Shortly after the broadcast, former President Barack Obama issued a statement on Trump’s decision to pull the United States out of the Paris climate accord.
A year and a half ago, the world came together in Paris around the first-ever global agreement to set the world on a low-carbon course and protect the world we leave to our children.
It was steady, principled American leadership on the world stage that made that achievement possible. It was bold American ambition that encouraged dozens of other nations to set their sights higher as well. And what made that leadership and ambition possible was America’s private innovation and public investment in growing industries like wind and solar – industries that created some of the fastest new streams of good-paying jobs in recent years, and contributed to the longest streak of job creation in our history.
Simply put, the private sector already chose a low-carbon future. And for the nations that committed themselves to that future, the Paris Agreement opened the floodgates for businesses, scientists, and engineers to unleash high-tech, low-carbon investment and innovation on an unprecedented scale.
The nations that remain in the Paris Agreement will be the nations that reap the benefits in jobs and industries created. I believe the United States of America should be at the front of the pack. But even in the absence of American leadership; even as this Administration joins a small handful of nations that reject the future; I’m confident that our states, cities, and businesses will step up and do even more to lead the way, and help protect for future generations the one planet we’ve got.
– Barack Obama
What now?
What can you do to affect change and act on climate? Call your local leaders and express your concerns. Inquire about their plans for State leadership in the environmental protection and regulations realm. Ask if they are part of the United States Climate Alliance, as Governors from Washington, California, and New York already are.
Along with @NYGovCuomo and Calif. Gov. Jerry Brown, we’re forming the United States Climate Alliance. https://t.co/opGiz01Ntu
— Governor Jay Inslee (@GovInslee) June 1, 2017
Don’t let your voice go unheard. Now is not the time to shout at the social-sphere and reverberate in the echo chamber. Now is the time to personally act.
