This week, President Trump solidified himself as the ‘King of FAKE NEWS.’ On June 1st, Trump announced that the U.S. will withdraw from the Paris Accords which was a global deal on climate change. Currently, 194 countries are in the Paris climate agreement, with the three countries joining being Nicaragua, Syria, and now the United States.
The purpose of the Paris Agreement is to keep carbon dioxide levels below the “carbon budget,” after studies show that if we fail to limit the temperature rise of 2 degrees Celsius, things get potentially irreversible. It would lead to longer droughts and intense heat waves that would affect the world food supply.
This is just the latest sign that Trump doesn’t care about climate change. We all remember when he famously stated that global warming was a hoax created by “the Chinese” to undermine the U.S. economy. During his recent speech, Trump didn’t exactly get his facts straight about the Paris deal and his reasons for leaving.
This came after 25 companies, including Microsoft and Intel, took out a full-page ad in the trusted New York Times urging Trump to stay in the agreement.
“Well, c’mon, he was clearly never going to be convinced by an ad in The New York Times. How was he going to see it?” said John Oliver on his HBO show Last Week Tonight. “If those companies really wanted to get his attention, they needed to talk KFC into giving out a full-bucket ad, which he would read on the toilet while eating chicken, because that – at its core – is who our president is.”
Trump said, the Paris agreement would have cost Americans 2.7 million jobs by 2025. The White House sourced Trump’s information with a single study that was funded by a conservative lobbyist group called the American Council for Capital Formation, according to VICE News. The study itself admits it ignores “potential benefits from avoided emissions,” and adds, “the study results are not a benefit-cost analysis of climate change.”
Trump said the Paris agreement would result in a miniscule effect on temperatures. So, during his speech criticizing climate change, Trump said the Paris agreement isn’t doing enough to combat it. This leads one to believe that Trump is aware climate change is a problem, but is actively disregarding it due to his economic interests.
Trump stated that the agreement would affect the country’s coal business. The Paris Accord had no restrictions on coal and doesn’t even mention the word “coal” once in the agreement. The goals are voluntary and there are no penalties if they aren’t met.
“The only penalty was shame, and unfortunately this president is completely immune to the very concept of that,” said Oliver.
Trump also said he works for Pittsburgh and not Paris, which is true, but the city of Pittsburgh and Mayor Bill Peduto were quick with a rebuttal.
While many called Trump’s move to flee the deal indefensible and reckless, some U.S. states, led by Michael Bloomberg, former New York City Mayor and now United Nations Special Envoy for Cities and Climate Change, have formed a pact to continue to meet the goals of the Paris climate agreement. Bloomberg submitted the “We Are Still In” declaration to the U.N.
“Today, on behalf of an unprecedented collection of U.S. cities, states, businesses and other organizations, I am communicating to the United Nations and the global community that American society remains committed to achieving the emission reductions we pledged to make in Paris in 2015,” Bloomberg said. Signers of the initiative include 13 governors, 19 state attorney generals, over 200 mayors, and CEOs of Fortune 500 companies and small businesses, according to Reuters. This includes Pepsi Co., Kellogg, and Walmart, who are working to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions in line with the latest science.
Days before his Paris announcement, Trump accidentally hit the send button on this tweet and left it up for 15 hours before deleting, media ran rampant with jokes and what the word “covfefe” could possibly mean. These things are never good because they always distract from the real stories that need to be reported.
Yes, it was funny for about 10 minutes. I got some great laughs from Twitter. But while that garnered nearly all media attention for an entire news cycle, “covfefe” got more press than a Delaware-sized iceberg breaking off Antarctica, which symbolizes the REAL climate crisis that threatens all life on Earth. It’s not something we have to worry about in the future, it is something we must act on now. A lot of Baby Boomers thought they would be six-feet-under by the time climate change affected daily lives, but that day came a lot sooner than they imagined. Their silly denials cannot be tolerated; the planet is at stake.
“It will be up to the American people to step forward,” said Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe. “In Virginia, we are doing just that.”
Not even the Weather Channel could hold its tongue after Trump’s fake news diatribe.
French President Emmanuel Macron said Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Paris Accord was a mistake and invited American scientists, entrepreneurs, and engineers to come to France to help fight climate change. “This evening, America turned its back on the world,” said Macron. “France will not turn its back to Americans. There is no plan B because there is no planet B.” “This isn’t what we want for our children. It’s not what we want for our world.” “We all share the same responsibility. Make our planet great again.”
