Any debate on the issue is essentially scientific and not political.
My question for the debate reflects this — “Which scientific fact or theory is the basis of your position on climate change?”
Try it for yourself.
The Paris Agreement within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change has been signed by 180 nations — most of the nations in the world. (Incidentally Syria, North Korea and Nicaragua were not among the 195 nations who worked on the wording of the agreement.)
If the USA were to pull out of the agreement it could have a devastating impact on the USA image. If the USA went rogue it is well possible that they will be viewed as a world pariah and thereby get the same trade deal as apartheid South Africa without any negotiating!. We have no idea on the ramifications of such a stance, but realtors selling waterfront properties in Florida would be working overtime: if they are not already!
There are many viewpoints from which the question can be answered — you could be a climate expert, someone who “sees” the NASA images of the reduction in ice cover at the polar caps, an oceanographer, someone who empathizes with the distress of polar bears, someone whose island will become uninhabitable, someone who relates an extreme weather event to climate change, a builder seeking land that is not going to be flooded due to rising oceans, a farmer experiencing drought or you could be scientifically challenged and simply use as your “fact” that 97% of scientists believe that climate change is real.
So have you tried the question for yourself?
My answer is as a physicist. “We all accept that a greenhouse works. Radiant heat from the sun passes through a thin invisible substance (glass). The glass then traps heat inside the greenhouse. Temperature inside rises. This is the greenhouse effect. There are gases in the atmosphere which have an identical effect. Carbon Dioxide acts as a greenhouse gas trapping heat from the Sun inside our atmosphere. This has worked well for thousands of years but increasing levels of Carbon Monoxide (and incidentally Methane — another greenhouse gas) have tipped the balance — resulting in higher temperatures, extreme climate events, glacier melt and melting of the polar ice resulting in rising sea levels.”