Honestly, pretty much every single stance that Donald Trump has makes me cringe. As a liberal female college student, he is essentially the antithesis of everything I believe in. His conservative social policies make my skin crawl. His sexist comments, his plan to defund Planned Parenthood and eliminate the Affordable Care Act, his uneducated remarks about abortion, late term abortion and general ignorance about all things involving women, make me visibly angry and upset. His comments about the LGBT community hurt me, when I think of all of my friends who are suffering from his hate. His immigration policy boils my blood when I think of all of my friends at college, who are either recent immigrants themselves or their parents. And yes, I am a white female. Besides the female part, one may argue, not a tremendous amount of his policies will affect me directly. And while I am incredibly fortunate to be in this situation, that does not mean that I cannot be angry or upset over the people he is hurting.
However, despite the wrongness of all of this, thankfully, all of these policies can be reversed in 4 years. Anything Trump does, can be undone. Not that it makes it okay, but at least we can trudge through the next four years knowing that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Everything he can do is reversible. That is, except for climate change. We have elected a president who publicly admits to not believing in climate change. This. This is fundamentally irreversible. Four years of burying our heads in the sand could be catastrophic for our planet. This is a man who wants to dismantle the EPA and back out of the Paris Agreement, an international treaty to address climate change. The U.S. is the second largest greenhouse gas polluter after China (NYTimes), and with our abandonment of reducing this, there is little to no hope to in reaching the goals outlined in the agreement. National Geographic puts the facts bluntly, “If humankind does not reduce its greenhouse gas emissions immediately, climate scientists say, Earth could face as much as 11 degrees Fahrenheit of warming by 2100 relative to preindustrial temperatures, leading to increases in droughts and wildfires, rising seas, and major disruptions to global agriculture”. It amazes me that we have elected someone who not only claims that climate change is a hoax, but wants to increase harmful processes, such as coal manufacturing. We are already behind in energy production. Five countries in Europe, Denmark, England, Germany, Scotland and Ireland are all moving towards 100% renewable energy (EcoWatch). Meanwhile, we are trying to roll the country back 50 years, producing more coal, like we used to in the 1950’s, which brought us to the global temperature increase in the first place.
In the end, people are tough. We will fight for our rights. Whatever Trump takes away, there will be people fighting back for it. Whatever laws he makes, no matter how offensive, can be overturned. Whatever comments he makes, no matter how hurtful, can be turned into fuel to fight back. But who will fight for the environment? Earth has no voice, it’s up to us to fight for it, and currently, the voice and leader for “us” is not fighting for our planet. While we may not have much control as individuals, there are things we can do, at the very least to voice our unrest with his policies. The Sierra Club has created an online petition/form where we can “Urge President Obama to Safeguard Our Environment from Donald Trump”. I hope you will all sign up, it’s at least something we can do. While most things that Donald does upsets me, his ignorance of science and fact, upset me the most. We are so incredibly lucky to have a planet that supports all of us. It is OUR job to protect the planet from ourselves. We are the most dangerous beings on Earth, but we can’t afford Earth to be one of our casualties.
