To the Editor:

Deemed to be an urgent and potentially irreversible crisis by scientists around the globe, global warming is exacting its toll. With temperatures soaring and weather patterns changing, ecosystems and civilization are battling just to survive.

On Dec. 12, 2015, one-hundred-and-ninety-six countries came to together in recognition of this natural catastrophe, hoping that they could preserve Earth for our species and countless others. Specifically, the 196 nations at the Paris Conference agreed upon hold the increase in global average temperature to well below 2 degrees C above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 degrees C above pre-industrial levels.

This universal acceptance and dedication toward combating climate change has been hailed as “historic, a landmark, and the world’s greatest diplomatic success,” as Daniel Bodanski wrote 2016 in the American Journal of International Law, due to the constructive goals set forth and its innate superiority to its predecessor — the Kyoto Protocol.

Thus, on June 1, 2017, when President Donald J. Trump announced that the United States would pull out of the agreement, there was uproar and disapproval from scientists and environmental-protection organizations. While imperfect, the Paris Climate Accord is the first real step toward change that will reverse the harmful effects of global warming. The United States’ decision to renege on the Paris Climate agreement was vacuous, ill informed, and will only further harm the world’s fragile ecosystems.

The United States has had a long history of denying climate change and refusing to enact, support, or ratify legislation or treaties that would help combat this global problem. The Kyoto Protocol, a treaty that involved many nations before the Paris Climate Accord, attempted to reduce greenhouse-gas concentrations in the atmosphere to a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system.

Despite this honorable goal, the United States rejected the Kyoto Protocol … President George W. Bush’s concern with the protocol was with the impact it would have on the United States coal industry. The renunciation of the Kyoto Protocol was not based in concern for our warming planet, but instead was based on a myopic view of the world that focuses selfishly on the benefits of our economy.

The Paris Climate Accord effectively improved upon the Kyoto Protocol encouraging powerful nations, including the United States under President Barack Obama, to join. “Every country submitted a voluntary pledge for how it planned to address climate change, with no penalties for failing to meet those goals. Unlike with Kyoto, nations would not have to submit to emission cuts dictated from above by United Nations negotiators. They could submit plans tailored to their domestic circumstances and would not have to fear being stuck with them if circumstances changed, according to Brad Plumer, writing for The New York Times.

Additionally, the Paris agreement is a legally binding instrument that specifies the same core obligations for all countries … This progressive approach and encouragement of stronger action over time effectively ushers in slow, but necessary policy change that 195 nations are able to support; therefore, President Trump’s decision to remove the United States from this agreement was met with outrage.

Similarly to President Bush’s decision to pull the U.S. out of the Kyoto Protocol, Trump’s decision to reject the Paris Climate Accord is founded in reasons that show no consideration for our ever-worsening climate problem … Again, this concern for maintaining a superior economy drives the choices of the United States, which has only proven to worsen global warming.

It is true that many elements of the Paris Agreement still need to be fleshed out before it is a completely viable agreement for effectively mitigating climate change, but this accord is the first real step toward change; the Trump administration’s decision has therefore effectively set the world back.

As Thomas Stocker, an environmental physicist explains, “Trump’s decision to ignore scientific facts of climate disruption and the high risks of climate-change impacts is irresponsible not only towards his own people but to all people and life on this planet. The United States is the second-biggest emitter of carbon dioxide worldwide and is withdrawing from its historical responsibility to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions and lead the way forward.”

As the world’s second largest emitter, the United States’ withdrawal may make other countries feel less pressure to step up their own plans to curb greenhouse gases … Even before the Trump administration’s retreat, efforts were falling far short. Current Paris Accord pledges, when added up, put the planet on pace to warm 3 degrees Celsius or more above pre-industrial levels, an outcome with a far greater risk of destabilizing ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica, higher levels of sea-level rise, more destructive heat waves and droughts, and the loss of vital ecosystems like coral reefs.

Other studies detail the complete collapse of the West African monsoon if temperatures reach 3 degrees Celsius. Most shockingly, the recently published Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change projections to 2100 give likely ranges of global temperature increase, finding that the likely range of global temperature increase is 2.0 to 4.9 degrees Celsius, with median 3.2 degrees Celsius and a 5 percent chance that it will be less than 2 degrees Celsius. Achieving the goal of less than 1.5 degrees Celsius will require carbon intensity to decline much faster than in the recent past.

While the Paris Climate Accord may not have completely mended the problem of global warming, it is the first real action taken toward creating change. Even with the accord in place and embraced by 195 nations, the world is still on track to reach a catastrophic temperature rise of up to 3 degrees Celsius.

The accord’s plan for nations to meet every five years and reset goals allows for flaws to be realized and for our world to get back on track to protecting our environment. The United States’ decision to reject the Paris Climate Accord is detrimental to the success of lowering the planet’s overall temperature.

As a major contributor to the rising temperature, the United States needs to fight climate change — a problem that is clearly occurring as the science supports it. Fortunately, until 2020 the United States cannot officially pull out of the Paris deal, although we may refuse to meet our targeted carbon emission measures.

Therefore if a new administration that strives to protect our environment wins the presidency, there may still be hope for our environmental predicament.

Caroline Conforti

Guilderland

Editor’s note: Caroline Conforti is a sophomore at Williams College.