{"id":9294,"date":"2017-06-02T08:55:13","date_gmt":"2017-06-02T13:55:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/?p=9294"},"modified":"2017-06-04T22:32:02","modified_gmt":"2017-06-05T03:32:02","slug":"trump-vs-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2017\/06\/02\/trump-vs-the-world\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump vs. the world"},"content":{"rendered":"

Trump’s speech on his decision to pull out of the Paris climate accord included so many questionable statements, it’s hard to know where to start. Fortunately, others have. Among the better fact-checks are the Washington Post’s (this one<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0this one<\/a>), FactCheck.org’s<\/a>, NPR’s<\/a>, PolitiFact’s<\/a>, and the\u00a0Huffington Post’s.<\/a><\/p>\n

Foreign Policy’s summary (which comes from a partisan source, but is mostly non-controversial) in Why Abandoning Paris is a Disaster for America<\/a> captures the essential implications of Trump’s decision\u00a0very well in these 5 points:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. “The Trump administration is hastening catastrophic effects of climate change”;<\/li>\n
  2. “Trump is abdicating U.S. leadership and inviting China to fill the void”;<\/li>\n
  3. “Withdrawing from Paris will damage U.S. standing in the world”;<\/span><\/li>\n
  4. “Pulling out of Paris means Republicans own climate catastrophes”;<\/span><\/li>\n
  5. “Trump\u2019s pulling out of Paris means that the rest of us are called upon to do more \u2014 and we will.” <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    #2 and 3 are understatements, #4 is a good thing (in my view), and #5 is perhaps overly optimistic (though the efforts of cities and states — like California, the world’s “fifth largest economy,” as Californians like to say — are\u00a0already ramping up). But there isn’t much else that’s essential to know about the decision.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    That decision was reckless, and aimed only to please\u00a0Trump’s base (who, when all is said and done, are the only ones he can rely on to cheer him, which is what he ultimately seems to want). It will continue to speed the U.S.’s demise as the leading world power and hegemon. For the most part, it won’t even help the business interests of his wealthy cronies, aside from a hapless handful in the fossil fuels industry. <\/span><\/p>\n

    But it’s what Americans “voted for.” (We all know what that means — when not even the Pittsburgh he championed in the speech voted for him.) And it’s why the U. S. political, electoral, and educational systems need radical change.<\/span><\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Added a little later:<\/em><\/p>\n

    The media seem fond of the idea that the U.S. has joined two other countries — Nicaragua and Syria — on the list of countries that didn’t sign on to the Paris climate accord. The problem with that idea is that these aren’t in the same league.<\/p>\n

    \n

    There are really four different categories here:<\/p>\n

    (1) The countries that signed the agreement and are still signed on (194 of them);<\/p>\n

    (2) The country that didn’t because it was convulsing under sanctions and war (Syria);<\/p>\n

    (3) The country that didn’t because the agreement was too lame<\/a> and they’re way ahead of the game anyway (Nicaragua, which the World Bank has called<\/a> “a renewable energy paradise, and whose negotiator simply said<\/a>, with good justification, “These voluntary commitments don’t work”); and<\/p>\n

    (4) The country that has pulled out.<\/p>\n

    Yes, the U.S. under Trump is really in a class by itself.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Trump’s speech on his decision to pull out of the Paris climate accord included so many questionable statements, it’s hard to know where to start. Fortunately, others have. Among the better fact-checks are the Washington Post’s (this one\u00a0and\u00a0this one), FactCheck.org’s, NPR’s, PolitiFact’s, and the\u00a0Huffington Post’s. Foreign Policy’s summary (which comes from a partisan source, but […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":99,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[520594,691215],"tags":[455024,455023,454932,455022],"class_list":["post-9294","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-climate-politics","category-politics_postpolitics","tag-nicaragua","tag-paris-climate-accord","tag-trump","tag-u-s-politics"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4IC4a-2pU","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":8540,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2015\/12\/15\/following-the-inaction-in-paris-updated\/","url_meta":{"origin":9294,"position":0},"title":"Following the (in)action in Paris, updated","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"December 15, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"This article\u00a0has been revised since it was first posted. It consists of a list of useful\u00a0sources providing ongoing coverage of, and initial post-conference reactions to, the COP21 conference and mobilizations in response to it. Please suggest any other helpful\u00a0sources and links in the \"Comments.\" (Previously suggested links\u00a0have\u00a0been added and the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Climate change"","block_context":{"text":"Climate change","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/climate-politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8472,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2015\/11\/19\/the-climate-connection\/","url_meta":{"origin":9294,"position":1},"title":"The climate connection","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"November 19, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"How connected are the recent Paris attacks\u00a0with the upcoming United Nations Climate Change Conference, or COP 21 (Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change)? At first glance, the targeting\u00a0of Paris for ISIS's act of war on civilian populations would seem to be motivated by\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Climate change"","block_context":{"text":"Climate change","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/climate-politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8443,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2015\/11\/09\/whats-happening\/","url_meta":{"origin":9294,"position":2},"title":"What’s happening?","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"November 9, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"The beginning of COP 21, the UN Conference on Climate Change,\u00a0is three weeks away. So what else is happening, you ask? 1) The Campaign Against Climate Change's\u00a0Time to Act!\u00a0campaign, 350.org, Reclaim Power, and various other formations are preparing actions around the world on the eve of the summit (November 28-29)\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Climate change"","block_context":{"text":"Climate change","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/climate-politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"ClimateGames-meme-e1444227629407","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2015\/11\/ClimateGames-meme-e1444227629407-275x143.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":9991,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2018\/11\/25\/heads-in-the-sands\/","url_meta":{"origin":9294,"position":3},"title":"Heads in the sands","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"November 25, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"It's not surprising that the Trump administration would wish to bury the nearly 1700-page Fourth National Climate Asessment, Volume 2: Impacts, Risks, and Adaptation in the United States, a report written by over 300 scientists representing 13 federal agencies, by having it released on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Climate change"","block_context":{"text":"Climate change","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/climate-politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8510,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2015\/12\/04\/to-bother-with-protest-or-not\/","url_meta":{"origin":9294,"position":4},"title":"To bother (with protest), or not?","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"December 4, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Writing in The Independent, \"Left accelerationists\" Alex Williams and Nick Srnicek make the case that we need not bother protesting the Paris climate summit. There are better things to do than that. They argue, first, that the negotiators won't change anything under pressure, and probably won't even notice that pressure\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Climate change"","block_context":{"text":"Climate change","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/climate-politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"_86941541_rob_m_oil_age_z6","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2015\/12\/86941541_rob_m_oil_age_z6-275x155.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":10005,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2018\/11\/28\/denial-incompetence-depravity\/","url_meta":{"origin":9294,"position":5},"title":"Denial, incompetence, & depravity","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"November 28, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"For many, President Trump's babbling and incoherent\u00a0responses to last week's National Climate Assessment (\"I'm too smart to believe it, just look at our air and water and what those other countries are doing...\"), following on from his even less coherent responses to California's wildfire tragedies (\"They should rake more, like\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Climate change"","block_context":{"text":"Climate change","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/climate-politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9294","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/99"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9294"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9294\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9301,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9294\/revisions\/9301"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}