Since I was 7 years old, I’ve heard about climate change and looked for explanations about what it is and guidance about what I can do about it. It was an intimidating topic to me, but I didn’t really understand the science behind it. Now that I’ve had a few years to do my own research and speak to scientists and New York state politicians about climate change, I can appreciate the complexity of the issue. To understand what climate change is and what’s at stake about it in this year’s Presidential election, there’s an awkward mixture of science, business, federal policy and politics to untangle.

Climate change revolves around burning fossil fuels, like coal, crude oil and natural gas. They are called fossil fuels because they are made of millions-of-years-old plants and animals deep underground that got pressed under new layers of dirt and decomposing organisms that kept forming on top of them over millions of years.

In the mid-1800s, our ancestors discovered that by burning fossil fuels they could use that ancient, compressed energy to power factories, boats, trains, and later cars. One gallon of gasoline could do approximately as much work as 25 strong people could do in a day.

But as we burn those ancient carbon stores, carbon dioxide (CO2) gets released into the air. The CO2 molecules trap the sun’s heat in our atmosphere and help keep our planet warm (which is why it’s called a “greenhouse gas”). As we became more dependent on burning fossil fuels to power the increasingly energy-demanding world we live in now, our release of CO2 into the air increased at the same time, trapping increasing amounts of heat in our atmosphere.

Earth surface temperatures rose by about 2F total since 1850, with the rate of warming since 1982 being three times as fast. 2F is a small change in temperature when talking about the weather (short-term atmospheric conditions), but it’s a big change when talking about the climate (long-term atmospheric conditions). Although Earth’s climate has changed drastically across millions of years, these changes are happening faster now than at any other time in geologic history. Ninety-seven percent of climate scientists agree that this temperature increase is human caused. Last year, we broke more records: 2023 was the warmest year since global records began in 1850.

I’ve even noticed warming in the Adirondacks and I’m just a teenager. I remember the feeling of freedom I had being pulled along on a sled by my mom and grandfather when Lake Champlain froze over when I was 4 years old, but that hasn’t happened again. This past year was the first year my cross-country ski group couldn’t ski some days in February and early March at Paul Smiths because there was not enough snow, or the snow melted within days of falling.

Here in the Adirondacks, it’s the air temperature that I notice changing most, but warming waters can have huge impacts, too. Warmer ocean waters fuel stronger hurricanes that cause more damage. Warmer temperatures increase water evaporation rates leading to everything from drought to flooding from all the water falling as rainstorms. Climate change threatens our country’s health and infrastructure with more frequent stronger extreme weather events. My grandmother and aunt moved from Louisiana to the Adirondacks in 2016 after a random rainstorm flooded their town with a record-breaking two feet of water and flooded their house with eight feet of water. I worry about my great aunt and great uncle who live in New Orleans where hurricanes are growing in size and intensity because of warmer ocean waters that fuel their strength. Climate change is affecting the health and well-being of my family and our country. The question is: what is our government doing about it?

The United States has plenty of climate policies, but there are three that we’re hearing about from the people who are running to become our next President.

The Inflation-Reduction Act: President Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act into law in August 2022. He and his advisers originally thought it would help provide about $370 billion in spending and tax credits to encourage “clean” (without any CO2 emissions) energy. But it has done even better than that: in its first two years it drove almost $332 billion in new investments in clean energy projects and transportation encouraged by an estimated $48 billion that those companies got in tax credits. Now, the Brookings Institute estimates that the Inflation Reduction Act could be worth $780 billion through 2031. The Inflation Reduction Act is moving the United States toward a “carbon neutral” or “net-zero emissions” economy by 2050 (where as much carbon is absorbed from the atmosphere as there is carbon released from our activities).

The Paris Climate Accord (also called the Paris Agreement) was signed in 2015 at the 21st United Nations Climate Conference (called COP21) by the leaders of 195 countries that agreed to keep the average rise in global temperature below 2C (3.6F) above pre-industrial temperatures and preferably no higher than 1.5C (2.7F). According to NOAA, human-induced warming reached approximately 1C above pre-industrial levels in 2017.

The Green New Deal is a resolution introduced to Congress in 2019 that asked the government to recognize its duty to transition the United States away from using fossil fuels. Another important part of this resolution is creating new jobs around a clean energy economy and addressing environmental and other social injustices that impact people who have long been discriminated against in the United States. It states that globally, humans should reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.

For the health and safety of the people, our next President needs to take climate change seriously and know how to implement climate policies that work and keep current ones working. Here is a summary of where each candidate stands on climate change issues.

Kamala Harris is running on the Democratic Party ticket. She worked to combat climate change and help the environment for years. When she was California’s attorney general, she investigated whether the Exxon Mobil oil company lied to its shareholders about the risks to its business from climate change. She cast the tie breaking vote to approve the Inflation Reduction Act which she said she would continue to implement if she became president. She also was one of the original co-sponsors of the Green New Deal when she was a senator in 2019. But she has not explained her current views on it. She says she won’t ban fracking (a process that involves injecting chemicals into the ground to get oil out) as a way to increase oil production if she’s elected president, even though she supported a fracking ban when she supported the Green New Deal in 2019.

Cornel West, the Justice For All Party candidate, says the climate emergency is one of the reasons he’s running. Despite the emphasis the Inflation Reduction Act puts on phasing out fossil fuels, West criticized it as a feeble reform that will not significantly reduce emissions. He supports the Green New Deal but says it would only be possible if the oil and gas companies were publicly owned. He also said that on his first day in office he would use the National Emergencies Act, the Defense Production Act, and the Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act to order an immediate cessation of all oil and gas leasing projects on federal lands and waters. He said he will ban the poisonous method of fracking for fossil fuels and cancel proposed fossil fuel projects.

Donald Trump: served as president from 2017 to 2021 and is running again under the Republican Party ticket. He called climate change a hoax. He also claimed that it is happening, but humans are not causing it. He also said climate scientists have a political agenda, and that climate change was made up by and for the Chinese.

During his time as president, Trump removed the U.S. from the Paris Agreement. In 2021, President Biden rejoined the U.S. into the Paris Agreement, but Trump has made it clear that if he is elected again, he would remove us from it again. He used the phrase “drill baby, drill” to describe his support for oil companies and his priority to increase lands that will be open for oil drilling. Trump’s administration also dismantled over 100 environmental protection regulations, including weakening Obama-era fuel-efficiency and greenhouse-gas standards for cars, pickup trucks, and SUVs. If elected, Trump said he will repeal the Inflation Reduction Act. He has also called the Green New Deal a scam and said he will use the money invested in it to do other projects.

Chase Oliver is the candidate running for president under the Libertarian Party ticket. On his website, he says, “Nuclear Power is greater than fossil fuels. It’s cleaner, safer, more efficient, and helps curb the negative effects of climate change. Solar and wind and others also have their places, too, but nuclear power is what we need to power the 21st century.” Oliver says the U.S. federal government is one of the leading sources of environmental destruction on the planet and targets authoritarian government policies as the root cause of ecological degradation. He said he champions a market- and community-based approach to environmental stewardship rather than attempting to mend inefficient regulations with more red tape.

Jill Stein is running for president on the Green Party ticket. She, like West, says the Inflation Reduction Act and Biden’s policies still support burning fossil fuels for too long. She supports the “Real Green New Deal,” a take on the Green New Deal made by the Green Party. Stein criticizes the Green New Deal because it redefines zero emissions to “net zero” to enable the continued burning of fossil fuels. The Real Green New Deal also takes West’s idea even further, saying that the energy, transportation, manufacturing, and housing sectors should be publicly-owned. Unlike Chase Oliver’s enthusiastic support for nuclear power as a climate solution, Stein describes it as dirty, dangerous, unaffordable, uninsurable with no solution to toxic nuclear waste. She is firm that the Green New Deal should also include plans for phasing out nuclear power.

I feel pulled in different directions by these candidates and their plans for addressing climate change. Part of me wants to believe climate deniers like Trump so I wouldn’t have to change my lifestyle and not feel guilty for whenever I drive in a fossil-fuel powered car or our propane furnace turns on. But there is too much evidence for me to ignore that climate change is happening. It’s happening.

I think Harris would succeed in further developing climate policy that she helped start as vice president. But can we get off fossil fuels fast enough using long-term climate policies like the Green New Deal and the Inflation Reduction Act to avert the worst outcomes of climate change while not demanding that people change their lifestyles too much? While Stein and West want to stop our fossil fuel use in a decade, it’s not realistically feasible. In all, 60% of America”s electricity is still generated by burning fossil fuels, and in 2023, 84% of total passenger vehicles sold in the U.S. were gas powered. If we try to force our country off fossil fuels too quickly, the people will be less likely to accept the change. America is a government of, by and for the people, so by leaving the people behind we leave the government behind, too.

Evan Beech is a ninth grader from Westport. His award-winning writing has appeared in LOCALadk Magazine, “Wild Words” and the Adirondack Daily Enterprise.