03 | June | 2017 | Micheline's Blog

Tags

Abraham Lincoln, democracy, Emmanuel Macron, Michael Bloomberg, President Trump, Richard Branson, The Paris Agreement, the United States

The Paris Agreement

It may be wise not to look upon President Donald Trump’s defection from the 2015 Paris Agreement (l’Accord de Paris) as a decision dooming our ailing planet. Nor can it be seen as reflecting the will of the citizens of the United States. Climate change remains a major concern for countries around the world, the survival of planet Earth being at stake. If planet Earth dies, we all die. With respect to climate change, action cannot be delayed as we are already seconds before midnight.

Three European Nations React

A mere hour after President Trump announced his decision to withdraw from the Paris Agreement, Italy, Germany, and France stated jointly that the Paris Agreement could not be renegotiated. (See United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Wikipedia.)

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-climatechange-eu-idUSKBN18S6GN?wpisrc=nl_energy202&wpmm=1

France: a Refuge to American Scientists

Again, a mere hour after Mr Trump made his decision public, French President Emmanuel Macron offered a refuge in France to American climate scientists. Some of these scientists, and they are numerous and highly skilled, have gone to Washington and warned President Trump of the imminent danger climate change posed, but to no avail. It could well be that the President’s decision is not an American decision, but Donald Trump’s decision. Ironically, President Trump’s daughter Ivanka and her husband, Jared Kushner, opposed the President’s decision.

https://theintercept.com/2017/06/01/french-president-emmanuel-macron-offers-refuge-american-climate-scientists/

http://www.businessinsider.com/france-president-emmanuel-macron-donald-trump-paris-agreement-rebuke-2017-6
(apologies: technical difficulties)

The United States Resists

http://www.businessinsider.com/michael-bloomberg-paris-agreement-coalition-2017-6

But I am also reading that there is considerable resistance in the United States. After listening to former President Obama’s farewell address, I wrote that he probably felt that a democracy was its own corrective or “that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” (Abraham Lincoln ‘s Gettysburg Address.)

“Thirty cities, three states, more than 80 university presidents, and more than 100 companies are part of a growing group intending to uphold the Paris Agreement, the climate-change accord that President Donald Trump on Thursday announced the US would be exiting.”

The group is being organized by billionaire philanthropist Michael Bloomberg.

Michael Bloomberg, the UN special envoy for cities and climate change, at the C40 Mayors Summit in Mexico City on December 1. Reuters

Conclusion

After Mr Trump’s visit to Europe, Chancellor Merkel‘s political rivals agreed with her that Europe would have to look after itself. However, it turns out that Mr Trump’s decision to pull the United States out of the Paris Agreement has unleashed widespread disappointment, in the United States in particular, but also everywhere.

Mr Trump may be a dangerous man, but he is predictable. He announced that he would not allow Muslims to enter the United States and is now planning another travel ban, but Americans will find a way to defeat it. Three men were stabbed and two died protecting Muslim women on a train in Portland, Oregon. The United States has long been a refuge to the oppressed. President Trump’s Islamophobia has not affected all the citizens of the United States. Besides, it is selective. He travelled to Saudi Arabia and signed an arms deal.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/26/us/portland-train-stabbing/

President Trump is also trying to take away from Americans what protection they enjoyed under the Affordable Act Care. Law-abiding American citizens pay their taxes and are therefore entitled to the security citizens of other and poorer countries enjoy.

The next link takes the reader to comments by Sir Richard Branson who may be saying that, in a democracy, if a people is threatened, it will rush to its own rescue.

http://www.businessinsider.com/richard-branson-donald-trump-president-2016-11
(apologies: technical difficulties)

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