As was expected, on Thursday, Donald Trump announced that he is withdrawing the United States from the Paris Agreement on fighting global climate change. He called the agreement unfair, and said he would be willing to "negotiate" a fairer agreement. That is a LIE!
Trump has decided that the short-term profits of fossil fuel producers and energy companies is more important than protecting the future of this planet. It is a ridiculous position, and probably the biggest blunder of his administration.
All the nations of the world had signed the Paris Agreement (promising to do their part to curb global climate change) except two nations -- Syria (who is in the middle of a terrible civil war) and Nicaragua (who refused to sign because they said the agreement didn't go far enough). Now the United States joins them as an outlaw nation.
Fareed Zakaria puts it best:
"[T]his will be the day that the United States resigned as the leader of the free world."
He's right. The rest of the world is horrified that the world's biggest user of fossil fuels, and second biggest producer of greenhouse gases, will not do its part to save the world for future generations -- and that failure cedes the leadership of the United States to other, more responsible nations. Those other nations now know the United States cannot be depended on to keep its promises, or to offer leadership that will benefit all the world's population.
The other nations are all saying they will continue to abide by the Paris agreement, and do their part to control global climate change. But how effective can they be with the United States pouring more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere at an enormous rate.
Trump is also lying when he claims he wants to negotiate a better deal. If he really cared about global climate change, he would not ha put Pruitt in charge of the EPA, and he would not be asking for the EPA budget to be cut by 25% to 30%. His actions, including this new one, show that he doesn't care about the environment or the world's future.