{"id":663,"date":"2017-11-14T06:47:40","date_gmt":"2017-11-14T06:47:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/honr392a\/?p=663"},"modified":"2017-11-14T06:50:48","modified_gmt":"2017-11-14T06:50:48","slug":"being-an-american-in-the-anthropocene","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/honr392a\/2017\/11\/14\/being-an-american-in-the-anthropocene\/","title":{"rendered":"Being an American in the Anthropocene"},"content":{"rendered":"

In an era of global citizenship, our president is putting \u201cAmerica First\u201d. This simple slogan would be harmless if our actions did<\/span>\u00a0not have consequences that the rest of the world must bear. In reality, the United States is the second largest emitter of carbon dioxide. We are such a great contributor to the underlying causes of climate change that we cannot separate ourselves from this issue if there is to be improvement. Yet this nationalist and isolationist perspective is preventing repair to our planet. From revitalizing the coal industry to pulling out of the Paris climate agreement, the Trump administration continues to move away from progress.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

According the the Washington Post, the U.S is the only country to renounce the Paris climate agreement. This is not an issue of differing political ideologies, it\u2019s an issue of empathy. Donald Trump is projecting an image of a self interested, uncooperative nation. Meanwhile, less developed countries like Syria are agreeing to cut back on carbon emissions while facing war and famine. Trump\u2019s selfish attitude toward the state of the world is so unsettling because it contradicts the empathetic nature of the human being. Author of <\/span>The Empathetic Civilization <\/span><\/i>Jeremy Rifkin writes that empathy is ingrained in our biology. Social interaction and compassionate relationships are essential to human development, and many believe that these are also essential for successful international collaboration.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Despite Trump\u2019s lack of cooperation with other countries, Americans are not forfeiting their role in the Anthropocene. There is currently a coalition of businesses and politicians called \u201cWe Are Still In\u201d at the Bon summit. Members include California\u2019s governor Jerry Brown as well as former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. The fact that influential Americans and a significant portion of the population want to reduce carbon emissions gives a sense of hope. Even though our president may disregard the devastation climate change has created, there are people who care about humans living on the other side of the planet and future generations. Hopefully, the empathetic attitude of most Americans will convince our president to (in the words of Emmanuel Macron) to \u00a0\u201cmake the planet great again\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

If you\u2019d like to learn more about the We Are Still In movement: <\/span>https:\/\/www.wearestillin.com\/us-action-climate-change-irreversible<\/a>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Sources:<\/p>\n

CNN: http:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2017\/11\/07\/politics\/syria-paris-climate-agreement\/index.html<\/p>\n

Bonn: https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/davekeating\/2017\/11\/06\/there-are-two-rival-u-s-delegations-at-the-bonn-climate-summit-which-one-speaks-for-america\/#5fc2339a1e96<\/p>\n

Macron:\u00a0https:\/\/www.politico.eu\/article\/macron-trolls-trump-with-make-our-planet-great-again-website\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In an era of global citizenship, our president is putting \u201cAmerica First\u201d. This simple slogan would be harmless if our actions did\u00a0not have consequences that the rest of the world must bear. In reality, the United States is the second largest emitter of carbon dioxide. We are such a great contributor to the underlying causes of climate change that we… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53,61],"tags":[43,8,29],"class_list":["post-663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-journal-entries","category-week-7-contemplative-practices","tag-anthropocene","tag-climate-change","tag-trump"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/honr392a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/honr392a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/honr392a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/honr392a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/honr392a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=663"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/honr392a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":672,"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/honr392a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663\/revisions\/672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/honr392a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/honr392a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/honr392a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}