The United States became the first and only nation to withdraw from the Paris climate accord on Wednesday, even as the outcome of the presidential race remained unknown.
The nation’s formal exit from the global effort to combat climate change — a departure set in motion by President Trump more than three years ago — marked the only sliver of certainty in a sea of ambiguity about the future trajectory of U.S. climate and environmental policy.
If Trump were to eke out a victory, the U.S. government would all but vanish from international efforts to slow the Earth’s warming, in favor of promoting fossil fuels. Democratic nominee Joe Biden has called climate change “the existential threat to humanity” and vowed to immediately rejoin the Paris accord if elected. But even if he wins the White House, his plan to invest trillions of dollars toward making the United States a greener nation will face a deeply divided Congress. Continue reading.
President Trump on Monday began the yearlong process of withdrawing the U.S. from the Paris climate accord.
The official announcement cements a promise Trump made in the White House Rose Garden in 2017 when he first announced his intention to withdraw from the global climate change agreement signed by every other country in the world.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced the move in a statement.
The following article by Lorraine Chow via EcoWatch was posted on the Alternet website June 13, 2017:
The 22 Republican senators who urged Trump to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement received millions of dollars from fossil fuel interests.
Charles and David Koch – The Koch Brothers Charles de Ganahl Koch and David Hamilton Koch are the notorious Koch Bothers. The brothers own Koch Industries and are major benefactors for organizations and candidates involved in pushing radical Republican policies. The Koch Brothers use their immense wealth to cast a shadow on American government at all levels and form it to their own design. Your vote has value to the Koch Brothers Would billionaires spend millions to influence your vote if it had no value? The U.S. Map is adapted from a Creative Commons licensed image available via Wikimedia. The caricatures of Charles and David Koch are an original paintings in Photoshop. Photo Credit: DonkeyHotey/Flickr CC
The 22 Republican senators who recently sent a letter to President Donald Trump urging the United States’ withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement received more than $10 million dollars in campaign funds from fossil fuel interests.
The two-page letter was signed by a number of Republican heavyweights from coal/gas/oil-rich states, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma and Ted Cruz of Texas.
The Guardian calculated that the 22 senators received a total of $10,694,284 from oil, gas and coal money in just five years. (See the breakdown below.)
However, that sum does not even come close to the amount of undisclosed funds coming from the deep pockets of Charles and David Koch‘s coal, oil and gas conglomerate, Koch Industries, and other outside groups.
The following article by Scott Clement and Brady Dennis was posted on the Washington Post website June 5, 2017:
Most Americans oppose President Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement, with a majority saying the move will damage the United States’ global leadership, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.
Opposition to Trump’s decision outpaces support for it by a roughly 2-to-1 margin, with 59 percent opposing the move and 28 percent in support. The reactions also break down sharply along partisan lines, though Republicans are not as united in support of the withdrawal as Democrats are in opposition to it. A 67 percent majority of Republicans support Trump’s action, but that drops to 22 percent among political independents and 8 percent of Democrats. Just over 6 in 10 independents and 8 in 10 Democrats oppose Trump’s action. Continue reading “Post-ABC poll: Nearly 6 in 10 oppose Trump scrapping Paris agreement”
The following article by Mark Landler, Brad Plumer and Linda Qiu was posted on the New York Times website June 1, 2017:
A map showing climate anomalies during the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Le Bourget, France, in 2015. Credit Stephane Mahe/Reuters
WASHINGTON — In making his case for abandoning the Paris climate accord, President Trump characterized the agreement as an economic straitjacket — one that would impose terrible burdens on Americans by shuttering the coal industry, suffocating growth and redistributing jobs and wealth from the United States to its competitors.
President Trump on Monday began the yearlong process of withdrawing the U.S. from the Paris climate accord.
