In June of 2013 the Presidential Climate Action Plan was released. In this plan President Obama and staff discuss the issues of climate change, why we need to manage it, and how this can be done. It is broken up into three main parts consisting of “Cut Carbon Pollution in America”, “Prepare the United States for the Impacts of Climate Change”, and “Lead International Efforts to Address Global Climate Change”. To fulfill the requirements of the blog and to diversify the content I am going to pick one of the President’s initiatives from each section to discuss.

The first section, cut carbon pollution in america, has five parts on how to do so. The part that I find the most interesting from this section is the third part, cutting energy waste in homes, businesses, and factories. I find this to be the most important because I think it is really relatable and doable. This initiative will only fortify Obama’s plan to get America n the right direction in terms of climate control. Obama announced in 2009 that his goal by 2020 for America is to cut our greenhouse gas emissions by 17% from the level recorded in 2005. The plan to cut the carbon emissions will be done through increasing the efficiency of our energy consumption. It states further that this will also benefit the people because we can lower the cost of utilities.

In the second section, prepare the United States for the impacts of climate change, there are three parts. This section is the most scientific in nature and touches on how the climate can hurt our nation and how we need to be ready for it. The third part of the section is the most interesting because it is most relative to our class. The plan tells us that in the spring of 2014 Obama will release the third climate assessment. The climate assessment is made so that we can highlight “new advances in our understanding of climate-change across all regions of the United States and on critical sectors of the economy, including transportation, energy, agriculture, ecosystems and biodiversity”. The thing that I found most notable from this part is that for the first time in our history as a nation the climate assessment will help convey scientific knowledge more practically to help decision makers prepare for climate change, rather than only trying to spread knowledge.

Finally in the third section, lead international efforts to address global climate change, there are only two parts. This section basically discusses how we can set ourselves on track to be the most climate sensitive (climate change ready/sustainable). Even though it is not the most important part the section I enjoyed the part about how we should enact free trade of environmental goods and services around the globe. I enjoyed this because it is kind of one of those conceptual ideas that arise when you think of a perfect world. By that I mean I like the idea that we can work together as a human race rather than by nations to leave a better world for the generations that follow us. What is great about the idea is that we are trying to get help from other developed countries that consist of 90% of the global trade of environmental goods and services. This option will only stimulate foreign trade and the US economy AND it result would be beneficial to our planet.

Reference:

– http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/image/president27sclimateactionplan.pdf

– http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/06/25/fact-sheet-president-obama-s-climate-action-plan