In a letter, Jim Davison questioned how much effect the U.S. could have on the world’s climate if we addressed climate change (“U.S. can’t fix climate alone,” Our Readers Views, Aug. 23). He suggested that all the nations in the world would need to step up for successful change.
Other Western nations have been fighting climate change for decades while the U.S. has shamefully denied that climate change exists. The Kyoto Protocol, ratified in 1997, committed 191 industrialized nations to limit greenhouse gas emissions; the U.S. refused to ratify the agreement. While the U.S. was one of the 196 nations to agree to the Paris International Treaty on Climate Change, President Donald Trump ended American participation, once again highlighting American ignorance.
Davison asked what the American contribution is to climate change. Numerous scientific entities measure and analyze climate data, and the U.S. contribution is estimated between 11 percent and 14 percent while we are just 4.2 percent of the world population. This information is readily available.
