Roaming with Dinosaurs As Another Climate Record Breaks, A Reminder We Must Work Together

This opinion piece was originally published in The Greater Park Hill News, where the author is a monthly columnist. Previous columns can be found here: http://greaterparkhill.org/?s=tracey+macdermott

We just blasted through another climate record, and it doesn’t appear to be splashing across headlines or grabbing the attention of the president. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced last month that the concentration of carbon dioxide on our planet now exceeds 430 parts per million (ppm). This is the highest amount of CO2 in Earth’s atmosphere in 30 million years — long before humans roamed the planet. And yet, we are still arguing about whether climate change is real.

The intensified heat, disappearing aquifers, loss of biodiversity and decrease in food crops are daily alarms that we have a problem. What will it take to get our elected leaders to work together — regardless of political affiliation — for the sake of the planet, other
species and humanity? When did our survival become so political and polarizing?

CO2 is a greenhouse gas emitted as a byproduct of burning fossil fuels. In the 1990s, the Kyoto Protocol was developed, with the goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and ultimately, requiring those most responsible to pay to clean up the mess. Fossil fuel companies responded by dumping money into linking climate change with liberalism.
Politization has occurred for decades when it comes to our growing climate mess. The United States never officially joined the agreement of the Kyoto Protocol, which in recent years was effectively replaced by the Paris Agreement. And what was the prime reason holding us back? Money.

In 2016, President Obama signed the Paris Agreement. When Donald Trump became president, he withdrew the United States from the Agreement. When Joe Biden became president, he signed us back on. And now once again, with Trump back in office, we stand alone in our retreat from Paris. Why? He claims it would harm the U.S. economy. How this is so is unclear.

The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) — which was Biden’s signature legislation — created 334,000 clean energy jobs, and they exceeded national wage averages by 19 percent. Biden’s landmark bill also aligned with the United States’ commitment to the Paris Agreement. The IRA had the potential to grow (not harm) the US economy by $1.9 trillion over the next decade.

To meet the world’s energy demands, renewables, including solar and wind, are critical. With the administration backtracking on the IRA’s commitments, who will develop those critical technologies? China — not the United States. China is also the largest producer of electric vehicles.

The Republican-led House of Representatives has voted to strip critical climate provisions from the IRA, including the EV tax credit. This does not make America great again. Nor does pumping out more pollution from gas-powered cars make America healthy again.
Trump wants to redirect clean energy credits to the fossil fuel industry. Let’s not forget that before the IRA, the fossil fuel industry had been subsidized by the U.S. government. In 2022 alone it was to the tune of $757 billion.

Most Americans are concerned about climate change, yet here we have a climate denier in the White House. First, the science of climate change was challenged. Now, the president just denies that it exists. Americans from differing political parties care about this issue. They care about what our children are facing. We cannot let politics divide us. The future of humanity is in the balance. We must work together to solve this crisis.

On July 7, at 6:30 p.m., the Denver chapter of the Climate Reality Project is hosting a presentation on Climate Disinformation. If you’re interested in attending, reach out to me at traceymacdermott@gmail.com for details.

Tracey MacDermott is an at-large board member of Greater Park Hill Community, Inc. She was trained as a Climate Reality Leader in 2017. She chairs the Sustainability Committee for the Business and Professional Women of Colorado and the National Federation for Business and Professional Women. Email her at

Tracey MacDermott
NFBPWC Environment and Sustainable Development Committee Chair
(2024-2026)
traceymacdermott@gmail.com