With the coming of president elect Trump, many democrats and even republicans have protested against Trump’s plans and ideas on topics from Planned Parenthood to gun control. However, the people most at risk because of Trump’s beliefs are the environmental scientists. The fact that Trump has stated “global warming is an expensive hoax,” scares organizations like the Environmental Protection Agency about what actions he will take to fight the so called “fake” phenomenon, even though it has been scientifically proven that global warming is prevalent ever since the Industrial Revolution. But what will really happen to our status quo in 2017?

To start off, Trump has expressed his desire to stop the Paris Climate agreement and stop all US tax dollars from going to UN global warming programs. The Paris Climate agreement, according to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, “builds upon the Convention and brings all nations into a common cause to undertake ambitious efforts to combat climate change and adapt to its effects, with enhanced support to assist developing countries to do so.”

The US departure from the Paris agreement will rid the government from its regulations on carbon emissions and will undoubtedly further exacerbate our environment. Another one of Trump’s controversial actions is his desire to appoint Ebell as the head of the Environmental Protection Agency. Ebell has said that any increase in temperature is “nothing to worry about.” As a student who aspires to be an environmental scientist, seeing this definitely makes me disappointed, and even discourages me from pursuing my major.

But, there is still hope. Ivanka Trump, though not an angel, contrasts Trump in her beliefs on climate change. In fact, on December 1st 2016, Ivanka Trump stated that she would make the problem of climate change “one of her signature issues.” And although Ivanka is not president, she will definitely have some influence on Trump. Another sign of hope is Trump’s appointment of Mitt Romney in his administration. Luckily, Mitt Romney will most likely take the issue of climate change seriously, as he even wrote a book called “No Apology” in 2010 about climate change and his actions to stop it.

We, as a nation, cannot underestimate the problem of global warming that has melted polar ice caps and put many animals at risk. The National Wildlife Federation has even said “the pre-industrial concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere was 280 parts per million (ppm). As of December 2016, 404.93 ppm.” Let us just hope that many of Trump’s comments are not valid and hope that in the future, climate change will be one of the government’s top priorities.

<Kenny Um / Flintridge Prep 11th Grade>