This fall’s election has major implications for America’s role in the fight against climate change.
The two White House candidates, Joe Biden and Donald Trump, are worlds apart on global warming, and, as Earth Day arrives Monday, climate advocates warn that a second Trump administration could have dire consequences for the planet.
“The difference between those two presidencies couldn’t be more stark,” said Pete Maysmith, senior vice president of campaigns at the League of Conservation Voters, which has endorsed Biden.
“It’s continuing to make progress and tackling the climate crisis,” Maysmith said, versus “unraveling progress.”
The U.S. is currently the country with the second most emissions in the world, behind only China, making its policies key to limiting them.
Man-made activity has driven planetary warming since the industrial revolution — when many national economies became largely based on coal. Since then, the Earth’s average surface temperature has already warmed by around 2 degrees Fahrenheit.
This warming has led to an increase in the frequency and intensity of extreme weather, including flooding and droughts, in addition to heat waves. These extremes are expected to worsen if the planet continues getting hotter, especially if key “tipping points” that change the system and are difficult to reverse — such as the melting of the Greenland ice sheet and Arctic permafrost — are reached.
Under President Biden, the U.S. has implemented policies that are expected to cut emissions, including the Inflation Reduction Act, which could cut U.S. carbon emissions by between 35 percent and 43 percent below 2005 levels in 2030, according to a government projection.
The Biden administration has also pursued regulations aimed at combating climate change, requiring a shift toward greener vehicles and proposing to make power plants reduce their emissions.
A second Trump administration is likely to try to undo or reverse many of those climate rules, after former President Trump rolled back more than 125 environmental policies during his four years in office, according to a Washington Post analysis.
Spokespeople for the Trump campaign did not respond to The Hill’s request for comment. But plans posted on the campaign’s website indicate that the former president intends to reverse Biden regulations on efficient appliances and climate friendly vehicles, as well as moves to limit fossil fuel production and subsidize wind energy.
Generally, Trump’s allies have cited economics and limiting government overreach as their reasoning for such actions.
But critics note that they also harm the planet – and contribute to climate-related disasters.
Steve Cohen, a public affairs professor at Columbia University, said a second Trump presidency would be “devastating” in terms of climate policy, describing the former president as someone who “doesn’t think electric vehicles are a good idea, spreads disinformation about windmills, and is aggressively anti-science when it comes to climate change.”
Cohen particularly raised concerns about the ability of federal agencies to enforce laws and maintain staff, and the potential for anti-regulatory judges to be appointed.
“Another four years of that could make this permanent, where now, institutions were able to rebound after four years. I’m not sure they could if it happens again,” he said.
A Biden presidency, meanwhile, would be likely to at least maintain the nation’s current trajectory.
In a statement to The Hill, the Biden campaign stressed the president’s commitment to the issue and his contrast with Trump but did not give specific policy goals for a second Biden term.
“Joe Biden is the only candidate in this race taking action to combat the existential threat of climate change,” said spokesperson Seth…
This article was originally published by a thehill.com . Read the Original article here. .