1

Historical Essay

Hanna W. Smith

Salt Lake community college

HIST 1700-American civilization

Professor Case

17 December, 2020

https://hannasmithslcc.weebly.com
 2

Historical Essay

Over the past ten years, the nation of America, particularly the United States, has been

experiencing the upsurge of many social movements that have managed to shape the nation in

different ways. Whilst these social movements have greatly assisted in bringing the needed social

change, starting from 2010, the nation has been witnessing adverse events under the leadership

of former president Donald Trump. The following are incidents that have played a significant

role in shaping the present and future of the nation.

Climate change is a “long-term change in the average weather patterns that have come to

define Earth’s local, regional and global climates. These changes have a broad range of observed

effects that are synonymous with the term” (“Overview: Weather, Global Warming and Climate

Change”, 2019). Climate change has been accelerating in recent years at an alarming rate. In this

paper I will discuss six events that have led to our current climate predicament, ending with the

young woman who is doing everything in her power to try to stop it.

In 2010, on the heels of NASA coming out to say that the last decade had been the hottest

in history, more than 250 different members from the National Academy of Scientists wrote an

open letter to address climate change deniers (Childress, 2012). The group of staunch academics

was fed up with the pressure from politicians to continue to deny the scientific validity of climate

change data that was piling up (Childress, 2012). The scientists faced retribution politically and

harassment if they tried to tell the public about the coming dangers or attempt to convince

politicians to start taking action against the rising temperatures (Childress, 2012). These

scientists knew that they must trust the data and the data showed that the world was in serious

danger if something did not change. The letter laid out five main points that they wanted the
 3

world to know: the world is warming because of greenhouse gases, human actions lead to the

creation of these gases, natural changes to climate occur but these are minimal to the ones

coming from humans, global warming leads to other detrimental effects on the Earth, and these

effects will cause massive damage to coastal communities as well as other areas (Open letter:

Climate change and the integrity of science 2010). These scientists hoped this open letter would

alleviate the social pressure they felt from politicians and help the country move forward in

trying to combat the dangers of climate change and global warming. Shortly after this milestone,

a hindrance came to the effort in the form of the Republican party.

After the Republican party came to power in the House, they made a decision that would

hinder the effort of climate change relief. In 2011 the House Republicans took it upon

themselves to completely disband the House Committee on Global Warming (Childress 2012).

They told the public that it was essentially a waste of valuable money to continue to have that

sector open and operating (Childress, 2012). Republicans have historically been climate change

deniers and this move was an unabashed way for them to push their own beliefs onto the

American people and cement their ideology into government. In fact, “While 51 percent of

Democrats and 40 percent of Independents say it is mostly because of human activity; only 19

percent of Republicans and 11 percent of Tea Party Republicans agree” (Childress, 2012). This

unfortunately shows the real and dangerous impacts that political affiliations can have on

America.

Years later it appeared that real progress may occur. The Paris Climate Agreement went

into effect in 2016 (Harvey, 2016). This was a policy that made it so “​all governments that have

ratified the accord, which includes the US, China, India and the EU, now carry an obligation to

hold global warming to no more than 2C above pre-industrial levels” (Harvey, 2016). This was
 4

the first time that countries had actual metrics that they would need to abide by. The goals stated

in the agreement are not necessarily legally binding; however, it was an important step in looking

to curtail emissions going into the future (Harvey, 2016). In my own life this event also led to the

start of my own education on climate change. When this was ratified by the US it was the first

time I had heard politicians actually taking global warming seriously. Agreements like this are

absolutely necessary to keep countries accountable for their actions and make sure that everyone

is doing their part to stop the detrimental human and environmental impacts that would occur if

we continue to selfishly create more and more greenhouse gases.

Unfortunately, after the election of President Trump, the actions America had begun to

implement were abruptly stopped. In 2017 President Trump made the decision that the US would

be leaving the agreement (Domonoske, 2017). He cited his campaign promise to take care of the

working people for his main reason for exiting, stating that ​"Our withdrawal from the agreement

represents a reassertion of American workers' sovereignty ​(Domonoske, 2017)​." This decision to

leave the pact was met with outrage from the public and world leaders alike, as the United States

is such a heavy weight in the political landscape of our world ​(Domonoske, 2017). This act

shifted priority away from lowering emissions and therefore lowering temperatures and the

effects of this will surely be felt in the years to come following Trump’s one term presidency.

As a direct result of Trump’s environmental policy, those in the sciences and the general

public decided to use their outrage to try to bring about real change, thus the Climate March on

Washington was planned (Fandos, 2017). Alarmed by Trump’s brazen backstepping of Obama’s

progressive climate legislation, tens of thousands gathered for the march (Fandos, 2017). People

gathered for many reasons, some to save the oceans, some the bees, and some in the fear that

climate change will soon decimate many jobs in the near future (Fandos, 2017). This was not one
 5

stand-alone event, these marches occurred all over the United States (Fandos, 2017). To me these

marches indicate that the majority of people not only believe in climate change but care enough

about its effect to go out of their way to protest Trump’s policies. It also signifies that people do

not trust the government to do the right thing for the American people in regards to climate

change and that is significant.

Lastly, I wanted to speak about Greta Thunberg, a young woman who has done so much

for climate change education not only in the United States, but around the world. She has

become an icon and it is well deserved. Her fame began when she went on strike from school to

raise awareness of the current climate crisis and in two years, she has been able to meet with

world leaders to convince them of the severity of our circumstances (Marchese, 2020). She has

been so successful as an environmental activist because of “Her compelling clarity about the

scale of the crisis and moral indignation at the inadequate political response have been hugely

influential in shifting public opinion” (Marchese, 2020). People like this give us hope that people

do care about our world and want to make concrete changes in order to protect it. Greta is an

inspiration to so many people and she truly shows that this world is worth fighting for and that

we must make real changes in the near future to help slow down global warming and climate

change.
 6

Reflection

These events have played an essential role in shaping my understanding of the

surroundings I am living in. While doing research on the topic of climate change I have come to

realize my ignorance on the subject. First, I have learned to be conscious of everything that I do

and everywhere that I go. Although I have always believed that climate change is a very

important issue and one I should be concerned about I haven't done much to help the planet in

regards to climate change. There have been many times where I have left my car running, my

lights in the house on when unnecessary, and many other “small things” that affect the planet and

climate change in a negative way. I remember one instance where I was sitting in my car at work

having my lunch, and a lady came up to my window and asked me to turn off my car. At that

moment I became annoyed. It was hot out and I wanted to have my air conditioner on. I didn't

think, or care about what my car running was doing to affect the environment. In my mind I

didn’t think my one car running for thirty minutes would do anything adverse to the

environment. That mindset is the same of many Americans, we don’t look at the bigger picture.

We tend to only think about ourselves. One car won’t make a difference in regard to climate

change, but if everyone thinks like that we will in actuality have millions of cars sitting idle

polluting the air we breathe and as a whole we will affect this planet in a negative way. Change

always starts with one person. The effect is small alone but as a collective we can change the

world, but it all started with one. We need to look at the bigger picture, when you think your one

act isn’t affecting the world around you, think again, think outside the box, set your eyes on the

ultimate goal. Strive for change and be that change. Take a stance in the world for good and

know that one's actions can lead to others actions. Do you want to be a part of the change for
 7

good or bad? I promise you one thing if you aren’t part of the change for good, you will surely

be a part of the change for bad. When I leave this earth I hope for my children and grandchildren

to be able to breathe clean air and see the beauty of the world we left behind for them. I don't

want to leave behind a dying earth for the next generation.

Works Cited

Childress, S. (2012). Timeline: The Politics of Climate Change. Retrieved December 18, 2020,

from ​https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/timeline-the-politics-of-climate-change/

Domonoske, C., & Dwyer, C. (2017, June 01). Trump Announces U.S. Withdrawal From Paris

Climate Accord. Retrieved December 17, 2020, from

https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/06/01/530748899/watch-live-trump-annou

nces-decision-on-paris-climate-agreement

Fandos, N. (2017). Climate March Draws Thousands of Protesters Alarmed by Trump's

Environmental Agenda (Published 2017). Retrieved December 17, 2020, from

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nytimes.com/2017/04/29/us/politics/peoples-climate-

march-trump.amp.html

Harvey, F. (2016, November 04). Paris climate change agreement enters into force. Retrieved

December 18, 2020, from

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/nov/04/paris-climate-change-agreement-e

nters-into-force

Marchese, D. (2020, November 02). Greta Thunberg Hears Your Excuses. She Is Not Impressed.

Retrieved December 17, 2020, from

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/11/02/magazine/greta-thunberg-interview.html?

auth=linked-facebook
 9

Open letter: Climate change and the integrity of science. (2010, May 06). Retrieved December

17, 2020, from

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2010/may/06/climate-science-open-letter

Overview: Weather, Global Warming and Climate Change. (2019, August 28). Retrieved

December 17, 2020, from

https://climate.nasa.gov/resources/global-warming-vs-climate-change/