Carbon dioxide levels today are higher than at any point in at least the past 800,000 years. Artic ice and ice sheets are melting at alarming rates. Global temperatures have increased to the point where the 19 years between 2001-2020 are the hottest years ever recorded.

Climate change is here and threatening the future lives of people on Earth. Although current President Donald Trump acknowledges that the crisis exists, he nonetheless has not done anything to combat it.

“Nothing’s a hoax about that. It’s a very serious subject… I want the cleanest air, I want the cleanest water. The environment is very important to me. I also want jobs. I don’t want to close up our industry because somebody said you have to go with wind.”

Clearly Trump’s concerns lie in the American economy and industries. However, in the perspective of someone who still is in high school, I would like for our President to prioritize the future of younger generations and to provide us safe planet to live on.

Celine Kim, a junior at Hills, expresses a similar worry: “A lot of the older generations  deny climate change and refuse to make any accommodations to this very real issue as it does not affect them and their timeline, but we really do need to change that mentality. There really should not be a president denying climate change in this era when there are so many countries suffering its consequences; there should be a president who is willing to make an effort to stop the damage from getting worse than it already is. We really should be past the debate of is climate change real or not, and be debating what we’re going to do about it.”

The President Elect Joe Biden, however, has made it evident that he is willing to take the initiative and reform how the United States addresses climate change.

Biden’s first action will be rejoining the Paris climate agreement ,which Trump pulled out from 2016. By recommitting to this deal, the US could be the key to adhering to the agreement’s goal of limiting global temperatures to a 1.5 C° rise.  Furthermore, over the next four years in his presidency, Biden plans to spend $2 trillion to cut carbon emissions. He will update and remodel buildings that are more energy efficient, make public transport more available and wide-spread, and invest in electric vehicle industries.

The President-elect also emphasizes how these reforms will create countless jobs. Because of the pandemic, unemployment records have increased exponentially. Biden’s plans will put people back to work as well as lower carbon emissions: basically killing two birds with one stone. And for this facet of his plan, he may also be able to persuade the Senate (which may have a Republican majority) to vote in favor of his policies because they will create more jobs.

Although Biden’s plans seem overly ambitious, it is important to note that any action is one step closer to tackling the impending climate crisis. He gives hope to the upcoming generations that when they get older, they will not experience dangerous temperatures, extreme weather, a lack of food, and limited availability of clean water or air. He gives hope that the dreams and aspirations of the younger generations will not be impeded by an uninhabitable Earth. And hopefully, he sets a precedent to future Presidents that one of the most important duties that they can fulfill is protecting the environmental future of America.

To read more about Biden’s Plan, use the link below: 

https://joebiden.com/climate-plan/#