Opinion | Senate-approved climate treaty is not Trump’s to mess with

President Trump and his administration’s allergic reaction to science, especially climate science, is devastating to our efforts to slow the warming of the planet (“Trump can’t unilaterally abandon a Senate-approved climate treaty,” Opinion). But Congress has the ability to stop some of the most egregious harms, such as pulling the United States out of climate treaties.

In his Jan. 9 op-ed, Russ Feingold, former US senator from Wisconsin, lays out the objections to Trump’s plan to withdraw our country from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, a treaty that was approved unanimously by the Senate in 1992. No president has the constitutional power to withdraw the country unilaterally from such treaties, and the Senate should not allow such executive overreach to go unchallenged. Even though Congress has been inconsistent in exercising this authority, that doesn’t mean it cannot and should not do so now.

The future of our climate is of paramount importance to all of us. The healthy functioning of our system of checks and balances is crucial to our democracy. Congress must fulfill its obligations to our democracy, and the recommendations Feingold proposes in his op-ed provide an excellent path to follow.

Sia Stewart

Conway