On Wednesday, President Donald Trump made the incredibly controversial announcement that he would be pulling the United States out of the historic 2015 Paris climate agreement. The move was hailed by Republicans as necessary, and by everyone else as unbelievably, astoundingly, bone-headedly stupid. Trump said he was the president of the people of Pittsburgh, not Paris, and was therefore pulling out of the deal that was “so unfair” to the United States.
But despite Trump’s claims that he’s pulling out for the sake of Americans, CEOs, mayors, governors, small business owners and individuals across the country have promised to take the challenge of cutting carbon emissions on themselves.
A group of 30 mayors, three governors, nearly 100 university presidents and more than 100 business owners has reached out to the United Nations. The group offered to submit a plan to meet the greenhouse gas emission target cuts Obama originally promised in 2015.
Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the city is committed to doing everything it was going to do per the Paris agreement. Mayors from Pittsburgh to Atlanta to Salt Lake City have also made the pledge, as have major businesses like Hewlett-Packard, and colleges like Wesleyan.
General Electric CEO Jeff Immelt said businesses have moved on from the debate, having already come to the collective conclusion that climate change must be confronted, not denied. ExxonMobil CEO Darren Woods reportedly sent a “last ditch personal plea” to Trump asking him to stay in the Paris accord.
This is a sign that in the United States, everyone (except the president) has truly come to terms with the idea that climate change is on all of us to solve. It’s as obvious as doing origami.
Business owners and local governments are recognizing that every level of society must take on the responsibility of halting climate change, and if President Trump wants to personally believe climate change is false, that’s fine - but the rest of us aren’t going to bury our heads in the sand. And if the Republican-led federal government won’t serve the needs of the people, then the people will.
Today, the U.S. is halfway to reaching its 2025 goal. Original plans anticipated the federal government could work to achieve 50 percent of the remaining emissions cuts, but business owners and local governments are confident they can take on 100 percent of the burden themselves.
And it might be necessary. Despite Democrats’ hopes that Trump will lose in 2020 if he even makes it that far, sitting presidents tend to have the upper hand and Trump’s base isn’t shrinking as fast as we would hope. If that’s the case, Trump will continue to dismantle the EPA until his presidency comes to term in 2025.
The fact that other businessmen have stopped fighting the issue shows that Trump is a dinosaur with outdated and ignorant information, and he doesn’t represent the will of the majority of Americans.
Nearly 70 percent of us agree: climate change is real, and it poses a threat to our future. If President Trump doesn’t want to acknowledge this, then Americans will have to continue the battle on without him.