An Opportunity for Nations to Save Planet Earth

Later today, at the United Nations(UN) headquarters in New York City, 170 nations will take a formidable step to save Planet Earth from the debilitating effects of climate change, when they sign the historic Paris Agreement on Climate Change aimed at reducing global warming, sea level rises and other climatic events.

So it is fitting that on this Earth Day, 2016, nations of men and of women will meet to ratify an agreement concerning the long term health of Planet Earth. The Paris Agreement, completed last December, holds hope to keeping global temperatures under a two degrees Celsius(3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) rise. Given that global temperatures have increased by one degree Celsius since the first industrial revolution, the new goals to curb greenhouse gas emissions, are attainable.

While the Paris Agreement is not binding, it places the responsibility squarely upon nations to protect the environment from which all commodities and goods for sustaining life have originated. Thus, the Paris Agreement accords humankind the opportunity to save Planet Earth.