Given the shocking news, but at the same time not unexpected, at least not for this president who continues to be obsessed to undermine any of the advancements of the last president, that the U.S. will pull out of the Paris agreements on climate change, I want to reproduce below excerpts from an article written by someone who is familiar with the facts about climate change. The full article by Bill McKibben, a professor of environmental studies, can be found by clicking here. Professor McKibben concludes that Trump’s action not only negatively impacts the planet’s chances of survival, but also undermines one of humanity’s greatest achievements: the ability to communicate with one another to come together. Professor McKibben concludes, and news just today of Governor Jerry Brown’s trip to China to discuss cooperation between California and China in the development of green technologies suggests, our solution is to resist. Companies can still invest in green technology (which is producing at an accelerated rate real jobs in this country). Consumers can still insist through their purchases on green products. And voters can reject backwards direction by voting ignorant and corrupt politicians (Does Trump’s insistence on fossil fuels benefit his friend in the Kremlin’s development of hydrocarbons?) out of office.
First, the very real science about the peril the planet is facing:
We’ve seen 2014 set a new global temperature record, which was smashed in 2015 and smashed again in 2016. We’ve watched Arctic sea ice vanish at a record pace and measured the early disintegration of Antarctica’s great ice sheets. We’ve been able to record alarming increases in drought and flood and wildfire, and we’ve been able to link them directly to the greenhouse gases we’ve poured into the atmosphere.
How American politics was already limiting the agreements that nations made:
The dysfunctional American political process had already warped the process, of course. The reason Paris is a series of voluntary agreements and not a real treaty is because the world had long since understood that no binding document would ever get two-thirds of the vote in our oil-soaked Senate. And that’s despite the fact that the agreement asks very little of us: President Barack Obama’s mild shift away from coal-fired power and toward higher-mileage cars would have satisfied our obligations.
A call to action:
And so we will resist. As the federal government reneges on its commitments, the rest of us will double down on ours. Already cities and states are committing to 100 percent renewable energy. Atlanta was the latest to take the step. We will make sure that every leader who hesitates and waffles on climate will be seen as another Donald Trump, and we will make sure that history will judge that name with the contempt it deserves.
PS: Please see this article in Business Insider, “Solar-Energy Jobs Are Growing 12 Times as Fast as the US Economy,” that shows that green technology is also about jobs and the economy as well as the future of the planet.
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