Withdrawal from The Paris Agreement (Climate Change) by the USA, is NOT a part of “America First”…
Climate Change: Will the (After-Trump) USA, Join the Paris Agreement?
...but an attempt against America’s worldwide leadership.
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In spite of some Governments denying its existence (Trump’s Government, for instance), it seems to be clear that right now, the number one enemy to the human race is the Climate Change.
Climate Change, due in part to the satisfaction of human needs(use of fossil fuel for the automobile’s combustion and electricity-generation; electricity generation for light, A/C, and heating; breeding of cows and pigs, for alimentation purposes); and in part, due to the current developmental activities of some countries : The USA, Canada, Australia, most European Countries, Russia, and in general, all developed countries. To a lesser extent, development-projects of under-developed countries (with the exception of China).
% CO2 emissions to the atmosphere, by country. Graph: Wikipedia.
The exception of the developing nations seems to be China, which should be treated like a developed country, as China, together with the USA, accounted in 2016, for almost 44% of the CO2 discharged into the atmosphere (the U.S. accounted for 14.3%). China alone was responsible for almost a third of the global release of CO2 into the Earth’s atmosphere. And that is if we believe the figures that the Chinese themselves declare.
But, unbelievable as it may sound, under the terms of The Kyoto Protocol (which preceded The Paris Agreement), however, China was classified as a developing country, and as such, had no mandatory requirements to reduce its emissions, and enjoyed the benefit of receiving development-assistance from the developed economies, under the terms of the Protocol.
No wonder the treaty was not ratified by the USA’s Senate, and withdrawn from, by Canada! (both, rightly so, in my opinion).
On the one hand, developing countries argued “…their legitimate right to develop, and given that developed countries have abused Nature for more than a century, they should pay, helping less-developed economies in their development projects.”, they said.
On the other hand, more developed countries — notably the USA--, disagreed with paying under-developed nations for their development and withdrew from The Paris Agreement. Or never ratified it, like Canada, for instance.
“The Paris Agreement central aim is to strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change by keeping a global temperature rise this century, well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 degrees Celsius.”
Text from Wikipedia: The Paris Agreement.: https://unfccc.int/process-and-meetings/the-paris-agreement/the-paris-agreement
The pitiful advances of the anti-Global Warming worldwide efforts against their announced objectives, shown by the different processes tried to date by the nations of Earth (according to Wikipedia: “the global average surface temperature rose 0.6 to 0.9 degrees Celsius (1.1 to 1.6° F) between 1906 and 2005, and the rate of temperature increase has nearly doubled in the last 50 years. Temperatures are certain to go up further despite ups and downs from year-to-year.) are in clear contrast with the horrible damages, supposedly caused by Global Warming (floods, fires, storms, and abnormal weather conditions everywhere).
That is why President Trump’s behavior is very difficult to understand.
For he represents and lives in a country, the USA, which is particularly affected by abnormal weather conditions, and other natural phenomena whose effects seem to be magnified by Global Warming: Abnormally high temperatures in some parts of the USA; wildfires and earthquakes in California; hurricanes in Miami, the States with coasts in the Gulf of Mexico, and Puerto Rico; tornados in the Mid-west; floods in Louisiana, and along the banks of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers.
Aerial photo of hurricane Katrina, which caused severe floods at the New Orleans’s area, also 1,500 deaths, and countless disappearances as well. Photo: Wikipedia.
But thinking about it, it should not be a surprise to anyone though, that Donald Trump, a Republican President, had inexplicably taken the USA out of that vital Agreement, however, as in 2002, the Republican-dominated USA’s Senate, rejected the ratification of the Kyoto Protocol as well:(although rightly so in that case, in my opinion).
You see, in spite of what some irresponsible Republican politicians (just a few, but with inordinate power within the party, at this moment ) may think, Climate Change is a reality, and we should not allow that a few lunatics compromise the wellbeing of future generations.
Although we fully understand (and support) the reasons why the USA’s Republican Senate did not ratify the Kyoto Protocol, which contained clauses making obligatory the reductions of emissions; compulsory as well, contributions in favor of developing countries, and favorable treatment of China; we fail to understand how the “America first” policy could possibly be benefitting America, in the case of its withdrawal from The Paris Agreement, as all of the abusive clauses contained in the rejected Kyoto Protocol have now been removed from the final version of its successor, The Paris Agreement.
As ex USA’s President Barack Obama said: (Quoted by Wikipedia, “The Paris Agreement”
“This agreement will help delay or avoid some of the worst consequences of climate change. It will help other nations ratchet down their emissions over time, and set bolder targets as technology advances, all under a strong system of transparency that allows each nation to evaluate the progress of all other nations.”
And in spite of those words from ex-President Obama, or maybe because of them, President Trump withdrew the USA from the Agreement.
The entire world — and I include myself in it, and many Americans, of both parties as well — experienced a deep deception when President Trump withdrew America from The Paris Agreement.
But, anything could be expected from him, after all, this is the same merciless guy who separated Latin families at the border, confining children to institutions which looked more like concentration camps; the same dangerous guy who withdrew America from the Nuclear Treaty with Russia; he who denounced and — with the tactics of a bully — threatened NATO with USA’s withdrawal from the treaty; the one who offended and had no respect for women, or for the Queen of England, or for Latins; the clown who ignominiously threw rolls of sanitary paper at Puerto Ricans, after the hurricane that devastated the island; the one that fought against Canada and Mexico, blackmailing those two countries with threats about taxing their exports to the USA, if they did not cooperate; and the one who fought against friends in general; while at the same time, fully supported the National Rifle Association (NRA), which in spite of multiple cases of indiscriminate shootings — which demanded additional gun-controls, which had a majoritary support among the population of the USA — , such controls were fiercely opposed by the NRA, and therefore by Trump; during his pre-electoral campaign, he did not condemn the support of the racist Kukus Clan, or the White Supremacist groups in their recent excesses; he embraced, pacified, (only temporarily though, just for the photo), and shook hands with — calling him ‘a friend’ — the bloody, cruel, and filthy dictator of North Korea, etc., etc.
How on Earth was such an inhuman guy elected the USA’s President ????????
America is not like that. Something is wrong.
“America First” should not be an economic-only policy. The country that freed the world of the Nazi threat during World War II, should not be perceived by the rest of the world as concerned by money-only matters.
How about moral standards?
How about respect?
Respect, compassion, pity, used to be words, which epitomized the USA. But not under the Trump’s Government. No longer.
Hopefully, the upcoming 2020 USA’s Presidential election will return things to normal, terminating with the nightmarish Trump’s era (notwithstanding that my thinking brings me closer to the Republican party’s ideology but in spite of that) and with the post-Trump USA’s Government joining The Paris Agreement.
Re-election? I hope not. Or else, my faith and admiration for the American people would suffer a second… and probably final blow.
