Last week, after his first international trip in office, US President Donald Trump pledged that in the coming week, he would announce his plans with regards to the United States’ commitment to the Paris agreement, a ground-breaking UN treaty that Trump’s predecessor Barack Obama signed that would lessen the effects of global warming.
It was a big decision. Trump could either add a few degrees to the Earth’s temperature and create more extreme weather conditions that leave people in his own country without homes and living in a lake, or he could finally accept the science of climate change and make one single positive difference in his Presidency, which has been a long time coming.
So, what did he do? Well, he’s made his decision: America is “getting out” of the agreement.
Trump believes global warming is a ‘hoax’
America has the second most carbon emissions in the world, so Trump leaving the Paris agreement puts a huge dent in climate change progress, since most of the climate change problem is his country’s fault. And, like, America first? Well, America’s seeing the effects of climate change, down in Florida, where Trump just so happens to own a resort. They’re living it. Open your eyes, Donald.
This promise Trump made to finally make a decision about the Paris accord came after a frustrating G7 summit that left German Chancellor Angela Merkel furious at the lack of progress in climate change discussions.
See, this G7 summit was an unrefreshing change of pace for Merkel, whose buddy Obama was always on board with her politics and, erm, y’know, believed in global warming. Of course global warming exists! Science! But now, Trump’s the US President, and he’s the one Merkel has to deal with, and she hates him because he’s a bigoted idiot.
Trump promised on the campaign trail that he wouldn’t be helping the rest of the world fight global warming and now he’s kept that promise, which is a rare occurrence. He made the announcement during a speech at the White House. He did say that he will be open to renegotiating the terms of the agreement, which he believes is negatively affecting American business.
It’s all about business with this guy, isn’t it?
Trump doesn’t seem on board with the Paris accord at all
The way Trump handled talking about the Paris agreement suggested that he wasn’t interested in renegotiating it at all. For starters, he refuses the science and doesn’t believe global warming exists, instead calling it a big conspiracy devised and spread by his good ‘friends’ over in China, not to mention uber-liberal Al Gore.
But it’s just the way Trump was talking about it – very scornful. He criticised it as “laughing” in the face of the American workers. This isn’t true at all, of course. It’s not designed to screw over the workers. It’s designed to save the world. He said, “At what point do they start laughing at us as a country?” Oh, that happened a long time ago, Donald – around early November-ish.
By way of providing a reason for why he’s decided to back out of the landmark UN treaty, Trump simply said, “We want fair treatment.” It is fair! Almost every country in the world agrees! They’re all just trying to save the planet from people like him. For some reason, he’s got this idea that all the world leaders of other countries are “laughing at” him and America, which is true, but not specifically through the Paris agreement. That was under Obama. They’re laughing at Trump because he’s a reality TV star who doesn’t know a thing about politics who got elected President of the United States. And because he refuses to believe that climate change exists, but not because of the UN treaty his country used to be committed to.
