College students need to consider the environment this election
Climate change is real
Regardless of political views and opinions, there are a few things we all agree on. We need clean air to breathe, clean water to drink, and a stable-temperatured Earth to live on. Now, we may or may not agree on whether climate change is real, but there are multiple cases of scientific evidence that prove that Global Warming is real, and it’s happening rather quickly.
Personally, I am an Environment and Society and Criminology double major. My goal is to go to law school and become an Environmental Attorney. Meaning, I might be biased towards environmental protection, but also meaning I’m very aware of the environmental issues surrounding our current and our future at a university level.
As college students, the future of our environment is affecting us the most. We will have to deal with the repercussions of environmental instability in fifty years, we are the ones who will feel the illnesses in our lungs from putrid air, and we are the ones that will have children, who will have children, who will have it worse than we do. Luckily, we are also the ones who can help end negative climate change.
Wanting to ignore the media rumors, political mudslinging, and past reputations, I decided to do my own research on our Presidential Candidate’s views and standing on the Environment and the laws that surround it. Here is what I found.
America needs to continue to pursue renewable energy
Having a society that is heavily reliant on nonrenewable sources, including coal, is detrimental to our country. Coal pollution contributes to cancer, strokes, Chronic Lower Respiratory Disease, and Heart Disease. In case you didn’t know, that is four out of the top five leading causes of death in America. Coal pollution also increases the chances of asthma and asthma attacks in our population.
The Paris Climate Agreement should not be cancelled
The Paris Climate Agreement is an enactment that will be put into play in the year 2020. Basically, different countries from around the world (including the United States) will put in an effort to globally reduce greenhouse gas emissions and lower the over temperature of Earth. It is possible that retreating from this agreement could also put the rest of the world’s inhabiters (as in, not JUST Americans) in danger.
The Environmental Protection Agency is not a waste of money.
Again, maybe biased towards environmental protection, but the Clean Air Act, an act put forth by the EPA in the 1960s, is a law used to try and control air pollution at a federal level. It is believed that this act has already saved over 160,000 lives from pollution.
One of the government’s jobs is to protect the citizens, but how can the citizens be protected if protecting the environment is not considered government business? It’s only our air, water, and food we’re dealing with. Just food for thought.