Rogue state

Mary Robinson, the former president of Ireland and UN high commissioner for human rights, may have said it best, as reported by The New York Times: “The U.S. reneging on its commitment to the Paris Agreement renders it a rogue state on the international stage.”

She’s referring, of course, to the fact that some 195 nations—led by the world’s two greatest polluters, the United States and China—had signed on to the agreement, marking a truly international consensus to work cooperatively to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in order to save the planet from climate meltdown.

President Donald Trump’s decision to abandon the agreement was based on a fallacious notion that it was a threat to the American economy and our sovereignty. Economically, the opposite is true: The fast-growing industries springing up to meet the global climate challenge will do far more for the economy than the increasingly outdated carbon-dependent industries that he seeks to prop up. And the agreement is entirely voluntary and therefore no threat to American sovereignty.

This was a purely political decision. The president, whose approval ratings are in the tank, sought only to solidify his base. In doing so, he turned his back on America’s allies in Europe and elsewhere and ceded international leadership to a country, China, ruled by communist autocrats.

The good news is that, so far, no other nations have pulled out They understand that climate change is a planetary phenomenon, one in which we are all both perpetrators and victims, and that we must deal with it together. As someone has suggested, our motto going forward should be, “Making the planet great again.”