Here you will find the second research paper assigned. 

Dylan Ram

Professor Jean- Pierre

Freshman Composition

10/16/2019

Inquiry Based Essay

We take notice every day that the world around is changing drastically. Sea levels are rising, temperatures are rising, people are not able to farm and more importantly the polar ice caps are melting. People and animals all over the world are feeling these major effects and successfully many countries have banded together to try and fight this monster known as Climate Change. But for an unknown reason the United States are not taking part in this initiative and this is raising alarming questions but the main one is Why? President Donald Trump is very well known for his business way of running the White House, but he is more known for the way he speaks. Over the years Trump has made many remarks regarding the issue of Climate Change that have followed through with his newly implemented policies. Looking at his words, we shall use many sources to analyze the language of Donald Trump and how it impacts Climate Change policies in a negative way.

Affects inside the United States

Over the last couple of years, Trump has made many remarks regarding the issue of climate change and they are not at all supportive. He uses the power of. Social media to make sure the people know what is on his mind. On December 28^th, 2017 Donald Trump tweeted “In the East, it could be the COLDEST New Year’s Eve on record. Perhaps we could use a little bit of that good old Global Warming that our Country, but not other countries, was going to pay TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS to protect against. Bundle up!” (Desmog). Here, the tone of the President is that of a mocking nature when it comes to the issue. For a long time, global warming and climate change have been considered rumors around the world and no one took the matters seriously. But, in this case Trump purposely highlighted key points in this tweet. He capitalized the word, “Coldest” and also the words, “Trillions of Dollars”, and the value this small gesture holds is very great because he is undermining what the climate change experts have discovered and is in a way denying it. Also he relates this back to money and this portrays that his concern is not finding out the truth of such an issue, his concern is saving money which is not a bad thing at all but, his approach was not professional thus making him seem very contradictive in today’s battle against climate change. Also, a big assumption in the world is that climate change is a man-made problem. When asked this question in an interview with the Washington Post, Trump replies, “I think there’s a change in weather. I am not a great believer in man-made climate change. I’m not a great believer. There is certainly a change in weather that goes – if you look, they had global cooling in the 1920s and now they have global warming, although now they don’t know if they have global warming. They call it all sorts of different things; now they’re using “extreme weather” I guess more than any other phrase. I am not – I know it hurts me with this room, and I know it’s probably a killer with this room – but I am not a believer. Perhaps there’s a minor effect, but I’m not a big believer in man-made climate change” (Desmog). The words of the president are very argumentative and wants to make it apparent that he is not a believer in climate change. He repeats multiple times that he is not a big believer and mocks like actual name of the issue. The point he is trying to get across is that climate change does not hold any value or credibility at the time and Trump brings up statistics about the 1920’s global cooling to make the issue seem like it is naturally caused. Also, a great point made by Giustina Charbonneau, a high school academics teacher for a non-profit afterschool program, says “he is demonstrating just how far behind the United States is in regard to green movements and climate change reform” (Charbonneau). This holds significant value because will all the information laid out; one can come to the conclusion that the U.S. is not leading in many categories of the world but are slowly falling behind due to the denial of the President.

Trump and The Paris Agreement

One of the biggest moves Donald Trump has made was pulling out the Paris Agreement that was made to combat Climate Change with the support of almost 195 countries. The Paris Agreement is a big stepping-stone in today’s society that brings all countries of the world together to protect the almost permanent damage that greenhouse gases have on the environment. When Donald Trump pulled the U.S. out of the agreement, he started an uproar of protests and many can say, ignorant thinking when it comes to this issue of climate change. For the rest of the countries on the accord, it was taken as a real blow to their efforts and they had the backing of the U.S. in. order to actually get something done. As stated in an article by CNN, “The decision sent a message to the rest of the world that the US — which can legally leave the agreement as early as 2020 — would not be leading the global fight against climate change. And studies have shown the decision has had global implications: a report last year found that Trump’s decision has made it easier for other countries to renege on their climate commitments” (Kann). With the decisions of Trump, he is globally affecting the worlds fight to save the planet. His words and actions have let other countries think it is okay to go back on a deal or agreement especially one that holds this much importance since climate change effects the entire world, not just one country. In reality, a man’s actions speak louder than his words and that is a very big part of Donald Trump’s agenda after he pulled out of the Paris Agreement. The New York Times published an article which said, “ the White House-appointed director of the United States Geological Survey, James Reilly, a former astronaut and petroleum geologist, has ordered that scientific assessments produced by that office use only computer-generated climate models that project the impact of climate change through 2040, rather than through the end of the century, as had been done previously” (Davenport). From these findings, it is apparent that president Trump is personally appointing staff that will be able to put to rest this issue of climate change. And when the topic of big businesses comes into conversation, for example, in an interview it was stated that, “When the United States government doesn’t support or take part in a multinational agreement like the Paris Agreement, it makes it even harder to crack down on corporations whose footprints are far larger than any one individual. Trump sent a message by pulling out of the Agreement that those corporations don’t really need to be changing their ways” (Charbonneau). With the withdrawal from the Agreement, the powerhouse leading companies of the U.S were given the liberty to conduct their businesses without oversight on their environmental impacts. Donald Trumps words have had a major impact in the past on climate change policies but the actions he has taken over his presidency has made the mindset of the President be seen as someone who has a personal agenda, not someone looking for the people’s best interest at heart. People are outraged by his actions and with the topic of Obama and Trumps relationship

Trump and Obamas Legacy

It is clear that Donald Trump does not like Barack Obama, the last President of the United States. Over the last 3 years Trump has made many remarks concerning Barack and many of the actions taken were to wipe Obamas legacy out the white house. Throughout his two terms in office, Barack Obama implemented many policies that have bettered the lives of the people. During his presidency, Obama enacted the Clean Power Plan (CPP) that limits the amount of carbon dioxide gases that can be dispersed from factories and power plants. This is very similar to issues that the world is facing today. Appointed by Donald Trump, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrator Andrew Wheeler says, “the regulatory certainty they need to continue to reduce emissions and provide affordable and reliable energy for all Americans” (Kann). This shows what the Trump administration in office are trying to do. By saying this along with many more contradictory statements on climate change you can see that Trump is not for the climate change cause and wants to sugarcoat the actions of his department saying they are actually doing good rather than bad. An Executive Order carried out by the Trump administration to try and further kill off the legacy of Obama was he, “Directed agencies to stop using an Obama-era calculation of the “social cost of carbon” that rulemakers used to estimate the long-term economic benefits of reducing carbon dioxide emissions” (Popovich). This was a big move by Trump because this calculation helped predict the amount of emission cut-back would have to be done in the following year or even longer than that. It was useful for scientist to be able to see what they need to do to stop this change in weather. The uprising in protest are giving citizens a mindset that can be best explained when Giustina Charbonneau states, “While not everything Obama accomplished and put forward was perfect, it has felt like the country has been in a social decline and politically stagnant because of Trump’s efforts to reverse Obama’s work. Also, as the question indicates, it has left many topics untouched and neglected – topics that are time sensitive like climate change. The reality is that the planet waits for no person – and the longer we are not actively trying to reverse or, at a minimum, end the damage we have created, the worse the damage will be. This isn’t the sort of issue that can be untouched for a number of years and then revisited, because at the end of his four years in office, we will have four more years’ worth of damage and abuse added to the planet”. Her insights show that even though Barack Obama was not perfect, his implements into the. Fight. For climate change have been very useful and Donald Trump is going do more damage than good on the path he is on. His personal vendetta with Obama has forced him to pay more attention to situations like Immigration.

Migration, Aid and Border Control –

Around the world, the United States is considered the big brother, meaning they will help those in need when in times of crisis. Over the years, countries have been undergoing many famine related issues and are looking for help when they have nothing. Trump recently cut aid to Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador (Soboroff) for reasons that reflect his denial of Climate Change. The issue of Climate Change affected many small countries around the world and forces them to find a new home. When the U.S should be helping them, the President actually increased border patrol security in order to combat illegal entry into the U.S. But one does not realize if you don’t help someone when in dire need, they resort to such circumstances to survive and protect those they love. In October, Trump posted a tweet in response to the illegal entry into the U.S. by saying “Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador were not able to do the job of stopping people from leaving their country and coming illegally to the U.S. We will now begin cutting off, or substantially reducing, the massive foreign aid routinely given to them” (Soboroff). His stance on the topic of Immigration is very different from his thoughts on climate change. He focuses more on the fact that people are coming illegally to the U.S. but does not see the reason why they are fleeing from their homes. When a deal was struck between the Guatemalan government and the U.S., an entire. Outline was drafted to ensure the professionalism of the issue. The outline states, “ Enhancing border security is sought in order to reduce irregular migration flows; carry out the necessary training to support and enhance criminal investigations; concrete actions to counteract human trafficking and human smuggling; and the interdiction of illicit drug trafficking…” Nowhere in the agreement is food insecurity or foreign aid mentioned” (Soboroff). The outline drawn up by the U.S. makes it intentions clear and that is they will not partake in any issues involving climate change and they are only there to stop the flow illegal immigration. When it says, “Nowhere in the agreement is food insecurity or foreign aid mentioned” the problems faced in Guatemala by farmers are not the U.S. concern, their only interest is the stopping of big migration groups. Giustina Charbonneau says in an interview, “This dialogue in return could have led to a better allocation of resources from more stable countries towards battling climate change in places like Guatemala that may not have the technical or financial resources to fight these battles on their own. Not to mention, if the President was making real strides in the fight against climate change even just here in the US, that would in turn have a global impact because you don’t just influence the environment over your country – it affects everywhere” (Charbonneau). Trumps influence as the President can have a dramatic impact on the fight for climate change but his arrogance will not get any issues solved because he will always be fighting the noise of the American people telling him that this is a major crisis.

Big Business Over Health

Donald Trump says a lot of things about the issue of Climate Change. But he also does a lot of horrific things you would not think the President would do. He’s cutting out all of Obamas initiatives to save the planet and combat climate change to make headway in businesses like oil and lifting carbon restrictions on all states. With these action consequences could be deadly for the entire planet. In a New York Times article, it states, “For Mr. Trump, climate change is often the subject of mockery. “Wouldn’t be bad to have a little of that good old-fashioned Global Warming right now!” he posted on Twitter in January when a snowstorm was freezing much of the country. His views are influenced mainly by friends and donors like Carl Icahn, the New York investor who owns oil refineries, and the oil-and-gas billionaire Harold Hamm — both of whom pushed Mr. Trump to deregulate the energy industry” (Davenport). As a president Donald Trump has kept a long run of expressing what he believes with certain initiatives he passes but it is clear that he takes influence from the elite class such as oil company owners who are the big money makers in the U.S. to try and keep the U.S. in the lead of the oil industry.  Trumps advisers also share the same beliefs as him especially when it was stated that, “The president’s advisers amplify his disregard. At the meeting of the eight-nation Arctic Council this month, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo dismayed fellow diplomats by describing the rapidly warming region as a land of “opportunity and abundance” because of its untapped reserves of oil, gas, uranium, gold, fish and rare-earth minerals. The melting sea ice, he said, was opening up new shipping routes” (Davenport). With the similar mindset of president Trump, the members of his administration are not seeing the big picture with the melting of major ice caps and unused resources the earth will soon be depleted and the global warming of the planet will not stop, it will only get worse. But his plan is not all bad because his agenda with the oil business is fairly good. Giustina Charbonneau says, “I believe his immediate goals were to strengthen relations with countries such as Saudi Arabia and be able to claim that he is making a positive impact that way (keeping prices down, creating positive relationships with countries with which we previously had negative ones). With this evidence, you can see where Donald Trump is coming from and he has a right to do so with his initiative supporting big business, but it does not give him the right kill the planet on his way to achieving more oil. It is not a good think that polar ice caps are melting and if the Trump administration thinks it is good then they are in denial and are avoiding the real factual evidence and that is the world is in major trouble.

Trump and Climate Change Activist

A lot of people are feeling the effects with the changing of the world. But a big part of the population is younger people who will inherit the mistakes made by current office holders and it angers them a lot. Especially one particular teenager named Greta Thunberg who is fighting climate change with her huge support group. But even she receives slick comments from the President, and she will not back down. Greta is a 16-year-old climate change activist from Sweden who is taking the fight to the heads of the U.S. When she was asked, “How can we get more kids involved in this issue?” she replied with a powerful statement saying, “Just tell them the truth. Tell them how it is. Because when I found out how it actually is, it made me furious” (Weir). Her professionalism and devotion to this issue has made her a sensation on the internet and clearly she is not afraid to tell politicians how it is. When president Donald Trump was made aware of the efforts by Greta, he responded in a way that sparked a fire of rage in this young activist. President Trump said, “She seems like a very happy young girl looking forward to a bright and wonderful future. So nice to see!” (Stracqualursi). This enraged Greta and others who support her because it is implied that Trump is undermining her, calling her a child and referring to her as a young girl. Granted she is a young girl, the underlying factor that makes Greta angry is that trump did not respond or react to anything she is fighting for. Greta responded by saying, “People are suffering, people are dying, entire ecosystems are collapsing. We are in the beginning of a mass extinction and all you can talk about is money and fairy tales of eternal economic growth” (Stracqualursi). The language used by Greta shows she has done her background work on the issue and is keeping up with issue and her anger is stemming from the language Donald Trump is using regarding the issue. When asked in an interview about the issue, Giustina Charbonneau says, I believe his comments were made with the hope of invoking a defensive or angry response. I believe he was trying to make a statement that it is sad that Greta, and other children, are so heavily involved in climate change activism. I believe that in his eyes, he was trying to place blame on those who raise their children to be activists and protest climate change. However, the reaction of many people was to defend Greta and her decision to become informed. His statement did open a dialogue on whether or not young children should be so involved in the “worries of the world” and politics” (Charbonneau). The support that Greta Thunberg has gained have given her a sense of family with those who work to change this planet for the better. Trump crossed the line when he humored Greta because he may have started a campaign of a young girl who is passionate and serious about her work.

The world around us has been going through a crisis period. In certain parts of the world, the ice sheets that cover the land are melting, farming has been brought to a halt, and people are running all over the world looking for help. With Donald Trump holding office, the evidence presented have concluded that no major change will be taken anytime soon, and that is very frightening. The planets future is at stake and Trump does not seem like he is going to change but with all the activist coming together, maybe they can change his mind or even better, find a solution.

Bibliography

Davenport, Coral, and Mark Landler. “Trump Administration Hardens Its Attack on Climate Science.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 27 May 2019, www.nytimes.com/2019/05/27/us/politics/trump-climate-science.html.

“Donald Trump.” DeSmog, www.desmogblog.com/donald-trump.

ROSNER, DAVID. “Health, Climate Change, and the Descent of Science-Based Policy.” The Milbank Quarterly, vol. 95, no. 1, 2017, pp. 36–39. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/26300307.

Schwartz, John. “Major Climate Change Rules the Trump Administration Is Reversing.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 29 Aug. 2019, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/29/climate/climate-rule-trump-reversing.html.

https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/04/politics/trump-climate-change-policy-rollbacks/index.html

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/climate/trump-environment-rollbacks.html

https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/24/politics/trump-greta-thunberg-climate-change-trnd/index.html

Interview Questions:

Interviewee: Giustina Charbonneau- CitySquash High School Academic Director

• How do you feel Donald Trump uses or in some cases abuses his power on social media to bash climate change supporters?
  1. I feel strongly that the President has an obligation to maintain a respectful and appropriate social media presence. Trump has not done this and has shown willful ignorance to the rest of the world – it’s really an embarrassment. In bashing climate change supporters, he is demonstrating just how far behind the United States is in regard to green movements and climate change reform. I also believe it’s a disgrace for the President to openly attack individuals on social media – particularly when they are personal attacks not based on any real evidence or argument.
• With Trump pulling out the Paris Agreement, what long term effects will result because of this?
  1. I believe that this will continue to delay and postpone any real change from the United States in regard to climate change. Individuals can only make so much of an impact themselves – what we really need is to make changes at the industrial/corporate level. When the United States government doesn’t support or take part in a multinational agreement like the Paris Agreement, it makes it even harder to crack down on corporations whose footprints are far larger than any one individual. Trump sent a message by pulling out of the Agreement that those corporations don’t really need to be changing their ways. Also, as the US is one of the largest industrial countries, and has many overseas industries, it is concerning that even with other countries doing their part, it may not be enough.
• What are your thoughts on Trump spending his term undoing everything Obama accomplished resulting in the neglect of the climate change crisis?
  1. It has been very challenging to watch him spend so much time and effort seemingly doing things out of spite for Obama and Democrats. While not everything Obama accomplished and put forward was perfect, it has felt like the country has been in a social decline and politically stagnant because of Trump’s efforts to reverse Obama’s work. Also, as the question indicates, it has left many topics untouched and neglected – topics that are time sensitive like climate change. The reality is that the planet waits for no person – and the longer we are not actively trying to reverse or, at a minimum, end the damage we have created, the worse the damage will be. This isn’t the sort of issue that can be untouched for a number of years and then revisited, because at the end of his four years in office, we will have four more years’ worth of damage and abuse added to the planet.
• With climate change wreaking havoc in countries like Guatemala, what other ways do you think President Trump could better handle the situation?
  1. As perhaps one of the most powerful leaders on this planet, the President does have the ability to influence and help other countries. Even if he used his platform to discuss and encourage an international discussion on climate change, that in and of itself would lead to a heightened awareness. The first step to any real change is an open and honest dialogue, and that is something the President could have started. This dialogue in return could have led to a better allocation of resources from more stable countries towards battling climate change in places like Guatemala that may not have the technical or financial resources to fight these battles on their own. Not to mention, if the President was making real strides in the fight against climate change even just here in the US, that would in turn have a global impact because you don’t just influence the environment over your country – it affects everywhere.
• In what ways increasing border patrol a helpful solution if the number of refugees increases daily?
  1. I don’t think I am qualified to answer this question.
• According to the New York Times, Trump has dismantled most of Obamas initiatives with climate change to make headway in oil business. With this decision made by the president what do you think his immediate goal with doing so?
  1. I believe his immediate goals were to strengthen relations with countries such as Saudi Arabia and be able to claim that he is making a positive impact that way (keeping prices down, creating positive relationships with countries with which we previously had negative ones). I also am not well informed here, but I do believe he may have had some personal gain in the matter.
• Trump called climate change a “hoax” in a tweet, what how do you feel his thoughts on the matter have changed over the last 3 years?
  1. I don’t feel his opinions have changed much over the last 3 years. I believe he prefers to remain uninformed on the matter, and views climate change activism as just another way that “the left” is trying to undo him. As a result, I believe he genuinely just views it as another thing he can and should dismiss.
• Climate change activist, Greta Thunberg, is causing a global movement around the world. When Donald Trump humored her by saying, “”She seems like a very happy young girl looking forward to a bright and wonderful future. So nice to see!”, what kind of response would his comment invoke especially with his previous statements on climate change?
  1. Given his previous statements on climate change and his history of mocking those who have opposing views to his, I believe his comments were made with the hope of invoking a defensive or angry response. I believe he was trying to make a statement that it is sad that Greta, and other children, are so heavily involved in climate change activism. I believe that in his eyes, he was trying to place blame on those who raise their children to be activists and protest climate change. However, the reaction of many people was to defend Greta and her decision to become informed. His statement did open a dialogue on whether or not young children should be so involved in the “worries of the world” and politics.
• Do you feel that if we take action and change our habits we can combat climate change? Or will it not even matter?
  1. I believe that individuals can make small changes and it will help. However, I believe it is more important at this critical stage that large corporations and governments also be doing their part. Like so many things, without institutional reform, climate change will be very difficult to combat.
• Do you feel climate change in human caused problem or is it a natural cycle for the planet?
  1. While I believe there are cycles in place (though I have limited knowledge of them), I believe that climate change has been significantly influenced by humans.