by Caleb Rogart
On April 22, the United States hosted a virtual climate summit that 40 world leaders attended in order to address the dangers of climate change and ways countries around the world could work together to stop it. The summit began with a bang, when President Joe Biden announced that his campaign would aim to reduce America’s greenhouse gas emissions by about 50% below its 2005 emissions levels by 2030. This is vital since the world only has until the next century or so to prevent a third of the entire Antarctic falling into the ocean as a result of the accelerating rise of temperatures around the globe. There has been another major milestone achieved due to the involvement of presidents and prime ministers such as Xi Jinping of China, Vladimir Putin of Russia, Narendra Modi of India, and Yoshihide Suga of Japan. Along with President Joe Biden, these leaders represent the countries that are the top five carbon gas emitters in the world, increasing the importance of them speaking out about their plans or willingness to stop at least some of their emissions.
This was well received by most economists, of which 75% believed "immediate and drastic" action is needed in order to curb emissions. However, some advocates and groups such as the Sunrise Movement said Biden’s plan wasn’t ambitious enough. Their executive director noted, “The priorities and approach are right, this contains the frameworks of the Green New Deal, but as of now this plan could only be considered a beginning of that truly transformative vision.” This came after the planet lost about 100,000 square miles of forests in the last year, which is about the size of Colorado. A major factor in all of the loss can be blamed on salt water killing 10% of forests and trees in wetlands in the past 35 years. Furthermore, a recent expedition found tens of thousands of items of the toxic chemical, DDT, that very well may have been polluting the Pacific ocean for decades.
Despite the ongoing damage, the Biden administration has made some decent strides in helping to stop climate change in their short time in power. The administration is creating offshore wind energy projects across the US to begin a "clean energy revolution." They wish to generate 30 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2030 and aim to have the country powered entirely off of a clean grid by 2035. Another major advance came when the largest union in the fossil fuel industry backed President Biden's $2 trillion green infrastructure package. President Biden has been looking for the support of workers saying in his first joint session to Congress, “For too long we’ve failed to use the most important word when it comes to meeting the climate crisis: jobs.”
Many others have also helped in the fight to battle the climate crisis that the world currently faces. For example, Tesla and SpaceX CEO, Elon Musk, is spending $100,000,000 towards an XPrize competition which encourages helping to ease the climate crisis by creating new carbon removal technologies. Many large corporations have donated in the fight, including Apple, who has announced a $200 million investment which will be used to remove carbon emissions and support sustainable forestry. The largest investment to protect the climate in quite a while comes from America's largest bank, JPMorgan, which announced that it aims to put $2.5 trillion in the next 10 years towards supporting the fight against climate change. Despite not being the largest financial contributor, the nonprofit Blue Nature Alliance has by far the most ambitious initiative, with its aim to protect 5% of the world’s ocean in the next five years. Though it may seem like a small percentage, the 7 million square miles plan is larger than the entire continent of South America. Additionally, it is currently estimated that less than 3% of the world’s oceans are being fully protected which comes to show Blue Nature Alliance’s goal is truly ambitious.
Recently, regular individuals, environmentalists, multinational corporations, and many more have taken not both well received and necessary steps to address the world’s climate crisis. Even though we are far away from a world with optimal climate policies, we are certainly on the road to get there.