Don Corrigan serves up his weekly opinion about who deserves a dagger for being a foe to the environment and who deserves a daisy for being a friend of the environment.
This week: Trump Joins Syria and Nicaragua To Take Stand Against What He Calls The “Chinese Hoax” of Global Warming.
Daggers to President Donald Trump who has now put America in league with Syria and Nicaragua as deniers of climate science and the phenomena of global warming.The president single-handedly broke America’s promise to reduce pollution and our carbon footprint under the Paris Climate Agreement. As Environment Missouri recently pointed out, Trump’s action will be disastrous for Missouri and for people across the country. Trump has paved the way for dirtier air and the prospect of more kids with breathing problems. Look forward to more droughts, floods, severe storms and farms losing their crops. Even worse are the global economic consequences to a U.S. withdrawal, slowing the growth of the renewable energy sector and allowing other countries to undermine their promises to cut greenhouse gas emissions. Those countries that respect the agreement to protect the environment are likely to leap ahead of the United States in developing new and cleaner energy sources. Trump’s action is receiving universal condemnation and much of it from religious groups that see action on climate change as a moral imperative.
Daisies to America’s Young Evangelicals, who wasted no time in condemning the actions of a President, whom far too many older Evangelicals supported in the 2016 election, despite his resumé of immoral and amoral activities before he entered politics. The spokesperson for Young Evangelicals for Climate Change, Kyle Meynaard-Schapp, issued the following statement: “With his decision today, President Trump has once again positioned himself on the wrong side of history. By characterizing the Paris Agreement as a top-down constraint on economic growth that is ‘a bad deal for America,’ he betrays his ignorance of the actual structure and spirit of the agreement. He damages both America’s reputation abroad and its economic competitiveness in the coming clean energy revolution. More than the economic and geopolitical consequences, however, the impact that this rash and unnecessary decision will have on the lives of the world’s most vulnerable people is staggering. Already, millions of people in the U.S. and around the world are struggling to adapt to rising seas and more extreme weather. These are the very people that we are commanded by our Lord to love with the same commitment and tenacity that we show to ourselves and our own loved ones. The President’s open disregard for their well-being is a moral travesty and an affront to our faith as followers of Christ.”
Daggers & Daisies, a regular weekly opinion feature of Environmental Echo, singles out friends and foes of the Earth for attention. Readers are encouraged to submit their nominees to Don Corrigan for Daggers & Daisies at environmentalecho@gmail.com.
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