Communiqué
Climate Change Escalates Despite Our Partisan Politics
By: Tom Hodson
Posted on:
To the vast majority of scientists, climate change exists and it has been exacerbated over the years by human factors.
However, not all politicians agree and most assuredly, most of the dissenters from this proposition reside in the Republican Party – the party now in power.
The GOP now controls both houses of Congress plus the White House and regulatory agencies.
The fact that climate change deniers now hold power, gives some scientists pause and reason for concern. The future of America’s reaction to world climate change issues and previous agreements and accords hang in the balance, according to climate change expert Dr. Geoffrey Dabelko of Ohio University.
Dr. Dabelko is a professor and director of Environmental Studies at Ohio University in the Voinovich School for Leadership and Public Affairs. He also has served as the director of the Environmental Change and Security Program – a non-partisan forum on environment, population, and security issues at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C.
Dr. Dabelko talks about how climate change issues might fare in the new Trump administration. He outlines specific worries and concerns from a scientist’s perspective.
To many scientists, time is of the essence, in addressing climate change issues on a global basis. They fear that during the upcoming administration that the United States might become more isolated on this issue and out of touch with other powerful members of the global community, Dr. Dabelko claims.
This, he says, could lead to other countries, like China, taking the lead on renewable resource development and alternatives to fossil based fuels.
Dabelko stresses that there are multiple global problems caused by climate change from the loss of the polar icecaps to issues surrounding the production of food and health concerns. It is difficult, if not impossible, he says, to unravel one problem from another because so many global issues are entwined with climate change.
He is concerned that the United States might chose to ignore the existence of many of these problems, thereby, abdicating its role in solving them.