To call the White House attempt to shred the climate policy advances made by the previous administration irresponsible is a colossal understatement.
In this day and age it seems absurd to have to point this out, but (everyone all at once) CLIMATE CHANGE IS REAL. It also shouldn’t be necessary, but we also have to add that the human dimension of climate change is a major factor in the equation. Nearly every scientist agrees that the Earth is warming, and more than 97 percent of these scientists point to humans as the cause. In 1989, Ronald Reagan became the first president to acknowledge the negative human impacts on climate when he signed the Montreal Protocol, a landmark environmental treaty.
It doesn’t take a scientist to understand how the greenhouse effect works, how human activities increase atmospheric CO2 through burning of fossil fuels, agricultural practices, deforestation, etc. In the more vulnerable areas of the world the impact is already being felt through droughts, cyclones, heat waves, rising sea levels, heavy rainfall, landslides and floods. Migration, already a problem throughout the world, will significantly escalate as these problems persist.
Climate change creates global threats that affect all aspects of human life, including our health, homes, livelihoods, and cultures, as well as our physical environment. Threats of this magnitude affect our stability—our sense of cultural identity, our well-being, and our security. For more information, we urge you to go to the AAA Climate Change Research and Policy page on our website.
We have made great strides in recognizing and addressing the problem. The latest move by the White House isn’t just irresponsible, it’s downright dangerous.
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Founded in 1902, the American Anthropological Association, with 10,000 members, is the world’s largest scholarly and professional organization of anthropologists. The Association is dedicated to advancing human understanding and applying this understanding to the world’s most pressing problems.
