????

This feels so true because it is (I mean there was the Paris Agreement, but still. And btw I heard that the US rejoined the Paris Agreement so you don’t really have to use that argument that the US left the Paris agreement unless I’m wrong.)

Tell me more, I'm interested

For some reason that felt a little… off.

What do you mean? That I'm interested in the topic you are mentioning?

For some reason my brain thought you were being sarcastic. But if you’d like me to explain more, I guess I could.

Yay! Thank you. I was not being sarcastic, nor am I a sarcastic person 😁

So you wanted me to explain more about... something, right? What exactly did you want me to explain more of?

The Paris Agreement

DISCLAIMER: I am not an EXPERT on the Paris agreement, though I know a couple things about it. I’ll list my sources at the end of the last comment.

Okay. So anyways, I’m assuming you don’t know much about the Paris agreement because if you did then I doubt you would’ve asked in the first place. The Paris agreement is, and I quote wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_Agreement as of Jan. 6 2021) “an international treaty on climate change, adopted in 2015.”

In reality, it actually came into effect only in 2016. But anyways, a quick history lesson. The document was drafted during the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference, also known as COP 21.

There were apparently a lot of things in the treaty, but one thing that I’ve normally heard on sites that talk about the Paris agreement is that the treaty tries to “ limit global warming to well below 2, preferably to 1.5 degrees Celsius, compared to pre-industrial levels.”, according to the UNFCCC website. When it say “pre-industrial levels”, I’m assuming that means before the Industrial Revolution (which was when humans started emitting a lot more greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide).

The Paris Agreement was signed on the 12th of December, 2015, and went into effect on November 4th, 2016. But then in 2017, the then-President of the United States Donald Trump announced the US would withdraw from the Paris agreement. By the way, the United States has emitted more Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere than any other single country in total, and is responsible for about a quarter of all greenhouse gas emissions. Whether Trump knew it or not (or even if he knows it now), I don’t know.

When the announcement was made, people… didn’t exactly take it that well. An example was when a couple mayors and governors of US cities and states created their own organizations that would still follow the Paris agreement and would still try to fight climate change but I’m getting overwhelmed by all the sites in my Safari browser so I won’t really mention them but I’ll add some sites at the end of this comment.

So how did the international community (i.e., world leaders) react? Well, they generally praised the president for his actions and just kidding not really.
[continued on next comment]

Here’s a couple quotes from world leaders concerning the US leaving the agreement (note that I cut out a lot of stuff so this comment could be a lot shorter, but I’ll pit a link to the site in the sources, and btw, that site has FURTHER sources on the quotes).

“The president's announcement is not a surprise, it was a very core campaign commitment of his. It is disappointing. We would prefer the United States to remain part of the Agreement. We are committed to the Paris Agreement.” - Malcom Turnbull, Prime Minister of Australia

“We are deeply disappointed that the United States federal government has decided to withdraw from the Paris Agreement. Canada is unwavering in our commitment to fight climate change and support clean economic growth. Canadians know we need to take decisive and collective action to tackle the many harsh realities of our changing climate. While the U.S. decision is disheartening, we remain inspired by the growing momentum around the world to combat climate change and transition to clean growth economies.” - Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada

“Today, we are stepping up our cooperation on climate change with China. Which means that today, China and Europe have demonstrated solidarity with future generations and responsibility for the whole planet. We are convinced that yesterday's decision by the United States to leave the Paris Agreement is a big mistake, bigger than not ratifying the Kyoto Protocol, because Paris is fairer. But the fight against climate change, and all the research, innovation and technological progress it will bring, will continue, with or without the US.”. - Donald Tusk, President of the European Council (European Union

Today, the president of the United States, Donald Trump, announced his decision to withdraw from the Paris Agreement. I do respect this decision, but I do think it is an actual mistake, both for the US and for our planet…To all scientists, engineers, responsible citizens who were disappointed by the decision of the president of the United States, I want to say that they will find in France a second homeland. I call on them: come and work here, with us, to work together on concrete solutions for our climate, our environment. I can assure you, France will not give up the fight.” - Emmanuel Macron, President of France

[continued on next comment]

All right, so I realize that last comment was a bit unnecessary, though whether you were fine with that or not, I’m gonna continue.

So, here’s the thing: According to the rules of the Paris Agreement, once a country officially joined the agreement, it could only officially send a notice of withdrawal three years later and beyond. So on November 4th, 2019, exactly THREE YEARS since the treaty came into effect, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced the US had begun the “formal process of withdrawing from the Paris Agreement”, as he wrote in a tweet.

But know they had to wait another YEAR to actually leave the Paris Agreement for real. And on November 4th, 2020, that’s exactly what happened.

One problem for Trump, though: You see, November 4th was the day after the 2020 United States presidential election, except there still wasn’t really a clear winner. But by November 7, news channels mainly said that Joe Biden won the election, and he did. Well, not according to Trump, but let’s not get into that.

After Biden got inaugurated on January 20th, 2021, he sent a letter to the United Nations that said the US would rejoin the Paris Agreement. On February 19, 2021, it did.

Antony Blinken, Secretary of State (Yeah, the Secretary of State changed, too) said on the Department of State website "The Paris Agreement is an unprecedented framework for global action. We know because we helped design it and make it a reality. Its purpose is both simple and expansive: to help us all avoid catastrophic planetary warming and to build resilience around the world to the impacts from climate change we already see."

What was also written was “Climate change and science diplomacy can never again be “add-ons” in our foreign policy discussions.” And personally, I think he was right, kinda.

[sources on different comment]

Sources:

https://www.state.gov/the-united-states-officially-rejoins-the-paris-agreement/

https://www.nrdc.org/stories/paris-climate-agreement-everything-you-need-know

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_Agreement

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2019/11/04/trump-makes-it-official-us-will-withdraw-paris-climate-accord/

https://www.carbonbrief.org/global-reaction-trump-pulls-us-out-paris-agreement-climate-change

https://unfccc.int/process-and-meetings/the-paris-agreement/the-paris-agreement

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_United_Nations_Climate_Change_Conference

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-54797743

https://climate.law.columbia

https://ourworldindata.org/contributed-most-global-co2

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/06/01/climate/us-biggest-carbon-polluter-in-history-will-it-walk-away-from-the-paris-climate-deal.html

https://www.nrdc.org/experts/rhea-suh/america-trump-we-are-still

https://www.npr.org/2021/02/19/969387323/u-s-officially-rejoins-paris-agreement-on-climate-change

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/us-rejoins-paris-climate-agreement-revisit-climate-change-documentaries-reporting/

Other Sites:

https://www.wearestillin.com/

https://www.wearestillin.com/we-are-still-declaration

https://medium.com/@ClimateMayors/climate-mayors-commit-to-adopt-honor-and-uphold-paris-climate-agreement-goals-ba566e260097

https://www.governor.wa.gov/news-media/united-states-climate-alliance-adds-10-new-members-coalition-committed-upholding-paris

https://www.cnbc.com/2017/06/06/virginia-oregon-minnesota-among-new-members-of-us-climate-alliance.html

https://www.wearestillin.com/we-are-still-declaration

🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩 Cool!