“Global warming, is not a hoax or a conspiracy among scientists.”  Global warming has become more than just an environmental issue. Now, it is political.

According to Pew Research Center, these “Polarized views about climate issues stretch from the causes and cures for climate change to trust in climate scientists and their research. But most Americans support a role for scientists in climate policy, and there is bipartisan support.” for energy conservation resolutions. This divided support is caused by the political definition and presentations of climate change and global warming. News, Politicians, and campaigns cause the divided support.

Within the US the news is the source of people's definition of climate change and global warming. For example it may come up just as a liberal belief  or something only liberals should address. This is important because news is very political causing a split in views about these issues. Meaning the political aspect is divided between the right and left of the political spectrum, causing the public to see climate change through a political lense of right and wrong. This is bad because climate change is not a matter of right and wrong. It is an environmental issue making it an aspect of everyone’s life: not just one political party or news source. Climate change is used as a platform for politicians in the news.

Despite global warming being politicized, there is clear, sound evidence that the Earth’s temperature is rising, and none of us can or should ignore this evidence.  Global warming is definitely happening, and it is affecting communities and people in various ways depending on where they live on the globe.

I can relate to those who aren't convinced about global warming because it is hard to see the full repercussions of climate change on a day-to-day basis. Recently, however, I have been exposed to the urgency of global warming in my own day-to-day life through recent news, irregular weather patterns, and research from my recently discovered interest in this important issue. One significant aspect of global warming is its relationship to climate change. I learned this difference from the National Oceanographic Atmospheric Administration,  “Global warming refers only to the Earth’s rising surface temperature, while climate change includes warming and the “side effects” of warming” Some examples of the “side effects” are melting glaciers, heavier rainstorms, or more frequent droughts. Global warming is one symptom of the much larger problem of human-caused climate change.
We are all being affected by global warming for instance the irregular snow patterns in Park City or Salt Lake Cities irregular air patterns. Personally, I care that we stop global warming because if we don’t eventually we will lose the winter in Park City. I love the winter in Park City. Could you imagine us without a winter in Park City, no skiing, snowboarding, sledding, snowshoeing or any winter activity? Also, global warming is affecting our economy. All the iffy patterns of the snow make it hard for our ski industry and local businesses. As said by Mike Gorrell in The Salt Lake Tribune, “with global warming predicted to raise winter temperatures 4 to 10 degrees Fahrenheit this century, those bad snow years will become increasingly prevalent and the economic losses greater.” It’s not just Park City. Our neighbors in SLC have some of the worst air quality in the nation. Currently, three Utah cities are listed in the top five for worst air in the nation, according to AirNow. We are being affected by global warming in our small mountain town.

One of the main causes of global warming is greenhouse gases produced by human activities, primarily the burning of fossil fuels. CO2 is the most prominent greenhouse gas, and it has incredibly negative effects on our environment. When humans produce greenhouse gases such as CO2, the gases collect energy radiating from the earth in the form of heat, preventing it from escaping the atmosphere. Because of the increasing quantity of  greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, the amount of energy as heat allowed to escape the atmosphere grows smaller and smaller, causing a rise in average global temperature.  This has many negative affects on our environment, such as melting ice, rising sea levels, rising sea temperatures, and catastrophic weather events, such as Hurricanes Harvey and Irma.

Human greenhouse gases can include nitrogen, water vapor (H2O), CO2, and more chemicals like fossil fuels that can be produced from factories, transportation, and other manmade industries using combustion in their process. We need to stop global warming so we can save our planet, and the species that live on it.  For instance,  because of global warming the polar caps and glacial ice is melting, and this has very negative effects on all wildlife and plant life  in those areas.  When most people think of ice melting at the North and South poles, they automatically think of sea levels rising. But the melting of the ice sheets – and lower ice extents during the winter months – means much more than just additional water in the oceans, as the lack of ice at the poles also changes the ocean’s water currents, the jet streams and how weather forms across the planet. How fast polar ice disappearance depends upon the world’s effectiveness at reducing greenhouse gas production by humans. Without effective programs in place to regulate, reduce and eliminate greenhouse gases – carbon dioxide, water vapor, methane, nitrous oxide and ozone – oceans across the globe may change more than just sea level.
Melting polar ice caps and glaciers are one of the most obvious issues of climate change caused by greenhouse gases. Ice is a vital part of our earth because the ice determines so many important parts of our oceans behavior.  The ice melting is also important because the ice affects the composition of the whole ocean. The ocean covering 71% of the earth would mean if the ice were to melt, the sea levels would rise and Global warming will have negative effects on all of the world, including our country.  According to National Geographic’s projections of a 216-feet increase in sea level, “the entire Eastern seaboard, the Gulf Coast and Florida would disappear. The hills of San Francisco would become a series of islands, with an inland sea forming in California’s Central Valley a giant bay.”Los Angeles and San Diego would be underwater, along with Seattle, parts of Portland, Oregon and British Columbia in Canada.

Global warming and climate change are horrible and there are many concrete solutions such as recycle, reuse, reduce, use electric vehicles, carpool, etc. However I believe that none of these solutions impact global warming unless we make global warming and climate change everyone's problem. The best way to make everyone concerned and willing to help is to depoliticize climate change and global warming by depoliticizing global warming and climate change everyone will be concerned with our environment not just the left side of the political spectrum. Take Sweetwater, Texas for example they are home to 1,400 wind turbines. They are the spearhead to our era of clean energy. Yet, when Yale surveyed the County of Nolan, home of Sweetwater, PBS says “less than half of Nolan County’s population believes that Global Warming is manmade, and only 40% believe that scientists agree global warming is happening.” How can a place that has taken the biggest step toward clean energy in the US, not believe in climate change?

Well, A study done by Rebecca Romsdahl, an environmental science and policy professor at the University of North Dakota was about the effects of the political leaders role with climate change. In 2012, Rebecca’s group studied over 200 local governments and discovered that over half were using strategies that reduce human’s contribution to global warming. These strategies were anything from investing in city-operated “green” vehicles to the furnishing of efficient streetlights. These acts were rarely referred to as climate change programs. Instead, in an effort to attract more support, plans that supported the preventage of climate change were branded as “economic development, sustainability, resource management, or public health initiatives.”

“They would focus on these common values that people want to have—clean air, clean water, a healthy community, they want to save money on either their transportation costs or their household energy bills,” Romsdahl says. “They recognized within their community that using the term ‘climate change’ was risking either a backlash or a lack of support that would make that policy either difficult to pass or impossible.”

The issue of climate change has become a political advantage in statehouses across the U.S. 70% of Americans agree that global temperatures are rising, once you get into the technicalities, agreement begins to vanish. Ideas about the “causes, impacts, risks, and cures to climate change” differ wildly by political outlook, making it difficult for leaders to connect across the spectrum.

There is hope that the era of “Gridlock” will come to a stop many people of variation across the political spectrum have begun to take action. Such as lawmakers, educators, scientists and activist “are using research to depoliticize the issue and create bipartisan solutions” and they are finding success in some surprising places. From watching others have success that can give us hope for our own journey to help make a difference. You’re probably asking yourself, How can I help? Well, You can begin by becoming more educated about our own communities. Once you’ve become educated about the topics. The next step is to open yourself up to organizations of a different political focus. Then you can by choice begin to volunteer to take action. These are not the only options you also may take an interest in fundamental resolutions such as composting, recycling, biking instead of driving or an electric vehicle.  However the best way to depoliticize climate change is to educate as many people as you can about this issue in a neutral way.