Trump Fails to Protect Mother Earth

On Thursday, President Trump glibly announced that the United States would withdraw from the Paris climate change agreement negotiated by former President Obama in 2015.

Trump made the announcement to fulfill a campaign promise, but failed to mention that we would be following the withdrawal protocol in the accord that will take three to four years to complete. That means we can change course by voting for the environment in 2018 and, more importantly, 2020 before the damage becomes too permanent.

The reactions from all but those in fossil fuel industry pockets were universally horrible. The clear winners were climate change deniers like Scott Pruitt, Trump’s head of the US EPA and shadow president Steve Bannon, whose primary goal is to dismantle the government.

Trump’s decision relies upon severely discredited theories on the impact of climate change, a deeply flawed belief that the way to economic prosperity is found by using more coal and oil and ignores the clear scientific consensus on the environmental and public health consequences of failing to reduce carbon emissions.

Pandering to a small base of his supporters, Trump ignored at his peril the majority of American voters who support the Paris Accord. A November poll by George Mason and Yale universities shows 70% of registered voters say we should stay in the Paris Accord and only 13% contend we should leave.

Foreign leaders around the planet condemned the decision. Trump ignored our global allies pleas to remain in the international effort to save the planet. Unwittingly, he turned over leadership on climate change to the Chinese who have used their economic engine to ramp up production of renewable energy technologies and are poised to take over solar panel production, which just happens to be one of the fastest growing sectors of the American economy. China’s leaders are already stepping into the global leadership vacuum Trump’s decisions are creating and exerting all the leverage their economic engine can produce to extend their influence. Trump even ignored the letter from a noted scientist who also happens to be Pope Francis urging his continued support to reduce the effects of climate change.

American businesses understand the climate change science and the economic opportunities it provides. In January, 630 business leaders and investors like DuPont, Hewlett Packard, Pacific Gas and Electric signed an open letter to then president-elect Trump urging him to reject climate denier theories, to continue investment in a low-carbon economy and to not withdraw from the Paris Accord. As Trump was finalizing his decision, other prominent business leaders such as Apple’s Tim Cook, Tesla’s Elon Musk and GE Chief Jeff Imelt, all urged him to stay in the effort to fight climate change. Musk and Disney leader Robert Iger resigned from Trump’s business advisory council in protest over the decision. US farmers, already reeling from increasingly bad weather due to climate change, stand to lose even more from Trump’s decision to change policy.

More enlightened state and local leaders also stepped into the breach, vowing to continue the Paris Accord guidelines to reduce carbon emissions. Mayors from New York City, Chicago, Atlanta, Los Angeles and Boston all vowed to continue their environmental protection efforts. Over 60 mayors wrote an open letter to Trump urging him to stay in the Paris agreement. Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has joined with other mayors, state governors and business leaders and plans to donate $15 million to the United Nations Climate Secretariat to continue its work on reducing global climate emissions in anticipation of Trump’s cutbacks to UN funding. California Governor Jerry Brown has already committed to continuing to use renewable energy sources and to reduce carbon emissions.

Not unexpectedly, climate scientists and environmental groups that have been sounding the alarm over greenhouse gas emissions, rising seas, vanishing glaciers and polar ice caps, rising temperatures, increasingly violent weather patters from hurricanes to tornadoes and other environmental catastrophes for decades also joined the condemnation of Trump’s decision.

Besides gearing up to defeat the climate change deniers in the White House and halls of Congress in the upcoming elections, there is a lot we can do locally to combat the looming disasters caused by carbon emissions. Buying food grown locally by small farm entrepreneurs will cut down on carbon emissions from food trucked over long distances. Conserving energy with efficient appliances and lighting, buying electric vehicles and installation of renewable energy technology in homes and businesses are good places to start. Join an environmental group and work to protect our clean air and water. Go to politician’s offices and town halls and demand they stand up for the environment by supporting bills to combat climate change. 

Our economy will react favorably to the need for technological changes to protect the environment. There is no Planet B to head to if we don’t protect her.

Waring R. Fincke is a retired attorney and serves as a guardian for the elderly and disabled.