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The Irreversible Momentum of Clean Energy
Article

The Irreversible Momentum of Clean Energy

Barack Obama
Science, 2017
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Editorial Rating

7

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  • Eye Opening
  • Inspiring

Recommendation

Combating climate change has been a priority for the outgoing Obama administration. However, many fear that the momentum toward a greener future will come to an abrupt halt when President-elect Donald Trump takes office, whose cabinet picks include fossil-fuel promoters and climate-change skeptics. Just before leaving office, President Barack Obama published an article in the prestigious academic journal Science, arguing that the clean energy sector in the US has advanced to a point where federal policies can no longer deter companies from riding the wave of the future toward a greener tomorrow. While always politically neutral, getAbstract recommends Obama’s optimistic exposé to business leaders and members of the Trump administration.

Summary

The need to mitigate global warming is urgent. Policymakers disagree over the role of the US government in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, but “the trend toward clean energy is irreversible.” The argument no longer holds that climate change regulations stifle economic growth. Between 2008 and 2015, the US economy grew more than 10%, while carbon emissions decreased 9.5%. In contrast, failure to rein in climate change will hurt the global economy. One estimate predicts that a global average temperature increase of...

About the Author

Barack Obama has been president of the United States since 2009. He passed several climate initiatives at home and helped broker the Paris Agreement on climate change.

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