Student speakers disagreed on the solution to climate change at the Citizens for Self Governance student-led debate Nov. 7. 

“It is reasonable to assume that the exponential wealth growth will be able to play a factor in offsetting potential future temperature increases,” Fox said. “As our technology expands, we develop systems that are better able to address the challenges of climate change.”

Fox said he thinks given the history of economic growth across the globe, the market will innovate to solve issues. 

“There is no need for any immediate action because the world will naturally reach an equilibrium over the next 100 years to deal with whatever the climate has for us,” Fox said.

Junior Geert Ensing argued the West has a duty to ensure a stable economic environment in which underdeveloped countries can rise to meet the global issues climate change causes. 

“Third party costs that aren’t being accounted for in the way our laws and politics work,” Ensing said. “Comparatively, in the Western world, this is not as much of a problem as it is in Africa. It is a growing continent where we have incredibly young populations.” 

Ensing encouraged stability and the rule of law as the solution to incentivize the growth necessary to solve many of the problems of climate change.

“There have not been many countries where a stable body of law, a stable government, has been able to emerge in Africa,” Ensing said.

Junior Micah Hart discussed the Paris Agreement, which he said disproportionately harmed the United States while letting other major polluters off easy. 

“North America isn’t the worst offender in regards to the climate. That award goes to East Asia and the Pacific Region,” Hart said. “Under the agreement, China will be able to increase their emissions for a staggering 13 years.”

Rather than engaging in lopsided global initiatives, the solution to the climate crisis can be found within the United States itself, according to Hart. 

“There needs to be some national action. I think that can come in the form of tax breaks and economic incentives that support both business and the environment,” Hart said. “We need to encourage and not enforce; we need to recommend rather than require.” 

College Democrats President and senior Avery Noel spoke last and argued for a return to the policies of the Obama administration. 

“Obama did a lot of really good work as far as promoting cap and trade legislation, which caps the total level of emissions allowed, and then it allows for individual companies to basically trade for the levels of emissions that they’re themselves allowed to emit per year,” Noel said. “The idea is that eventually over time, you decrease the cap, incentivizing them to find different solutions to factories or other things that have high emissions.”

Sophomore Isaac Myhal, who attended the debate, said all the speakers made it a productive discussion. 

“I would disagree with any sort of regulation that requires the implementation of complicated apparatuses of enforcement agencies,” Myhal said. “The question is can we really rely on people to do that and not slack off or turn it into just another method of government taxation and other control?”