By: Taylor Staub
Fiery Fate: How the 2020 Presidential Election Will Affect Global Warming
After this week’s highly contentious Presidential debate, one thing that most Americans can agree on about this election is that it will be chaotic. While there were many pressing issues on the table at the debate, one particularly controversial moment came to be when moderator Chris Wallace confronted President Trump, who has been notoriously reluctant to acknowledge the dangers of climate change, directly about his stance on the issue. While climate change has been a familiar favorite debate topic in elections past, the topic has a unique sense of urgency this year, as many lives have been lost and ruined as a result of the fires that continue to burn on the West Coast.
The sky in some parts of California has glowed an eerie shade of orange for weeks, after a series of wildfires, the severity of which many scientists attribute to climate change, ravage the West Coast. As of September 30, 2020, at least 30 people have died from the most recent set of fires, and crews battling the blazes report the fires are only 7% contained. Scientists attribute the increasing frequency and severity of the fires in the state to a combination of hot air and drought, which turns the trees and shrubs into perfect kindling for the massive fires. As climate change continues to progress, the combination of increased temperatures and lack of rainfall will only exacerbate the issue, pointing to a long road ahead for California. Cal Fire estimates that more than 2.7 million people live in very high fire severity zones in California. While the state throws all the resources it can into fire suppression, the long term solution is attacking climate change.
While climate change seems like a boogeyman issue to some, the fires in California reframe the issue as an imminent emergency. At the debate, the candidates had starkly different responses to questioning surrounding the issue of the fires and climate change. President Trump has been widely ridiculed for his stance on global warming, previously dismissing climate change as a hoax and more recently garnering criticism for asserting a scientifically unsupported claim that the climate would cool down soon. While President Trump took a rare departure from his typical stance by admitting a human role in climate change at the debate, he failed to outline a plan for aggressive action on global warming, much to the dismay of many scientists who believe we are approaching a tipping point of irreversible damage to the planet. Biden’s responses could not have been more starkly different. While Biden declines to adopt the aggressive Green New Deal that has been lauded by progressives in Congress, his “Biden Plan” presents an ambitious alternative, with the goal of achieving net zero emissions no later than 2050 at the cost of $2 trillion.
While it’s unclear whether Biden’s plan is enough to defeat climate change, it’s clear that the issue of climate change will be addressed squarely on the ballot this year. While attacking climate change is a costly endeavor, the fires in California serve as a foreboding symbol of the cost of the alternative. Under the Trump climate plan, or lack thereof, Californians should expect little to no support on the long term battle against the fires if defeating climate change is the solution. Two artists in New York City incorporated this tangible fear into their installation on the side of a building in Union Square called The Climate Clock, which displays a countdown to the time where scientists expect the damage done by climate change will become irreversible. As the election looms, The Climate Clock currently shows just over 7 years of time remaining, putting the weight of the world on the next President – literally.
References:
https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/warmer-trump-concedes-human-role-climate-change-73348876
https://www.vox.com/21430638/california-wildfires-2020-orange-sky-august-complex
https://climate.nasa.gov/faq/16/is-it-too-late-to-prevent-climate-change/
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/14/us/politics/biden-climate-plan.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/20/arts/design/climate-clock-metronome-nyc.html