Liana Stevenson

Mr. Williams

AP Language and Composition

March 27, 2019

U.S. Global Warming

As time passes, more and more species begin to go extinct due to the world’s global

warming rates continuing to rise, but will we become one of those species? In the U.S, there is a

growing problem that isn’t being prevented. Global Warming has increased incredibly and the

human race hasn’t stepped in to stop it. Especially due to President Trump’s policy changes, as

well as many officials in the U.S. congress, our own destruction of the world may come sooner

than expected. The U.S. has been majorly increasing in global emissions by Trump’s decision to

leave the Paris agreement with support from non-global warming believers in the government

trying to boost the US economy without caring about the effects it has to our environment.

A simple definition of global warming is the emission of carbon into our air. And each

country, town, person, gives off their own carbon footprint. Your carbon footprint is the amount

of carbon you give off from driving, your garbage, and more. In the U.S. today, each person

gives off 20 metric tons of carbon, while the average for the rest of the world is 4 tons. Our

carbon footprint can negatively affect our world. Already in Antarctica and Greenland, we have

lost 421 gigatons of ice and the rates of this ice melting increases by 31% every year

(Rasmussen). Due to this ice loss, species like, seals, arctic foxes, penguins and more will lose

their habitats. As well as the bacteria’s growth that centers the entire ecosystem. Without the ice,
nutrients that help growth of bacteria, will be gone and result in a collapsed ecosystem and effect

all species. (Scott)

The Greenhouse Effect is the idea that our world’s heat is trapped in the atmosphere

causing the Earth to warm. In the past, before the world worried about global warming, there was

a boom in production of coal. Coal is a major emitter of carbon dioxide, which will heat our

world. This boom in production took place in the Industrial Revolution. It was the switch from

factories using water as power but to coal instead. Coal is much more efficient for production, as

well as easy to get and cheap. But the after effects are not appealing. With black excess smoke

becoming so prevalent, species like the peppered moths, had changed their advantageous wing

color through natural selection. But when the Industrial Revolution began thinking only of it’s

positive aspects, while the disastrous effects had begun.

President Donald Trump has impacted the United States itself, incredibly. But although

some say it in a positive way, President Trump has had a very negative impact on the U.S.’s

carbon footprint. Recently, Trump made the decision of taking the U.S. out of the Paris climate

Agreement one year ago. The Paris climate Agreement is a decision that all countries signed

(until the U.S. left), and was made for a fight against climate change or global warming. But

leaving this agreement can lose America’s place over other countries. This can give China, the

largest emitter of carbon dioxide in the world, an advantage over the U.S. since it isn’t in the

agreement. Attendees from the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) believe that, “The trouble is

that China would lead on climate-change issues only in so far as doing so would advance its

national interests.” (Sivaram and Saha). China has the largest economy in the world and if it
came between its own economy and global warming, China will mostly likely support its own

economy.

The United States of America is the second largest emitter of carbon. But many

government officials and President Trump do not believe global warming is real for multiple

reasons. Congress and President Trump’s disbelief in global warming will allow more poor

decisions to be made and increase carbon output. But most scientists believe that global warming

is real and is getting worse each day. One piece of evidence is that centuries ago, there were

many spikes in different temperatures. Like the Ice Age, the world's climate had become for the

most part ice and over time temperatures changed and the ice melted. These continuous spikes

had a nearly equal increases and decreases over centuries until recently. The global emissions

now have increased over past spikes and haven’t slowed down since 1950 (NASA). This

evidence of global warming existence should prove that global warming is real and is a problem

that needs to be solved. But officials like Senator Rob Bishop, a Republican of Oklahoma, don’t

believe in the problem or have other intentions. Rob Bishop has very close ties with the gas

industry involving money. (McCarthy) This connection could be the reason for Bishop to be

against global warming issues. If it interfered with his own money, he wouldn’t want to support

global warming since it would implicate his income. This creates a lack of impartiality within

our government and Rob Bishop isn’t the only decision maker having an impact. If these

government officials can make these large decisions, but have biased intentions that only benefits

themselves, they can lead us to destruction when voting for policies and agreements that deny

global warming or don’t help prevent global warming.

 Many speak on the effect global warming has on nature and the overall world. But many

don’t look at its effect on our own economy. A report made by director of Institute for

Philosophy, Andrew Light, expressed his concern for Global Warming’s effect on America’s

economy, ‘“Low-income communities and some communities of color are often already

overburdened with poor environmental conditions and are disproportionately affected by, and

less resilient to, the health impacts of climate change,”’(King). These conditions would not affect

those with more money creating a very different society, and those with less could slowly

disappear. But the rich will be able to survive, because they will have the money to pay for

protection, food, and supplies. The other effect of global warming on economy is the trade within

the U.S. itself. Temperature changes in the Midwest will affect the production of crops like

soybeans, corn, potatoes, and more. And the Midwest has some of the largest outputs and

resources for the U.S. Without these main food supplies, many economies and families would be

affected. This is because these products are significant to many companies (food, etc). Loss of

corn will affect all food production, creating a more expensive cuisine which will lead to poorer

families not having the money to access the expensive foods. The lack of corn will also affect

tons of meat industries, because how will they feed their animals? The price of corn will increase

as well as other crops that help feed the animals, resulting in farmers that can’t afford the crops

needed to feed their animals. And the outcome can result in less meat, as well as more expensive

meat. The most devastating result of all these outcomes is it’s impact on the poor. More people

can become homeless or starve due to the lack of food, all because of global warming could

destroy crops.
 As stated prior, Trump had exited the Paris Agreement. His reasoning is for the exiting

the agreement, will result in the loss of millions of jobs, and large amounts of money will be

spent. He justifies that those who work in the coal industry will lose their jobs if the restrictions

on coal were taken off. But the solar industry has already been increasing incredibly and the U.S.

industrial sector is already being forced to reduce it’s coal output. So The Natural Resources

Defense Council depicted that, “​the development of clean energy technologies will accelerate.

Even since 2016, solar costs have decreased by about 8%.” (Varinsky). Trump leaving the Paris

Agreement for job losses is pointless because these jobs are already being lost by the increasing

solar economy. Trump also mentions that the U.S. will lose lots of money staying in the

agreement. He claims, ‘​“So we're going to be paying billions and billions and billions of dollars

and we're already way ahead of anybody else," he said. "Many of the other countries haven't

spent anything. And many of them will never pay one dime.”’ (Varinsky) In this case he is

correct, but America has the most export of Global Emissions. Paying billions of dollars more

than other countries is understandable because the problem is mainly coming from the U.S. So

other countries are paying less because they have had less of an impact makes sense. Trump’s

claims are understandable, but they aren’t completely correct. Carbon and coal jobs will be lost

with or without the agreement because of the growing solar industry, and the large amount of

money that would be lost is justifiable for how much the U.S. outputs fossil fuels.

The United States has disastrously made an impact on global warming in the U.S.

American’s Carbon Footprint is made by it’s leaders unwillingness to work towards removing

Global Warming and the human species will be extinct if our country’s government won’t make

a step towards change. America’s increasing carbon footprint will lead to our own destruction
and is due to global warming’s effect on the U.S’s economy, a collection of government

official’s disbelief in global warming, and Trump’s decision on leaving the Paris climate

agreement.

Annotated Bibliography

“Climate Change Causes: A Blanket around the Earth.” ​NASA,​ NASA, 5 Feb. 2019.

- In this informative article NASA creates a detailed but comprehensible reasoning for how

Climate change is caused and why these causes occur. I plan to use this article as

background on what global warming is and what specific things create global warming.

“Climate Change Evidence: How Do We Know?” ​NASA​, NASA, 23 Apr. 2019.

- This article shows scientific proof that global warming is real, not a hoax. It goes in depth

of pre human existence to now. It proves that spike of climate “changes” do occur but

this growing of heat isn’t one of those spikes. I will use this in my work to show this

“hoax” people believe in is incorrect.

Dana Varinsky, Dave Mosher. “5 Claims Trump Used to Justify Pulling the US out of the Paris

Agreement - and the Reality.” ​Business Insider​, Business Insider, 1 June 2017,

- In this article Varinsky and Mosher create a list of why President Donald Trump left the

Paris climate Agreement. They give perspective on both sides but mainly lean toward

why Trump’s reasonings or claims are wrong. I will use this article to strengthen my

counter-argument.
King, Erika Y. “Climate Change Will Severely Affect US Economy, Particularly in Midwest:

Report.” ​ABC News,​ ABC News Network, 24 Nov. 2018.

- This article goes in a philosophical direction on how the future will be affected by global

warming. I will use this article to add how poorer people will be affected as well as food

production will be affected by Global warming in the U.S.

McCarthy, Tom. “Meet the Republicans in Congress Who Don't Believe Climate Change Is

Real.” ​The Guardian​, Guardian News and Media, 17 Nov. 2014.

- This adds crucial evidence to who is against global warming in our government as wells

as to why they don’t believe. I wanted to focus on the particular government officials

who have money put into gas companies and compare them to their global warming

beliefs.

Rasmussen, Carol. “Warming Seas and Melting Ice Sheets – Climate Change: Vital Signs of the

Planet.” ​NASA​, NASA, 28 Aug. 2015.

- Gives more overall evidence and impact of global warming on our seas and arctic

environments. I plan to use this article as a statistic to provide a logos impact on the

reader and really push global warming’s effect.

Scott, Michon. “Sea Ice.” ​NASA,​ NASA, 16 Sep. 2016.

- This article basically describes sea ice effect on entire ecosystems. Especially on the

specific species like bacteria and their impact on all species which would change

ecosystems. This provides background for how much global warming is affecting the

world.