In this weeks blog post, I will be sharing and discussing with you the issue of climate change on our earth, and different presidential candidates views on this particular issue.
First, I will begin with discussing Donald Trump’s view on the issue of climate change. Just to be subtle, Donald Trump believes that climate change is a hoax and would consider dismantling the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) if elected president. In 2012, Donald Trump sent out a tweet stating that he believed that the concept of climate change and global warming was an idea created by the Chinese government in an attempt to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive. He also has stated before that he does indeed believe in change, but he also “believes in weather” and does not think that global warming is real nor an issue that should be addressed not only in the near future, but ever. His entire argument is based off of the false precept that “people in the 1920’s thought that the earth was cooling. They believed in global cooling.” This has been completely denied and is false, people in the 1920’s did not truly believe that the earth was cooling; but good try, Trump.
Another popular Republican candidate is John Kasich. Although he is in the same political party as Donald Trump, his views on climate change and global warming differ from those of Mr. Trump. John Kasich does indeed believe that climate change is an issue that should be addressed. Although these are his views, he believes that the Environmental Protection Agency should not be the ones in charge of regulating emissions. John Kasich believes that each particular state and private companies should work to contain carbon output instead of the Environmental Protection Agency. He stated in an interview that he does indeed believe that humans are responsible for climate change, but just how much we are to blame is uncertain. I feel as though John Kasich would possibly hit on this issue at some point throughout his presidency, but I do not feel as though he would make it a priority.
Next, I will discuss Bernie Sanders view on climate change. Bernie Sanders is an avid believer that climate change is indeed happening and if we do not do something about it now, then this will cause catastrophic events to our earth. Scientific studies show that if we continue damaging our planet at the rate that we are doing so, by the end of this century earth’s average temperature will have increased by 5-10 degrees. Although these numbers do not seem high, they are catastrophic. If the earth’s temperature rises that much, glaciers will melt causing sea levels to rise, putting land below water and causing extreme damage to the entire world. Bernie already has a plan as to how he would deal with climate change and global warming if he becomes president, meaning that this issue would clearly be a priority for Senator Sanders. He believes that the reason we haven’t done anything about the issue thus far is because it fuels many large corporations that have very strong impacts on politics and society, and he believes that that must be stopped immediately.
Due to the fact that my RCL Blog is about climate change, you can guess how I feel about Donald Trump’s opinions on the issue. Your description of John Kasich makes him seem like the most intermediate candidate on the issue, as he does not take a huge stance on either side, but states that climate change does exist but we should change the way we address it. Out of all the candidates, I agree with Bernie Sanders the most. Although I would not say that it should be our number one concern, I would agree that his predictions for the end of the century are extremely possible if we continue on the path that we’re on now. I also agree that fossil fuel corporations are both preventing the population from learning the truth about this problem and are the largest contributors to the problem. Hopefully the candidate that is elected takes a serious stance on this issue and does not brush it off as Donald Trump would.
There needs to be a happy middle on the issue of climate change. Trump goes to far to say it does not exist, there is climate change but the debate is whether or not humans are responsible. Sanders is way too extreme to say that it is our biggest threat,to say it is worse than both terrorism and the national debt is outlandish. The Earth is over 4 billion years old, so I think to say that the last 150 years or so is going to wreck it is a bit over exaggerated. Also, it is impossible for one president to solve this complicated issue by issuing more and more regulations that if the entire world doesn’t follow, would be pointless. Kasich has a good point that the EPA is not the greatest, as we have seen in the awful toxic water spill in the Colorado River. Regardless, it is still very important for us to take care of what we’ve got on this Earth and to preserve it for future generations