Universities Are Jumping On Board With States To Pick Up Paris Climate Slack

In a recent blog post, I mentioned that there was outrage at President Trump's decision to withdraw from the Paris Climate Accord.  Specifically, the response from various governors was to pick up the slack left behind by the President in his decision.  I showed the agreement to bring to light what exactly such an agreement would look like.  In the current blog post, I ran across an e-mail from my university which stated that 109 other universities are willing to ensure that change is still in a positive direction.  Below is the letter stating the case.

Universities Join The Pack

Here is the letter from the website 'Second Nature' and signed by various leaders (Governors, Mayors, College and University leaders) regarding their undeterred commitment to meet the goals outlined by the Paris Agreement:

We Are Still In

Open letter to the international community and parties to the Paris Agreement from U.S.state, local, and business leaders

We, the undersigned mayors, governors, college and university leaders, investors and businesses are joining forces for the first time to declare that we will continue to support climate action to meet the Paris Agreement.

In December 2015 in Paris, world leaders signed the first global commitment to fight climate change. The landmark agreement succeeded where past attempts failed because it allowed each country to set its own emission reduction targets and adopt its own strategies for reaching them.

In addition, nations – inspired by the actions of local and regional governments, along with businesses – came to recognize that fighting climate change brings significant economic and public health benefits.

The Trump administration’s announcement undermines a key pillar in the fight against climate change and damages the world’s ability to avoid the most dangerous and costly effects of climate change. Importantly, it is also out of step with what is happening in the United States.

In the U.S., it is local and state governments, along with businesses, that are primarily responsible for the dramatic decrease in greenhouse gas emissions in recent years. Actions by each group will multiply and accelerate in the years ahead, no matter what policies Washington may adopt.

In the absence of leadership from Washington, states, cities, colleges and universities and businesses representing a sizeable percentage of the U.S. economy will pursue ambitious climate goals, working together to take forceful action and to ensure that the U.S. remains a global leader in reducing emissions.

It is imperative that the world know that in the U.S., the actors that will provide the leadership necessary to meet our Paris commitment are found in city halls, state capitals, colleges and universities, investors and businesses. Together, we will remain actively engaged with the international community as part of the global effort to hold warming to well below 2°C and to accelerate the transition to a clean energy economy that will benefit our security, prosperity, and health.

Letters such as the one above have been emerging over the last few months since President Trump announced his desire to withdrawal the United States from the Paris Agreement.  We should not be surprised at letters of support, but should still welcome them as a sign of undeterred support given the science is real regarding climate change and the need to move toward a more sustainable future.



Earlier in the year, just after the inauguration of President Trump, there was news that he would seek to withdrawal from the Paris Agreement.  He came into office with a desire to rid federal agencies of the words "climate change" and "climate science" along with drastically censoring the access to scientific research results which are funded by tax-payer money (yes, you are paying for research and are restricted from seeing the results -- which is wrong).



This news led to a series of letters from scientists in the academic arena regarding the President's opposition to climate change.  First, university officials wrote the President a letter (230 university officials).  Second, in an article, the same university officials were quoted on the adverse impact that opposing climate change could have on their university and the world at large.  The letters and public comments seem not to deter President Trump on his position regarding the validity of climate change.



As a result, the closer the G7 talks approached in Taormino, large corporations started to be concerned that there was a large possibility of losing out on trillions of dollars worth of investment with the United States withdrawing from the Paris Accord.  I wrote a blog which contained two letters from gigantic corporations (Apple, Microsoft, Google, General Mills, BP, Shell, etc.) to encourage President Trump to stay in the Paris Agreement.  This letter along with others went unnoticed (it seemed) since there was no real effect -- especially regarding restoring America to the great place in the past.  One would think that investing in 'green' / 'sustainable' energy would be attractive -- seeing how other countries and businesses are offering trillions of dollars in investment opportunities.  Guess not?



Quickly after the G7 talks, a video surfaced in which President Jeane-Claude Juncker of the European Commission said that President Trump did not really understand the way that these negotiations really worked (no surprise there).  I included the video in a blog post which can be found here.  Before that video surfaced here in the United States, I should highlight the outrage of the world at President Trump withdrawing the United States from the Paris Agreement.  First, the citizens of the U.S. were outraged as noted in the following blog post.  Second,



Furthermore, with just under a month remaining until world leaders would gather at the G20 in Hamburg (Germany) to discuss world issues - one of which would be the Paris Agreement.  One was left to ask - what good could come out of the Hamburg G20 summit with the withdrawal of the United States from the Paris Agreement?  Frankly, not much without leadership from our President with an open ear regarding the world and the future direction of the majority of the world represented by their respective leaders.  A sad situation existed to say the least.

Looking Toward The Future?

Over the last six months, the leadership (President and Congress) has been headed toward reversing every environmental step forward accomplished by the previous administration.  This in of itself is astounding.  Congress has managed to pass the "HONEST Act" which makes the incorporation of scientific data more difficult due to privacy laws.  A real "Dishonest Act" as it should be known.  The President has taken us down a road headed for the past (60 years ago) when regulations were not put in place to protect the citizens and the environment in which we live.  But all is not lost.



In the last few months, Congress has stepped up and made a couple of stances on "climate science" which are notable.  Recently, while trimming down President Trump's outrageous budget for the fiscal year, cuts were being made to basic science.  Amazingly enough, there was a bipartisan defense of basic research (thank goodness).  On top of that amazing defense to save basic research funding, a republican senator tried to rid the Department of Defense of the words "climate change" to defund any such research in support of the atmosphere (in general).  I wrote a blog post regarding the amazing stance that republicans took to "shoot down" their colleague in order to keep these words in the official documents -- meaning that republicans do believe in Climate Change -- Thank goodness.  Funding is a different issue.  For the time being, I can live with this.



Heading into the future, the responsibility lies on each of us to write our respective elected representatives and express concern regarding voting positions taken when crucial issues (i.e. our environment) emerge.  Keep speaking out on important issues which could adversely impact not just you or me but the world in general.  After all, the planet is shared by all of us.