It has been no secret that Trump is a climate change denier, and that was fully borne out by his announcement that he was withdrawing the US from the Paris climate agreement.
From Alternet
President Trump announced Thursday that he is withdrawing the United States from the Paris climate agreement, signed by nearly 200 nations to limit the global average temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.
In his exit, Trump has likely put the accord into jeopardy, as the U.S. is the second biggest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world next to China. Per capita, the U.S. is the seventh biggest emitter, after major oil- and coal-burning nations like Qatar and Australia. But cumulatively speaking, the U.S. is the country that has pumped the most greenhouse gases into the atmosphere over the decades.
These facts, environmentalists argue, mean that the U.S. should shoulder the biggest responsibility for mitigating the effects of climate change. But Trump has shirked that responsibility, a move that could weaken other nations' commitment: If the world leader in carbon emissions won't curb its own, why should other countries, which emit far less? …
The response from supporters of the agreement was harsh and swift.
"President Trump’s decision to pull the United States out of the Paris Climate Accord is a stunning abdication of American leadership and a grave threat to our planet’s future," said House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA). "In walking away from this agreement, the president is denying scientific truths, removing safeguards that protect our health and our environment, protecting polluters and their dirty energy agenda, and threatening our national and global security."
"By abandoning the Paris Agreement, Trump continues on a reckless path of pretending that the dire threat posed by climate change is no more lasting than a tweet," said Sachs. "It’s one thing to campaign on a know-nothing platform on climate change that denies scientific reality, and another altogether to govern that way. If ever there was a moment for Donald Trump to listen to the consensus of scientists and 195 parties to the Paris Agreement, this was it, and he failed."
Here from Daily Kos is Trump's announcement from the Rose Garden.
Barf Bag Alert!
Some Reactions
From The Independant on msn.com
Barack Obama has accused Donald Trump of “rejecting the future” by pulling out of the Paris climate deal.
The former U.S. President said those nations that remained signed up to the accord would “reap the benefits in jobs and industries created.”
But he added: “This Administration joins a small handful of nations that reject the future.”
Mr. Obama’s administration played a key role in negotiating the deal.
Speaking after Mr. Trump announced America was withdrawing from the agreement, the former President argued the U.S. “should be at the front of the pack” when it came to lowering emissions and developing green technology.
From CBC The Canadian Reaction
"We are deeply disappointed that the United States federal government has decided to withdraw from the Paris agreement," Trudeau said in the statement. "Canada is unwavering in our commitment to fight climate change and support clean economic growth. Canadians know we need to take decisive and collective action to tackle the many harsh realities of our changing climate." …
"This is about an ambitious and unshakable desire to leave a cleaner, healthier and more sustainable planet for our kids and for generations to come," Trudeau said. …
"The clean-growth economy is where the world is going and Canada is going to be part of it," McKenna said on Parliament Hill following Thursday's White House news conference.
"Canada wants to create good jobs, and wants to grow our economy and create opportunities for business. We want to be there, we want to be providing solutions for the world. We know where we're going."
From YouTube French Reaction
I can hardly wait to see what the other European nations have to say, especially after dealing with Drumpf at the G7 and NATO summits last week. I remember reading quite some time ago that many countries in Europe had made significant strides in clean energy. Below is a map showing the relative percentage of green energy as part of the total energy consumption as noted in Wikipedia. As you can see, the Scandanavian countries are out front with Iceland and Norway having over 60% of total energy consumption in green renewables.
By User:Murraybuckley, User:Jklamo, User:Elekhh – based on File:European-union-renewables-fr.svg Data source for EU-member states and Norway Eurostat – Share of renewable energy in gross final energy consumption (2004–2013, as of April 2015) Data source for other countries: Iceland (2010, source needed) Turkey (2010, source needed) Switzerland (2013, 21.1%), SFOE, renewable energy statistics 2013, page 5, Public Domain, Link
So if Europe can make significant changes, why can't other countries like the US and Canada? Canada is trying. With Trump's climate change denier status, and a Republican Congress that follows suit, the country is turning back the clock and putting its citizens in danger as well as the rest of the world. With Trump and Republicans it's profits first and only. Let's hope that this decision of Trump's has a severe political price for Trump and the Republicans.
8 Responses to “Trump Pulls Out of Paris Agreement”
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The US is still reeling from this announcement, and it's future effect. Such a deep, deep disappointment!!
Not that I'm stunned by dt's announcement. Gawd…..what an ID.
Lordy, I sure do miss Mr. Obama!!
Thanks, Lynn for post.
"Me Now Administration" is not pro-life, only pro-money for themselves now
Britain as a whole may be in the lowest bracket, but I'm sure I read about one town there which ad a day this winter of using ZERO fossil fuel energy, so clearly work is being done. My inbox was inundated last night and has also been this morning, but there are multiple petitions – well, actually open letters – from US states and citiess pledging that these entities will observe the agreement in apite of the Federal stand – too many to even start to list, but they should be easy to google.
IMO the best reaction was from Macron, who offered to accept Americans as Climate Regugees. Ryan Grim (now with the Intercept) said, "The new French president deserves a Nobel Prize in trolling or some other high art for his response to Trump withdrawing the US from the Paris climate agreement. It's worth watching. "
Here is a list of mayors of 92 cities who, as of the evening of June 1, had pledged themselves and their sities to continue to work toward the paris goals. There is also a coalition of governors being formed by California, Washington, and New York.
Reading the list of mayors and cities, I felt as ancient Greeks must have felt in hearing the "Catalogue of ships" in the Iliad. There is magic in a mere list of beloved places, magnified by the list representing a common goal.
Well, I sincerely wish Trump's dad had "pulled out" …
But I do like France's Pres. Macron "In-Your-Face" Trump trolling Tweet from this morning
https://twitter.com/EmmanuelMacron/status/870407981044834304
Great minds fell in the same ditch, but we did so without stepping on each other's toes.
I predicted that he would withdraw as soon as he returned to the satety of hand-picked press.
There is an Avaaz petition at the following Care2 link http://www.care2.com/news/member/862450128/4055686
After Drumpf's "historical" tour last months, most world leaders were already expecting this this "decision" to pull out of the Paris agreement and were already strengthening their resolve to stick to it and even do more where possible to compensate for America's failure to take responsibility for having one of the highest emissions of Carbon Dioxide per capita, only surpassed by the large Arabic oil countries like Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia and some very small island-nations or countries. (Meeting with a large number of the leaders of these oil-producing in Saudi Arabia before meeting with the leaders of the EU and G7 was coincidental of course and had absolutely no bearing on Drumpf's decision.)
In the 2013 study China emitted a little more than half (7.6 metric tons per capita) of what the US emitted (14.6), but because of its much larger population emits almost double (10,249,143 kt) of America's total (5,186,168 kt) emission. Yet China has committed itself to rigorous reductions which has already started to pay off with record increases in power generation from hydropower, wind, solar, nuclear and gas, along with slower power consumption growth. The day before Drumpf announced the American withdrawal from Obama's earlier commitments to save this planet, Germany's Angela Merkel and China's Xi met for talks that had been scheduled much earlier. By now knowing what to expect from the egocentric America-first leader, the Merkel and Xi joined forces and announced that the EU and China would stand by the agreement, taking the leadership role out of the tiny hands of Drumpf before he could even present it to them on a silver platter.
By pulling America out of the Paris agreement, Drumpf has isolated America from 194 other countries, has turned American leadership on all fronts into a mockery, not just on the Climate Agreement and has taken his country far back into the previous millennium. What a shame that he can't literally put a lid on it. That would make saving the world so much easier for the rest of us.