 17, 1:30-4:30 pm. at Fully Booked Bonifacio High Street. For registration and fee details text 0917-6240196 or email writethingsph@gmail.com.