Almost all (97%) scientists agree that problematic global warming is occurring as a result of human activity like the increasing use of fossil fuels like coal and oil. Nevertheless, President Donald Trump is withdrawing the United States from the Paris Climate Accord, after consistently and ignorantly calling climate change a hoax.
Trump takes the U.S. out of the climate control agreement despite that the majority of Americans want us to stay in the deal. He does so despite the fact that CEO’s of 30 corporations in the United States asked him publicly not to do so. He does so despite the fact these companies, including Goldman Sachs, the Coca-Cola Company, Proctor & Gamble, and Dow Chemical Company said that staying in the Paris Agreement was best for their business interests, for U.S. trade, for job creation, and for American prosperity.
The withdrawal from participation in the Paris Climate Accord on top of Trump’s weak support for NATO—which Russia opposes—has caused European leaders to complain that “The shortsighted policies of the American government stand against the interests of the European Union.”
Then why is he doing it? To save the coal industry? If so, why? Is it because many jobs will be saved if we continue to mine and use coal? That answer has to be “no,” because there are 125 million workers in the United States and only 20,000 of them are coal miners. Further, studies indicate that more Americans are now at work building, installing and maintaining energy-producing solar panels than are employed by coal companies.
The data show that this move by Trump cannot be to provide benefits for a broad number of Americans. Therefore it must be an effort to help a small slice of Americans. Professor Jeffrey Sachs of Columbia University says the Republican Party is doing the bidding of the Koch brothers who will reap huge benefits from pushing the production and use of fossil fuels.
Noam Chomsky, world-renowned political dissenter, linguist, and retired professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, calls Trump’s move sinister. He situates Trump’s actions as an expression of the Republican Party, which he calls the most dangerous organization in the world.
Admitting that his characterization of the Republicans is “extremely outrageous,” he says the data support his description. He explains by saying the Republican Party is the only organization in human history that he knows about that is dedicated to the destruction of organized human life on Earth. Chomsky notes that in the Republican primaries in 2016 none of the 17 or so candidates for the Republican nomination for president supported any action toward slowing the environmental catastrophe of global warming. In fact, there was a 100 percent commitment among these Republican leaders to race towards disaster. Trump’s recent action to abandon the Paris Climate Accord is a potentially huge step in that direction.
So here we are. The richest and most powerful country in human history, and for a long time, the most influential has decided not to support the efforts of 200 other nations to slow the development of climate problems. Instead, the United States, under Republican leadership, is moving to maximize the use of fossil fuels which are so dangerous to the environment. Trump and the Republicans are dismantling regulations that were implemented to slow the production of carbon dioxide and other harmful gases in the environment.
Elections have consequences, and the consequences of this last presidential election are literally deadly.