Climate change can’t retreat, don’t abandon the Paris agreement

Rising sea levels. Intense storms. Searing heat. Raging fires. Severe drought. Punishing floods.

It’s not complicated. This is what climate change looks like.

It threatens our health, our communities, our economy, and our national security.

{mosads}It is nothing short of the gravest environmental threat of our time.

And the threat is growing more urgent, making it more imperative for us to keep our commitments in the Paris climate accord and move forward with EPA’s Clean Power Plan to cut carbon pollution from power plants — the largest source of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions.

But Tuesday, President Trump signed an executive order aiming to eliminate the Clean Power Plan and other initiatives to curb climate change. That would signal retreat from addressing climate impacts that scientists and even 17 GOP House members recently acknowledged in resolution are expected to worsen across America.

We must slow, stop and reverse the carbon pollution that is turbo-charging climate danger. And we must act now.

Last year was the hottest since global record keeping began in 1880. That means that 16 of the 17 hottest years on record have occurred in this century.

And there continue to be other troubling trends: Arctic sea ice this year shrunk to its second lowest level ever. A record annual increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere was recorded at NOAA’s Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii during 2015 for the largest year-to-year increase in 56 years of research. The largest die-off of corals was recently observed on Australia’s Green Barrier Reef due to warmer water.

Polls show that Americans also want action. Gallup found concern about climate change this year at an eight-year high, with Republicans and Democrats alike expressing higher concern.

The U.S. military is worried about conflicts as a result of food and water shortages and risks to military readiness due to flooding of military bases from sea level rise.

Health officials warn of intensified cases of asthma and other respiratory diseases, longer pollen allergy seasons, increased cases of heat stroke and other heat-related illnesses, and increased risks of insect- and water-borne diseases. Rising temperatures are disrupting ecosystems for animals and plants, threatening to push species that cannot adapt to extinction

The financial sector warns of costly damage to the U.S. economy, such as lower crop yields in the Midwest and massive property losses from rising sea levels on the East and Gulf Coasts. According to banking giant Citigroup, inaction could cost the world economy $44 trillion by 2060.

Business, including many Fortune 500 companies, see investment in clean energy as an opportunity to create jobs — including the manufacturing jobs that Trump made a priority on the campaign stump — and improve U.S. competitiveness in global markets.

Many states are already proving they can reduce carbon pollution—and boost their economies — through increased energy efficiency and greater use of clean energy such as solar and wind power. Since 2015, the solar industry added 115,000 U.S. jobs — a job creation rate 12 times what the rest of the economy experienced during the same time. In California, clean energy now employs more workers than the motion picture or aerospace industries.

Other countries, from China, the world’s biggest carbon polluter, to tiny Fiji — are moving to reduce carbon pollution in the realization that climate change is a grave global threat.  China, realizing the benefits of moving to a low-carbon economy, led the world in investment in renewables last year.

If Trump abandons the Paris climate agreement, “China’s influence and voice are likely to increase in global climate governance, which will then spill over into other areas of global governance and increase China’s global standing, power and leadership,” Zou Ji, a senior Chinese climate talks negotiator, told Reuters.

Besides all the other good reasons to limit carbon pollution—the threats to our health, environment, economy, security— there is this: The moral imperative.

“What kind of world do we want to leave to those who come after us?’’ Pope Francis said. Religious leaders have told us that we have a moral obligation to be good stewards of the Earth, care for the poor and most vulnerable among us, and protect future generations.

“There may be no greater, growing threat facing the world’s children — and their children — than climate change,’’ says UNICEF.

A full 97 percent of climate scientists agree that the climate is changing and human activity is causing it. If 97 percent of doctors recommended a course of treatment to you, wouldn’t you listen to them?

The American people have moved past the discussion about whether human-caused climate change is happening.

It’s time to act.

Rhea Suh is president of the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental advocacy group with more than 2.4 million supporters nationwide.

The views of contributors are their own and not the views of The Hill.