Current Event – Local Issue

Current Event – Local Issue

Summary.

The New York Times newspaper is talking about how the president of the United States, Donald Trump, has shocked the world by making a legendary unprecedented action of doing away with environmental regulations. The regulations that he has done away with are those that protect water, air, land, and the health of the public from the danger that the environment is exposed too from fossils pollution. Trump’s administration is targeting approximately ninety-five environmental regulation laws. That regulation that he is doing away with are those structured to curb the emission of greenhouse gases, protection of the ecosystem from gas and oil drilling and development. Besides, they are structured to limit the pollution of the nation’s water bodies by toxic waste runoff. According to Trump, these regulations are burdensome to fossil fuel companies and other major energy industries.

Trumps makes it seem less effective when this regulation is eliminated, and it might be best for the economic development of the nations. However, the consequence of such actions will lead to premature deaths from pollutants, increasing the rate of global warming from the increasing emission of greenhouse gas. It is like Trump is aiming at boosting the nation’s GDP at the cost of citizen’s well-being. For instance, in August last year, he went ahead and loosened the leash on the regulatory law on climate change methane emissions. He didn’t stop there, he repealed the significant Obama era clean water regulation, and again he changed the law that protected the endangered species. A decision that will give companies no reasons to implement new technologies in monitoring and fixing methane leaks from their companies and pipelines. Creating a controversial debate on whether the environmental protection agency will have the autonomy to regulate Methane as pollutant or not. It is right to agree that Methane is dangerous in large amounts, and since they won’t be under regulation, excess emission of it will accelerate the effect of global warming.

Trump is justifying his action by saying that, doing away with that regulation policy, it will save the country between seventeen to nineteen million dollars annually from the oil and gas industry. That is just compliance cost and removal of unnecessary burdens. But from the scientist’s perspective, it will increase the emission of Methane by more than three hundred and seventy thousand. Such actions are set back for environmentally friendly energy. The repeal for clean water regulation gives polluter power to discharge toxic substances into water bodies. It is hurting the nation’s source of freshwater safe for drinking and wildlife. Farmers considered this as a win, but not for long, because nature has a way of reaching back. Finely doing away with the regulation act that protected wildlife automatically exposes them to the threat of human development and global warming.

Effect of This Issue.

Every presidential administration has been dedicated its time and resources alongside non-governmental and citizens to protect the environment. But with Trump’s local policies, there is a significant concern for the environment, exposing the nation to uncountable threats from the environment and climate change. These policies hurt biodiversity, which happened to be the most complicated feature of the planet. Fundamentally every living thing has a role to play in the ecosystem. But with the changes that Trump has done on the regulation that was protecting endangered species, emission of carbon, and pollution, biodiversity is threatened. Billions of species will go extinct. Contamination of water is a significant concern for humans and the environment. Not only will polluted water lead to financial strain, but it will lead to the death of both people and animals and marine life. The best resources that the universe is offering us endangered by these local policies as the rate by which toxic substances will be dumped in waterways are going to be alarming. Before Trump went nuts, the projected period that it would have taken before the planet drastically suffer from global warming was twelve years, now imagine how long it is going to take given the fact that he has made the matter worse. Greenhouse gas is going to increase in volume, which happens to be the critical cause of climate change. Temperature is going to rise, heating the earth’s surface. These local environmental policies made by Trump might seem like a joke but will spike a chain of reaction that will make the United States an intolerable place to live.

Influencing Environmental Policies In the Future.

One of the ways to influence this new policy that Trump is implemented is by protest—conducting awareness protests where environmental organizations and agencies join hands and protest against such policies. It might be a long shot, but speaking out is one step to getting heard. Secondly, in the upcoming election, people should make vote for people who have their best interests at heart. Trump is a businessman, he knows nothing concerning the environment but how to make a profit. Things would have been better for environmental regulatory policies if Clinton had taken office. Lack of knowledge might be a hindrance; farmers who use pesticides should be notified that negative effect they are putting the environment when they use chemicals. Therefore creating awareness is the other way of influencing such policies. People should be asked to use environmentally friendly renewable energy such as solar energy, thermodynamic energy, and hydroelectric energy. Therefore, there is much that can be done if the whole nation united against such policies that are being pushed by his administration.

Article Neutrality.

This news article is not neutral at all. This is from the fact that it presents one side point of view of an issue which has been controversially debated upon. The author of this news article seems to have pleasure dwelling on his side of view without considering the opposing side of the list. People might have varying opinions concerning the local policies proposed by Trump by the article, only addressing the negative side.

Reference

Andrushchenko, S. V., & Kravets, O. (2019). New ways of solving fundamental environmental problems.

Espinola-Arredondo, A., & Munoz-Garcia, F. (2018). Abolishing Environmental Regulation: Strategic Effects and Welfare Implications.

New York Times Newspaper. (2020). 95 Environmental Rules Being Rolled Back Under Trump. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/climate/trump-environment-rollbacks.html