Research on Policy Assignment

For my research assignment, I chose the topic of climate change and how the US could
actually be harming its citizens with its disregard for the environment.
1. CQ Researcher (2)
● Citation: ​Ladika, S. (2017, June 29). Climate change. CQ researcher. Retrieved from
http://library.cqpress.com.mantis.csuchico.edu/
● Summary: ​Environmental activists have expressed concern and started protesting
President Trump due to his budget cuts on the EPA. In addition to this, Protesters are also
angered by the President’s decision to bring the United States out of the Paris agreement.
When asked about his decision, President Trump stated that Washington entered into an
agreement that disadvantages the United States to the exclusive benefit of other countries,
leaving American workers to absorb the cost. Activists and Scientists are already worried
because climate change is already occurring faster than predicted, and these cutbacks can
only make things worse.
● Involves What Course Concepts​:
+ Civic Engagement​ (201) Working to make society better through political and
nonpolitical action. One form of non political action is by acting outside of the
political process. The political actors in this case took to protesting.
● Political Actors: ​Nick Santos is a researcher for the University of California at Davis,
and worried that the government would try to delete all of the data he had collected, and
rushed to copy it all onto a nongovernment database. Astrid Caldas says that some of her
fellow scientists want to quit their jobs and go as full time protestors. There wasn’t really
a clear policy solution that I saw. Mostly people just wanted to go back to how things
were. They weren’t asking for additional regulations.

● Citation: ​Wanlund, W. (2017, September 22). Climate change and national security. CQ
researcher, 27, 773-796. Retrieved from http://library.cqpress.com/
● Summary:​ This article discusses how climate change could actually be a threat to the
military. It talks about how the civil war in Syria could have been caused by an earlier
drought, that caused food prices to rise significantly. Other people have said that
President Trump’s decision to take the United States out of the Paris Agreement
diminishes the United States’ global influence around the world by showing we don’t
care about these issues.
● Involves What Course Concepts:
+ Public Opinion (230) is how the public feels collectively on any given issue. In
this case, there are a number of people that feel climate change is a threat to the
 United States and its interests, and that we should doing everything we can to
negate its effects.
● Political Actors: ​ Air Force Gen. Paul Selva, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff,
told the Senate Armed Services Committee that the climate changes happening will
certainly impact and drive future conflicts that will concern the United States.

​2. Peer-Reviewed Scholarly Journal Articles (1)

● Citation:​ Park, J. (2015). Climate Change and Capitalism. Consilience, (14), 189-206.
Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/26188749
● Summary: ​In this journal article, the Author was discussing the relationship between
climate change and Capitalism. The US Government says that climate change regulations
place economic restraints on the people and restrict business. While this is true, it’s not
the whole story. In truth, climate change regulations can help companies by ensuring that
they don’t burn through all of the resources need to create products. They can also help to
ensure that other companies don't dispose of waste or pollute areas that are vital to other
industries.
● Involves What Course Concepts:
+ ​Policy Feedback (581) is the idea that people will use this policy to enact and
build new policies. This is a factor here because the author is advocating for
people to use current, or what were then current, climate change policies to enact
new ones.
● Political Actors: ​I don’t believe that there are any actual policy actors in this journal,
aside from the author. However, the author has made his stand quite clear, and has taken
action by publishing his article. I also agree with the author's stance that climate change
policies don’t have to impede American businesses to be effective in protecting the
environment.