Incumbent politicians spend their time in office voting on legislation to benefit their constituents, crafting legislation to fit party principles, building a reputation for reelection, and crafting a legacy that will ensure them a spot in history. President Obama’s choice to act unilaterally in signing the Paris Agreement solidifies his legacy by finally putting into effect an international agreement that has been a work-in-progress for two decades. The Republican-ruled Congress has been opposing what they claim to be a “war on coal” since President Obama made climate change a focus of his second term. Obama’s bypass of Congressional approval for the Paris Agreement, an agreement many see as a treaty, will strain Congressional/Executive relations for terms to come by encouraging members of Congress to be cautious of unilateral actions while encouraging the President to take advantage of them. The Paris Agreement is made up of 195 nations who plan to cut their greenhouse-gas emissions in an attempt to slow down the increase in the global temperature. President Obama’s decision to sign this agreement does not only promote his personal climate change legacy but the climate change legacy of the United States of America. Since this environmental pact is only legally binding when “at least 55 countries representing 55 percent of global emissions sign on,” a United States signature could very well be the difference between a revolutionary global climate change policy and
Throughout our country's history, we’ve come a long way from the first president to our current president. Obama was the best president we've had in the past 10 years, because he changed many things that needed to be changed and he always looked at world as a whole. If I were to agree on who is the best president i would say Barack Obama.
Many argue that the most powerful branch in government is the Executive Branch. The President is considered as the most influential and the most important position in the U.S. government. However, the powers granted to Presidents and the prerogative they have exerted are not listed in the Constitution but instead have been adapted and expanded upon by each President. Although the Constitution does not define the powers of the President, it has defined Presidential powers in terms of peace, war, and emergency. A recent expansion of Presidential power, exerted by Bush and then Obama was this “War on Terror (WOT)”. President Barack Obama and his predecessor President George W. Bush have both expanded the powers of the President through the
As a new President takes office, it is the inauguration address that marks the beginning of their term. This formal speech marks the first time the President lays out his intentions as the leader of the country. The inaugural addresses often make promises to address the nations concerns and issues. Usually the addresses that have the greatest impact, are the ones most remembered. Consider President Franklin D. Roosevelt and President Barrack Obama, both of these Presidents gave strong inauguration addresses, however it was Roosevelt’s words that seemed more realistic, and ultimately had a greater impact for the American public.
George W Bush’s presidency can be associated with an infamous term that stood out from the State of the Union address, that term being ‘Axis of Evil’. In this context, Bush categorised the countries of Iran, Iraq and North Korea as being ‘evil’ states. This neoconservative comment left little doubt as to what Bush’s foreign policy towards these states was going be (Baxter and Akbarzadeh, 2008). This comment would then define George W Bush’s presidency, due to the controversy over this phrase and the results that it would have on US foreign policy as “rarely had such a rhetorical device had such devastating consequences” (Ansari, 2006:186). This paper will argue how the use of the word ‘evil’, and the categorisation of these ‘evil’ countries, had a large impact on US-Iran relations.
350 Madison, a non-profit organization that advocates for climate prevention and social justice, and Scott Martelle, a contact reporter for Los Angeles Times, both acknowledge global warming needs to be an important topic to discuss because politics are avoiding the subject. While Scott Martelle talks more about the issue, 350 Madison has more of an understanding to resolve the issue of not having politicians discuss the topic at hand. Both state how President Trump pulled U.S support in the Paris Agreement. Which many lower to middle class Americans may be unaware about. The Paris Agreement is an international climate change treaty. Kevin Gundlach, president of the South Central Federation of Labor, assisting 350 Madison, offered a viable solution.
The Paris agreement is effective because it ensures that countries are making a solid effort to prevent temperatures from rising. As one of the most powerful countries in the world, it should be our duty to take the lead in making our Earth a better place. 68% of Democrats strongly believe that the government should regulate the release of greenhouse gases from sources like power plants, cars, and factories in an effort to reduce global warming, compared to only 28% of Republicans (Washington Post 2017). The data show that Democrats have made reducing global warming a stronger priority than Republicans have. “The best science tells us that without ambitious, immediate action across our economy to cut carbon pollution and other greenhouse gases, all of these impacts will be far worse in the future (Democrats.org 2017)”. The majority of Democrats look to scientific facts that show that we have no time to waste for stopping climate change. Republicans believe that “information concerning a climate change, especially projections in the long-range future must be based on dispassionate analysis of hard data” (Republican Platform 2017). They don’t have the same urgency to take action to prevent climate change that is necessary.
George Herbert Walker Bush was born on June 12, 1924 in Milton, Massachusetts. He was the son of Prescott Bush and Dorothy Bush. He was born into a wealthy and politically active family. Bush attended an elite boarding school, Phillips Academy. In January of 1945 when he was 17 and his wife, Barbara Pierce, was 16, they got married. On Bush’s 18th birthday, he enlisted into the U.S. Navy. He was the youngest pilot in the Navy during World War ll. Bush was later elected into the U.S. House of Representatives. On July 6, 1946 his first son, George Walker Bush, was born. In 1948, he graduated Yale University with a degree in economics. He and his family moved to Midland, Texas and found success in the oil and petroleum industry. On December 20, 1949 his second child, Pauline Robinson Bush, was born. On February 11,1953 his third child was born, John Ellis Bush. Bush’s daughter, Robin, passed away at the age of 3. On January 22, 1955 his fourth child, Neil Mallon Bush, was born. His fifth child, Mawin Pierce Bush, was born on October 22, 1956. Bush’s last
George W. Bush was born in New Haven, Connecticut on July 6, 1946. Just like other presidents, he had his good times and his bad times. He was the forty-third president of The United States. Because of those who had preceded him in The Oval Office, he understood the importance of being the Commander in Chief. In all of the events that happened during his presidency he never gave up on his country (Biography; Gale: Vol 21).
George Walker Bush is the son of the 41st President George H. W. Bush and Barbara Bush. Born on July 6, 1946, Bush was raised in Houston, Texas and was the oldest of four children. Bush finished his high school years at Phillips Academy, which was an all-male boarding school in Andover, Massachusetts, where he was the head cheerleader during his senior year. Bush went to college at Yale University from 1964 till his graduation in 1968 where he finished with a Bachelor’s degree in history. In the fall of 1973, Bush attended the Harvard Business School, where he earned an MBA. He is the only US President to have earned an MBA. He also is the first US President to get into office with a criminal record, as he had multiple
Since the first industrial revolution, in 1840, we have seen major changes to modern technology, and our way of life has been changed completely. With inventions like the cotton mill, the lightbulb, the car, and so many others, we can be more efficient, and provide new and improved services for ourselves, but there is a negative side to all this development. Many of the systems we have discovered are destroying the planet, and as we continue to ignore this obvious deterioration, it gets exponentially worse. As one of the most powerful and influential countries in the world, the United States has the ability to change this trend of destruction. Individuals can rally and recycle, but we need more power behind the cause, and the President can do that. The United States Constitution gives the President the ability to suggest and pass laws, with the help of the other branches; and it is time that they take a stand, and provide legislation that will lead the country to heal the Earth. The President of the United States has the Constitutional power-- and therefore the obligation-- to promote awareness of climate change and introduce legislation to help protect our planet.
Barack Obama became President in 2009 and since then, he has to deal with a lot of issues that the United States is facing. One of those issues is on climate change, which is a big challenge for him due to how much it affects the environment we live in. Taking action on climate change is very difficult due to the fact that the effects that it has on the world is irreversible. According to the article “The Paris Climate Deal is President Obama’s Biggest Accomplishment” by Jonathan Chait, the strategy that Obama initially took to deal with climate change didn’t go so well with the 2009 negotiations in Copenhagen collapsed and there are major disputes with the US parties involved. It does took a long time to get the issue solved and eventually,
Once Obama was elected into office, he wanted to start making legislative changes to battle climate change, but it turned out to be a rough start for him. None of the Republican House Representatives would vote for his proposals and plans, which made it difficult at first for Obama to do much towards climate change (Kramer 29). After various proposals being turned down, one of the proposals were actually passed. Obama was able to provide “[...] $80 billion in funding for renewable energy, which sparked the subsequent stratospheric growth in wind and solar power, and a substantial boost in vehicle fuel efficiency” (Hertsgaard 72). This was one of the first actions Obama was able to accomplish towards climate change, which ended up helping companies use renewable energy instead of fossil fuels for their energy. A mistake that Obama made during the early parts of his first term was that he did not make much of an effort to inform the common people about the issues and causes of climate change (Coen 306). This mistake made it hard for Obama to get much support or understanding from the people, which made it even more difficult than it was to propose ideas about climate change.
On June 1, 2017, from the White House Rose Garden, President Donald Trump announced that he will be withdrawing the US from the landmark Paris Climate Agreement. This could be a step back from the progress that was being made during the Obama administration. It was a very puzzling decision because the majority of Americans supported the agreement. Although some people think that the Paris Climate Agreement is not important, it was a poor decision to withdraw from the agreement because it has the potential to be a very important to Earth's future.
On December 12 of 2015, 195 countries made history by committing to the first truly global international climate change agreement (Paris Agreement, 2015). This agreement took place in Paris and was adopted under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The outcome of the Paris Conference on Climate Change was described as “revolutionary” (Venezuela) “marvelous act” (China) and as “a tremendous collective achievement” (European Union) that introduced a “new era of global climate governance” (Egypt) while “restoring the global community’s faith of accomplishing things multilaterally” (USA) (Paris Agreement, 2015).
The Paris climate conference was held in December and 195 countries participated in an agreement pertaining to climate change. This agreement is global and is expected to be put into plan in 2020. The main goal of this conference was to develop a plan to have countries participate in trying to bring global warming down to 2°C (European Commission, 2016). Like every other agreement that has had an impact on the world’s decisions there is both supporters and critics which results in the pros and cons of the development of the plan. There are justifiably arguments on each side and there is no right answer until the plan goes into full effect in 2020. Therefore, the issue of climate change is not going anywhere anytime soon.