However, because of legal processes put in place by the UNFCCC, the U.S. will not be officially withdrawn from the Paris Agreement until Nov. 4, 2020, one day after the next presidential election in the U.S. The next administration will either finalize or reverse President Trump’s decision.

The UNFCCC, founded in 1992, has historically placed most of the financial responsibility on developed countries like the U.S., France and Germany. The Paris Agreement was specifically designed to encourage developing countries, like China and India, to contribute.

When the U.S. entered the Paris Agreement, the Obama administration pledged to pay $3 billion to the UNFCCC’s Green Climate Fund and to cut carbon emissions by 26 to 28 percent below 2005 levels by 2025. The U.S.’s pledge was one of the largest, and to achieve it, the Obama administration passed the Clean Power Plan to reduce coal and fossil fuel production and invest in alternative energy sources.

Those who oppose the Agreement believe it is unfair to the U.S. and will take American jobs. However, the Paris Agreement does not set any goals, restrictions or obligations for any country. Each does this for itself. Therefore, this argument is actually directed towards Obama’s pledge, not the Paris Agreement. The Paris Agreement was written to outlive the Obama administration and can be adjusted to accommodate a more conservative administration such as Trump’s or any that follow.

It is true that the Clean Power Plan would temporarily cause a negative impact on coal miners and fossil fuel producers. However, the plan will ultimately create more jobs than it displaces. The U.S. Department of Energy’s 2016 report says that only 22 percent of Americans working in energy are employed by coal or fossil fuel production while the growing solar energy industry employs 43 percent of energy workers. Solar energy is projected to grow and traditional energy production jobs are projected to dwindle as more machinery slowly replaces workers with or without the Clean Power Plan.

Proponents of staying in the Paris Agreement argue it is imperative for the U.S. to maintain global respect. One month after President Trump’s announcement, he attended the Group of Twenty, or G20, Summit in Hamburg, Germany. The second most discussed topic at the summit was the U.S.’s withdrawal from the Agreement and its implications for U.S. participation in international diplomacy. German Chancellor Angela Merkel publicly called the U.S. leaving the Agreement “deplorable,” and other leaders expressed similar disapproval. The U.S. has historically benefitted from its international influence, and many believe loss of respect will make it difficult for the U.S. to accomplish anything on the global stage.

Many believe it is immoral for the U.S. to withdraw. While China was first in carbon emissions in 2016, the U.S. alone is responsible for one-third of the excess carbon in the atmosphere. The Paris Agreement does not ask the U.S. to do more than other developed countries, but a prevalent argument for staying in the Agreement is that the U.S. has a moral obligation to participate in mitigating the effects of climate change.

Most Americans are in favor of taking steps to preserve the environment, and many believe that the Paris Agreement is the right way to do so. Thus, several states have committed to reach the U.S.’s Paris Agreement commitments whether or not the U.S. is officially involved.

Within the past 25 years, the Paris Agreement has been the only climate change plan written to promote sustainability and global safety in achievable terms for all 195 nations involved. The arguments to stay in the Agreement claim the consequences of neglecting climate change and international diplomacy would have a far greater impact than the benefits of withdrawing from it.

Photo Courtesy of NPR.

“Art used to be my hobby I guess, but it’s in who I am now,” said Jackson. “Everything I do and everything I have done is based off an artistic principle, like when I switched my major my sophomore year from political science to interactive media. The art dictated my life because I found that I was happier when I created things.”

Art has been an aspect in all of Jackson’s involvement at William Jewell College. Jackson has contributed to “The Hilltop Monitor” and been featured in “Inscape,” and he usually makes posters for his fraternity, Phi Gamma Delta (FIJI). Jackson has since retired from his four-year long run on the soccer team, but he found art in his sport as well.

Jackson realized his love for photography during his sophomore year when he took his phone and a few friends to five National Parks in Utah and Arizona. Jackson used the camera on his phone to see the beauty he found in a different way.

Before the trip out west, Jackson hadn’t taken a photography class, but he used his artist’s eye to find the right lighting and angles. Lately, he has been intrigued by cinemagraphs. Cinemagraphs are pictures that have one moving aspect, like a picture of a waterfall with moving water.

“With photography I got to see the world with a more artistic view,” said Jackson. “Even more than I had before. I guess I realized that while painting and drawing are really fun, I’m stuck inside with those. I’m stuck sitting somewhere. I’d rather be creating art in the moment, which is photography.”

After Jewell, Jackson is planning to pursue a career centered on creating.

“When I switched my major to media I wondered what I was going to do,” said Jackson. “There are more jobs to find with political science, and I wondered how I was going to make money. Then I realized it’s not really about the money, it’s about what makes me happy.”

Jackson and fellow senior and fraternity brother Aaron Lawrence have started a company called Intrepid Creative, a storytelling company that creates videos and photographs for marketing.

The two have started the process of talking to companies to be hired, and have already done a project for Eastern Spruce Outfitters, a clothing brand started by Jewell student Nick Hamilton. Jackson says the company is still in the experimental stage, but they are excited to start the process of creating for clients.

“It won’t be our main jobs, more like a side thing, unless it really starts taking off,” said Jackson. “By doing this I’ll still be doing what I love to do, which is create. This is my path of using art to create monetary value.”

Each project that Intrepid Creative gets hired to do will allow Jackson and Lawrence to have ownership over their ideas and give them opportunities to travel.

Last summer, Jackson did a digital design internship for a corporate company that placed him in a cubicle. The lack of creative freedom that he experienced made him realize that he would like to try the path of entrepreneurship.

Jackson is hoping to keep working on personal projects among the professional ones.

“Art has moved me towards happiness,” said Jackson.

Brownback has not said explicitly that he would like KCI to close, but he would like to create competition that, if successful, would most likely lead to the extinction of KCI. He believes that Kansas is financially equipped to handle the venture of a new metro-area airport, whereas Missouri is struggling to support the travel hub that Kansas City’s location brings. Brownback also states that the Kan. government will benefit from an airport in ways Missouri does not.

“With more than 50 percent of (KCI) passengers coming from Kansas, we are exploring the possibilities of this project,” Brownback told the “Kansas City Star.”

Another positive for Brownback would be an enormous rise in employment. Right now, roughly 60,800 people have jobs because of KCI. If the major Kansas City airport were to be in Kansas, Brownback thinks that the budget, morale and, of course, employment, would rise.

According to prominent airlines, KCI desperately needs to be renovated. In 2016, Southwest Airlines loosely offered to finance a single-terminal system at KCI, and Kansas City Officials were open to the discussion. City and airport officials see the need for change.

The “Kansas City Star” spoke with the Mayor of Kansas City, Sly James and City Manager, Troy Schulte, both of whom who would both like revamp KCI.

“KCI in its current form is an out-of-date, inefficient facility that makes for an embarrassing front door to out-of-town travelers,” said a joint statement from James and Schulte. As James and Schulte are keen to point out, an airport in Kansas would be “the biggest Border War prize of all.” The “Kansas City Star” has been following the “Border War” since Brownback was elected. According to the publication, Brownback has won several businesses and jobs from the Missouri side of Kansas City and brought them to the Kansas side. The longer Kansas City delays renovating KCI, the more plausible a rival airport in Kansas becomes.

However, it’s the people of Kansas City who remain steadfast in resistance to renovation. When Kansas City voters did not show support for the KCI renovation project, James and Schulte were forced to halt discussions about the project. Frequent visitors of the airport are upset by prospective renovations, saying that KCI is unique and stream-lined. Renovations have been stalled for years as city officials wrestle with how to please their voters, meet the needs of the city and appease the airlines that bring the most business.

An inactive team on the Missouri side of Kansas City is good news for Brownback. Most city officials in Johnson County have refused to comment on plans for an airport, and most of the plans have been kept private. It is unclear where the new airport would be located, but experts assume that the metro airport would become an extension of the two smaller airports already in Johnson County: The New Century AirCenter and Johnson County Executive Airport. These airports are used only for corporate flights.

Most experts are skeptic of Brownback’s potential new airport, and many say it won’t happen. Even major airlines like Southwest that, push for KCI to be renovated, aren’t sure that a completely new airport is the right answer. According to city and airport officials, it is projected that 2018 will be the culminating year for either a new airport, Kansas City to start renovations or KCI to begin to lose business and revenue with no alternative options. Each option will be accompanied by change in the way Kansas City travels.

Jesse talked about the similarities she found between art and science.

“As I’ve gone through both of my majors, I’ve found that they both possess a lot of creativity. Going through labs and chemistry projects I’ve realized that there’s a lot of critical thinking and design involved. All the major advances that we’ve had within the scientific field have been from people saying, ‘Hey, look at this new concept,’ or ‘What can we do with this? How can we make this better?’ A lot of people look at science and assume that it’s completely analytical, and it is analytical, but having the capacity to see something and realize that you can improve it is the same creativity that I’ve found in my art classes.”

She also detailed the uncommon correlation between the two majors.

“My mom has been a great influence on my life and inspired me to go through with these two majors. She’s a statistician and a graphic artist, so she has made a balance between the two that I wasn’t sure I would be able to do myself. I didn’t really see the similarities until I got into more advanced classes, like film photography, but then I realized that the camera is completely based in optical physics and ceramics is almost completely chemistry. It blew my mind because I had never thought of it that way, but having back-to-back science and art classes made me see the similarities. Actually, I think my chemistry background has allowed me to go more in depth with the media that I use in my art because I know the very basic scientific principles behind it. I thought the artistic part of my life would just be there when I needed to be rejuvenated, kind of like a break from math and science, but I ended up seeing how they go together. I think I’ll continue finding those similarities for the rest of my life. They’re both just part of me now.”

Moreover, she talked about what she wishes people knew about science and art.

“I definitely have the mindset that a lot of subjects are interdisciplinary. If you sit down and think about the processes that a chemist and artist go through, they’re both striving to fulfill a purpose in order to make a change in the world. A scientist is always trying to make an impact and change the world for the better, and an artist is doing the same by conveying a message or creating something that causes someone to think differently. I feel like they’re on the same track, but just going about it two different ways.”

She discussed whether she felt the school system pushed toward a divide between the two.

“Oh, definitely. Going through middle school and high school, it was always ‘the arts department’ and ‘the science department’ with basically no communication between the students that were involved in the two. I think it would be beneficial on all levels if there were more integration. Also, coming from a rural part of Missouri, I found that there wasn’t a lot of funding for the arts. Granted, there wasn’t a lot of funding for the sciences either, but it made me sad that the school system didn’t value the arts. The students that might be in those art classes are the future architects, designers and creative thinkers that are so important to society. There’s always a divide between a scientist’s ‘left-brain’ and a creative’s ‘right-brain,’ but that’s completely false. I don’t fit into either one, and there shouldn’t be that strict separation.”

Finally, she discussed her plans if she had the opportunity to succeed in both.

“As a chemist and an artist, I feel like I have a purpose to make a positive change in the world. That’s what I want from my chemistry degree. I want to focus on environmental or sustainability-based chemistry, but from that, there’s so many paths I can visualize my life taking. This is an incredibly simplified goal, but I want to do something that will positively affect the world, no matter how small.”