President Donald Trump announces his decision for the US to pull out of the Paris climate agreement in the Rose Garden at the White House. (Win McNamee / Getty Images)
"It is time to put Youngstown, Ohio; Detroit, Mich.; and Pittsburgh, Pa.; along with many many other locations in our country, before Paris, France."
The President of the United States seems to be confusing Paris, the French capital, and Paris, the place where the climate agreement was negotiated. They’re the same, but that’s not exactly the same thing. When the 1973 Paris Peace Accords put an end to the Vietnam War, no one thought that this war was fought in France, right? And just to be clear: The text of the Paris Agreement was actually opened for signature, not in Paris, but at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, just a few blocks away from the notorious Trump Tower.
"[U]nder this agreement, we are effectively putting these [U.S.] reserves under lock and key, taking away the great wealth of our nation."
Ever heard of something called “stranded fossil fuel assets”? The concept is that vast reserves of oil, gas and coal will be left stranded as the world shifts toward cleaner fuels to avoid the risk of climate change. This might put U.S. reserves under lock and key, not the Paris Agreement. And it’s real. Just last week, shareholders at Exxon Mobil Corp. (yes, the same company U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is very familiar with) and Chevron Corp. narrowly voted down resolutions calling for stress tests to determine the risk that efforts to curb climate change pose to their businesses. But other similar resolutions were successful, the companies themselves urging their shareholders to accept the climate resolution.
"Even if the Paris Agreement were implemented in full, with total compliance from all nations, it is estimated it would only produce a 2/10 of one degree – think of that (…) Tiny tiny amount."
Maybe. But if we don’t do anything, we might shoot over 5 degrees or more and that would be catastrophic. I’m not saying this, one of the authors from MIT whose research President Trump cites in his speech does. And just to put things in perspective: The Royal Society reminds us that even though an increase of a few degrees in global average temperature does not sound like much, global average temperature during the last ice age was only about 4 to 5 °C (7 to 9 °F) colder than now.
"I was elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris."
Interesting scenario. But again, not sure why the Parisians (who love that publicity, no doubt) were brought into this. But choosing another city might have been more judicious. In the last U.S presidential elections, the city of Pittsburgh itself voted for Hillary Clinton by about 80 percent, according to Mayor Bill Peduto. He is joining the mayors of Los Angeles, Boston, New York, Chicago, Houston, Seattle, Philadelphia and Atlanta (61 U.S. cities in total), who said yesterday that they would “adopt, honor, and uphold the commitments to the goals enshrined in the Paris Agreement.” Now, Pittsburgh could have just been a Freudian slip. Mr. President, did you mean “St Petersburg”?