Sand swirls around you as you step out of your front door…or at least what’s left of it. Ash and soot cover everything as far as you can see as forest fires continue raging on. You’re about to go grocery shopping. So you grab your grocery bags, your wallet and keys and head out the door. But wait, you’ve forgotten your trusty hazmat suit. COVID-19 persists but only in your country because your leaders didn’t believe that it was real. You’re banned from travelling to other countries because of this. Also the smog in your neighbourhood is so thick that you can barely breathe outside without some form of filtration. But anyway, you get to the grocery store finally. The shelves are laden with…wait they’re empty…looted? Civil unrest has continued for years and the cries of thousands of minority groups have fallen on deaf ears. Wildfires have destroyed the crops in your state resulting in incredible inflation rates for basic necessities. You no have to resort to black markets for any resources.
This seems like a scene straight out of a post-apocalyptic movie, but is it that far off? Could the results of the 2020 US elections lead us here?
Trump 2020 promises employment and better quality of life for the American people. But what does another Trump regime mean for the environment? On November 4th, the day after the election, the US is set to withdraw from the 2015 Paris Agreement. On average the Unites States produced over 5 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide each year for the past decade. And it obviously has one of the highest rates of carbon emissions per capita of any country in the world. Yet its current President and 2020 candidate thinks that climate change is a hoax and has actually put a stop to efforts to impede the effects of climate change and global warming.
And now lets consider how many times war or some form of attack has been suggested. In 2018 only, the Trump office had publicly threatened foreign nations at least 9 times. While retired General Vincent Brooks a commander of U.S Forces in Korea supports the constant threat of military actions against North Korea, President Trump has taken things a step further. At the beginning of 2020 fears rose over an impending World War III when North Korea began throwing threats back at Trump. After the constant word battle between the two infamous leaders it is only a matter of time before some action is taken. And what would the landscape of a war ridden America look like? Well maybe a bit like the intro paragraph. Not only would millions of lives be lost, but wildlife and natural features of the environment would be completely destroyed. Air and water would become contaminated by debris, smoke and other pollutant left by missiles. An ordinary war could have detrimental effects on the environment for America and its enemy at the time, not to mention the potentially catastrophic effects of a nuclear war. With Trumps tweets and temper, America’s continued threat to countries that possess nuclear weapons can result in a global wasteland.
Trump has always been a big supporter of the oil and gas industry and sometimes even the coal industry. Two of the biggest culprits when it comes to carbon emissions. In the last presidential candidate debate, opposing candidate Joe Biden argued his stance on the oil industry, stating that he would like to begin phasing it out and sees America at net zero carbon by the year 2050. Trump however scoffed at this idea largely from an economic standpoint with concern for jobs that would be lost without this industry. He actually would like to continue production and falsely claims that oil prices flourished under his administration. The continued use of oil and gas without concern for carbon emissions can lead to global temperatures increasing at a much faster rate than expected. Leaders are working on keeping temperatures vastly under 2 degrees Celsius however without active participation in measures by major contributors to climate change, no impactful change will be made. Another Trump administration could see the Western Hemisphere sit idly by as the earth warms to unsurvivable temperatures.
Now you may be thinking that the results of the 2020 election will only affect the United States and maybe their direct neighbours, but some pretty serious implications can arise for the rest of the world including the Caribbean. As low-lying and hurricane prone islands, climate change has already started to show its effect on us with 16 predicted storms over the Atlantic in 2020 thus far. The Paris Agreement was not only meant to lessen the volume of the rise in sea levels, but also to provide assistance to smaller economies. One of the main tenants stipulated by the Paris agreement was that large wealthy nations like the G8 would aid small developing nations with resources to improve their country’s carbon emissions. Since 2017 Trump, believing in “America first” politics, stopped payments to the Green Climate Fund as a prelude to the withdrawal from the Paris Agreement. Another Trump regime may result in the further neglect of climate action in developing nations.
Furthermore US sanctions limit global interactions which pose a environmental concerns in the Caribbean Sea as it also washes the shores of blacklisted Venezuela. In October of 2020 the FSO Nabarima oil storage vessel was seen tilting off the shores of Venezuela posing a potential oil leak threat to the Caribbean Sea surrounding Trinidad and Tobago. However due to Venezuela’s status as a blacklisted nation, Trinidad and Tobago was forced to include their US ambassador in talk with Venezuela to mitigate the oil leak. Trinidad is forced to tread lightly around its own neighbouring country in order to maintain peace with both them and the United States. With Trump’s global unpopularity, tensions between nations may continue to rise resulting in further sanctions. Small Caribbean nations may have to continue to tiptoe around US regulations under Trump 2020.
That scene at the beginning of the article may have been an exaggeration, but that may very well be the reality of our grandchildren if we don’t act now.
Stop enabling a racist, xenophobic, temperamental leader.
Please vote responsibly.
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