Blog Stage 5: Trump should prioritize our countires environment
With Trump as our president, many issues about national government are quick to arise, one including the United States attitude towards climate change. Former President Obama had a plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by seventeen percent from the 2005 levels. This was done by enforcing the use of solar, wind, and geothermal energy which had effectively reduced carbon pollutions, making the country more energy secure than it had been in the past. I think that our current president, Donald Trump, does not approve of these efforts. He is trying to dismiss these issues and is prioritizing other problems such as increasing the number of jobs in our country. He says that building a strong economy is the key to protecting the environment. More effort should be put to protect the efforts former President Obama enforced that would help the environment.
When Trump gained office, he did not have views that would support the environment. Recently, he signed an executive order that aimed at damaging all of President Obama’s work to protect the environment. During the signing, Trump mentioned that the order would bring more jobs in America. Scientists at the United States Environmental Protection Agency have their jobs on the line because Trump suggested cutting down on their budget by thirty percent. The order that was signed abolishes many of Obama’s executive orders that were made to benefit the environment. Still, Trump claims to be open minded towards the topic of climate change, stating that the executive orders would both protect the environment and create new jobs. Another change Trump is implementing that would not benefit the economy is withdrawing from the Paris Agreement. This agreement included 132 countries that pledged to keep their countries air clean. Trump does not have the intention to abide by the rules and is trying to withdraw from the agreement.
These actions make me think that the president does not care for issues relating to the country's environment. Trump continuously dismisses the efforts of many that contribute towards benefiting the environment. He chooses to prioritize issues that would benefit the economy rather than the environment. In the end, I think that Trump should prioritize the country's environment instead of dismissing the majority of executive orders and agreements that were made to preserve the environment.
Comments
The authors of this post also mentions President Trump's withdrawal from the Paris Agreement. I would like to expand on this point, that not only this move is bad for the environment but it also affects US soft power internationally. This is because under President Obama's administration, the US became the champion for many countries that view climate change as a serious problem. By withdrawing from this agreement, Trump might have negatively affected the relationship between these countries and the US. This meant that the in future, the US might have difficulty in swaying other nations to act in a way that is conducive to US interests.
While I do agree that President Trump should focus on environmental concerns, I do not think that he should pay less attention to the economical concerns. After all that is how we will run our country. I do believe that President Trump needs to pay more attention to our environment, because it will eventually catch up to us later down the road. I disagree when Trump said that building a strong economy is the key to protecting the environment. I do not see how this correlates, as these are two different issues that our country faces. I do not agree that President Trump should place an executive order that dismisses all of President Obama’s work to protect the environment. There are other ways to produce more jobs. President Obama's work to protect the environment seems to be working. I believe Trump should focus on producing more jobs in different ways to help improve our economy while improving President Obama's work to improve our environment. Climate change is an issue that our country will always face and President Trump needs to take it more seriously than he is. He needs to take it more into account than he is rather than blowing off this major issue. President Trump should focus on improving our economy while improving our environment.