To understand the planetary importance of this autumn’s presidential election, check the calendar. Voting ends on November 3—and by a fluke of timing, on the morning of November 4 the United States is scheduled to pull out of the Paris Agreement.
President Trump announced that we would abrogate our Paris commitments during a Rose Garden speech in 2017. But under the terms of the accords, it takes three years to formalize the withdrawal. So on Election Day it won’t be just Americans watching: The people of the world will see whether the country that has poured more carbon into the atmosphere than any other over the course of history will become the only country that refuses to cooperate in the one international effort to do something about the climate crisis.
Trump’s withdrawal benefited oil executives, who have donated millions of dollars to his reelection campaign, and the small, strange fringe of climate deniers who continue to insist that the planet […]
It is so very true, and it is so shameful that this country is the only country leaving the Paris Accord. And it is not just the vicious trump regime, but the arrogance and unbelievable corruption of the republican party that will, and already has, destroyed the future for generations. I think of the manuvering that allowed Bush to “defeat” Al Gore. With the result of 2 wars and the deaths of countless people, instead of what could have resulted in the best environmental technologies in the world.