It’s official. Trump formally announced his plans to withdraw U.S. support of the Paris climate agreement Thursday afternoon via a Facebook live stream from the White House Rose Garden. This decision goes against a worldwide effort to prevent further environmental damage caused by global warming.
In defending his decision, Trump employed a study funded by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce that has been proven to contain misleading information. Essentially, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Institute for 21st Century Energy claims that sticking to the climate agreement would lead to “economic hardship,” particularly for workers in the manufacturing sector. But as the World Resources Institute thoroughly points out, that conclusion is based on the most nonsensical, expensive route to economical and environmental progress—a route essentially out of the realm of possibility.
It’s telling that Trump chose to draw on that study alone. Meanwhile, there are hundreds (if not thousands) of peer-reviewed studies proving climate change is real and that it poses a serious threat to human health—a fact to which 97 percent of scientific experts can attest.
Alas, far more are disappointed than pleased by Trump’s decision to stall America’s progress. And while, legally, the United States can’t fully pull out of the Paris Agreement until 2020, it sets an alarming tone. As former President Barack Obama stated in a press release,
Here’s what other world leaders and climate organizations have to say about this decision.
Bill Peduto, mayor of Pittsburgh:
Steve Adler, mayor of Austin, Texas:
Fred Krupp, president of the Environmental Defense Fund:
Experts from the US Climate Action Network (CAN):
Chidi Osuagwu, Federal University of Technology, Owerri, Nigeria:
Ben Schreiber, Friends of the Earth U.S.: