By GABRIELA SANTOS<\/p>\n
In a move that surprised very few, President Trump has decided to pull the United States from the Paris agreement \u2013 an historic global coalition meant to curb the effects of climate change by reducing worldwide emissions.<\/p>\n
Despite widespread condemnation from political leaders, business leaders and environmentalist around the world, Trump affirms that he is doing so to benefit the American people who elected him to office.<\/p>\n
The Paris agreement was signed by 195 countries and is supposed\u00a0to create global accountability for rising temperatures and propose new carbon emission standards. The only countries that did not sign the agreement were Syria and Nicaragua, the former of which is currently marred by civil war.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt would once have been unthinkable that an international agreement could prevent the United States from conducting its own domestic affairs,\u201d said Trump during his speech at the Rose Garden on Thursday.<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s position is that the 2015 agreement imposes wildly unfair business standards aimed at attacking American sovereignty and his ability to create business initiatives that would benefit American workers.<\/p>\n
In an article written by Michael D. Shear<\/a> of The New York Times, <\/em>he states that business leaders like Elon Musk of Tesla, Jeffrey R. Immelt of General Electric and Lloyd C. Bankfield of Goldman Sachs, are diametrically opposed to the decision. They argue that the decision would hinder future job creation and shift markets for clean energy and technology to overseas competitors.<\/p>\n At this point, this kind of decision made by president Trump shows the obvious disconnect which he has with the American people \u2013 73 percent of which actually supported the agreement.<\/p>\n In\u00a0his article, Shear clearly tried to maintain neutrality by presenting both sides of the argument but it\u2019s evident where he, and others like him, stands and it\u2019s not with the president.<\/p>\n World leaders were quick to react to the news and the general consensus is that the decision presents more harm than a possible good. Especially considering the U.S is Earth\u2019s second largest pollution contributor.<\/p>\n Trump did manage to say that a renegotiation was possible but they would have to be on his terms.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are getting out,\u201d Trump said. \u201cBut we will start to negotiate, and we will see if we can make a deal that\u2019s fair. And if we can, that\u2019s great.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s now in the hands of state and city leaders to decide if they are going to side with Trump, or the rest of the world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By GABRIELA SANTOS In a move that surprised very few, President Trump has decided to pull the United States from the Paris agreement \u2013 an historic global coalition meant to curb the effects of climate change by reducing worldwide emissions. … Continue reading