Today the United States of America witnessed the inauguration of President Donald Trump. Though for some this may have been a great victory, I stand firmly against the new president. Today, as one of his first declarations as president, he announced that he would rescind President Obama’s environmental plan. As someone currently studying environmental science and global studies in the hopes of eventually effecting beneficial environmental policies, this was extremely alarming. The world is changing, more rapidly than it ever has in our recent history, yet our new president does not care. In an article by Steven Mufson and Brady Dennis for The Washington Post, they write:

Donald J. Trump comes into office with a plan to toss out most of what President Obama achieved on energy and the environment. While vowing to “cancel” the international Paris climate accord…Trump would also rearrange domestic energy and environmental priorities. He wants to open up federal lands to oil and gas drilling and coal mining. He wants to eliminate regulations he calls needless… And he wants to shrink the role of the Environmental Protection Agency to a mostly advisory one and pull back the Clean Power Plan, Obama’s proposed plan to push utilities toward lower carbon emissions.

Later they write that “Oil industry executives were delighted,” by this announcement.

NO ONE should be delighted by this news.

The first think that should be addressed is that climate change/global warming is not a myth and is affecting the world that we call our home every single day. Since the early 1800s, carbon emissions (CO2 emissions) have increased by over 9000 percent (see emissions graph).

In case you did not know, carbon dioxide is one of the most harmful greenhouse gasses, especially at the rate that we are pumping it into our atmosphere. And it gets there by burning fossil fuels like coal and oil, the very same fossil fuels that President Trump is currently so heavily promoting. We are approaching extremely dangerous levels of pollution. In fact, “The last time there was this much carbon dioxide (CO2) in the Earth’s atmosphere, modern Humans didn’t exist…the world’s seas were up 100 feet higher than they are today, and the global average surface temperature was up to 11 degrees Fahrenheit than it is now,” and we are nearing “the record for the highest CO2 concentration in human history – 400 parts per million,” (Climate Central).

Just in case the ancient history associated with our current carbon dioxide level doesn’t scare you, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has many things to say about what the future of Earth looks like if we do not do something about our rate of pollution. And we need to act now. Because the reality is that “Many greenhouse gases stay in the atmosphere for long periods of time. As a result, even if emissions stopped increasing, atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations would continue to increase and remain elevated for hundreds of years,” essentially prolonging the effects of our past actions (EPA). In addition:

If we stabilized concentrations and the composition of today’s atmosphere remained steady (which would require a dramatic reduction in current greenhouse gas emissions), surface air temperatures would continue to warm. This is because the oceans, which store heat, take many decades to fully respond to higher greenhouse gas concentrations. The ocean’s response to higher greenhouse gas concentrations and higher temperatures will continue to impact climate over the next several decades to hundreds of years.

Though it is nearly impossible to predict exactly what will happen, it is known that as a result of our emissions over the past hundred or so years, there will be many drastic changes in the world as we know it. The Earth’s average temperature will increase, and weather patterns will change, causing problems that America is currently not prepared for. There will be a reduction in ice and snow cover. This may not sound like a huge issue, but the residual permafrost that covers much of the colder places on Earth is disappearing. This permafrost is a large part of what keeps the earth cool, as the sun reflects off of the permafrost and ice instead of the heat getting absorbed directly into the ground. There will be a rise in sea level, along with a continuous increase in the acidity of the world’s oceans, killing sea life and fish, vital parts of the overall food chain. The frequency, length, and severity of extreme events will increase, and ecosystems will change their basic characteristics to adjust to the rapidly changing world. And there will be a great increase in the number of threats to the health of Earth’s human population (EPA). Yet President Trump wants to get rid of the acts currently in place to try to ease the situation.

The extreme effects of pollution can be seen in China, where a new study found that “Air pollution is killing about 4,400 people in China every single day... According to the Study, more than one-third of the Chinese population regularly breathe air that would be considered ‘unhealthy’ by U.S. standards” (Huffington Post). The health problems regularly associated with dangerous levels of pollutants are “asthma, strokes, lung cancer, and heart attacks,” (The New York Times).

It's important to note that not all environmental change is brought about as a result of human interference. Things like volcanic activity, the sun’s intensity, and other natural changes also have a huge impact.

Environmental change poses a great risk to infrastructure and cities as well. The melting ice caps and ice sheets that cover vast swaths of arctic territory are melting at an alarming rate. And “Since 1870, global sea level has risen by about 7.5 inches,” with studies projecting “global sea level to rise by another 1 to 4 feet by 2100,” (EPA). Of course, certain factors in each specific place will impact the effect that this has on the region, such as subsidence (sinking land) and uplift (rising land). But overall, as the EPA clearly states, the results will be catastrophic:

Assuming that these historical geological forces continue, a 2-foot rise in global sea level by 2100 would result in the following relative sea level rise: 2.3 feet at New York City, 2.9 feet at Hampton Roads, Virginia, 3.5 feet at Galveston, Texas, 1 foot at Neah Bay in Washington State.

Though this is obviously not enough to put the cities completely underwater, it is more than enough to make them unlivable. Billions of people would have to be relocated and millions of dollars-worth of industry would be destroyed. Coastlines, in general, will face more frequent and more severe episodes of their current problems, such as flooding and coastal storms.

Other changes predicted to happen to the United States as a result of rising sea level are: the Northern United States will become wetter, while Southern areas become dryer; heavy precipitation will be a more usual occurrence, but overall precipitation will decrease; there will be far less snow; there will be more hurricanes; and there will be more, and stronger, cold-season storms (EPA).

All of these changes will greatly affect agriculture. Agriculture is one of the most important parts of any economy, and it is our sustenance. At first, it may not seem as if global warming is bad for crops, as the warmer weather may actually help them to grow, however, the aforementioned changes in rainfall and severe storms will reduce the yield of each harvest, leaving the industry with less food than is required to feed everyone. And as everyone knows, without food, no one lives. If this is not bad enough on its own, livestock, another source of food and of money, will face severe threats in the near future, such as stress from the increasing heat and a lesser quality of the food that they eat. Fisheries, too, will struggle, as the water temperature will make the environment inhospitable for many types of fish. All of these industries will collapse as a result of climate change, sending the global economy into a downward plunge and leaving humans with a lack of food. The prices of food will skyrocket, and millions will go hungry.

These processes are already set in motion because of decades-worth of constant pollution. The time to start worrying was about 40 years ago when carbon emissions started to drastically increase for the first time. Now we need to take action. But President Trump wants to instead move backwards, which will have a devastating impact on the quality of life here on Earth in the long run. Continuing to promote oil and coal will only amplify and prolong the problem, literally speeding up the death of the human race. Despite the risks posed to the world and to all humans, including the president himself, President Trump is willing to forge forward with oil and coal companies in order to expand profits.

As "Michael Brune, executive director of the Sierra Club," said, “’Trump is now, as president-elect [now President], soon to be the only head of state on the planet that doesn’t believe in climate change, nor thinks we should do anything about it. That should strike fear in the hearts of every parent in this country,” (Mufson/Dennis).