If you have visited the website for the Environmental Protection Agency within the last couple of weeks, you may have noticed a slight change in its web pages – any mention of climate change has been removed. Today, what we refer to as climate change means “a long term change in the earth’s climate” due to the use of harmful fossil fuels and carbon emissions^[1] The current administration under the leadership of Donald Trump has actively pursued their goal of painting climate change as a issue that is not human-caused or a top priority of the federal government. Scientists from the Environmental Data and Governance Initiative has taken notice of President Trump’s refusal to accept scientific evidence of global warming and have said “[they] have found significant loss to access in information about climate change” on government websites ^[2]. Just last June, Donald Trump announced that he removed the United States from the Paris Climate Accord which has the goal of reducing the threat of climate change by “holding the increase in global average temperature to well below 2 degrees C above pre-industrial levels …” ^[3] It should also be mentioned that in the agreement, nations are not expected to put efforts forth immediately but they have until the year 2020.

On the other side of the aisle, Democrats and Liberals have been vocal about their support for climate change initiatives, using activism and advocacy to combat the harmful effects that Trump and his staff have created for the United States. In response to Trump’s harmful rhetoric against the value of scientific research, “March for Science” protests were organized in April attracting the attention of communities all across the globe. From Australia and New Zealand to right here in Boston, hundreds of community members gathered to demonstrate holding signs that said phrases similar to “Science is Real” and “Make America Smart Again” (a take on Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign slogan “Make America Great Again”). Currently, many have realized the lack of preparedness coming from the Democratic side when it comes to combatting rising temperatures, although they are the party that has believed in global warming, no pieces of legislation have been filed at the federal level as of late 2017 ^[4]

To further investigate about the current actions being taken on this issue, I decided to look into any pending legislation mentioning climate change, existing committees, and public hearings about this topic. A quick search on the website of the Massachusetts state legislature revealed that there are both Senate and House Committees on Global Warming and Climate Change^[5] For those who want to learn more about this important issue affecting all of our communities the best advice that can be given is to stay informed and be mindful. Stay informed about your government, sustainable practices, and be mindful of how you contribute to the work of combatting climate change. In the year 2017, many recognized the threats looming over all of us and took action by protest. But as we also recognize, so many issues affecting us are political.

 

1. climate change. (n.d). Edition. Dictionary.com unabridged [n.d.; February 1,2018].http://www.dictionary.com/browse/climate-change.
2. Davenport, Coral. How Much Has Climate Change Been Scrubbed…[website]. New York. New York Times; [February 1,2018] January 10,2018 https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/10/climate/climate-change-trump.html.
3. Domonoske, Camila. So What Exactly Is the Paris…[website]. NPR; [June 3, 2017/February 1, 2018] June 1,2017https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/06/01/531048986/so-what-exactly-is-in-the-paris-climate-accord
4. Davidson, Helen; Milman, Oliver. Global ‘March for Science’ Protests…[website]. The Guardian; Washington D.C.[February 1, 2018] April 22, 2017 https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/apr/22/global-march-for-science-protests-call-for-action-on-climate-change.
5. Search results for climate change [website]. Commonwealth of Massachusetts; Boston, MA.[February 1, 2018] https://malegislature.gov/Search?SearchTerms=climate+change.