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Meteorologist: Textbooks will remember Trump with ‘contempt’ for pulling out of Paris Climate Accord

Is pulling out of the Paris Climate Accord actually ‘meaningless?’ One meteorologist says yes.

Photo of Andrew Wyrich

Andrew Wyrich

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A meteorologist gained the attention of hundreds of Twitter users on Wednesday morning when he dug into President Donald Trump’s reported decision to pull out of the Paris Climate Accord.

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Trump’s alleged decision—first reported by Axios, but not yet confirmed by the White House—will take America out of the landmark agreement that 195 other nations signed to help keep the Earth’s temperature below catastrophic levels, invest $100 billion each year to help mitigate effects of climate change, and lower greenhouse gas emissions.

It is agreed among nearly all climate scientists that the Earth is warming due to a human-made increase of greenhouse gasses.

Eric Holthaus, a meteorologist, drew attention on Twitter Wednesday when he railed against Trump’s alleged decision to pull out of the agreement—a move that appears to be made on the grounds that it negatively affects the U.S. economy.

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“The thing about the Paris agreement that Trump & [company] don’t understand (or maybe understand perfectly) is that all commitments are voluntary,” Holthaus began his series of tweets. “That means withdrawal from Paris is essentially meaningless, except to destroy [international] goodwill. Today Trump said to the world: ‘fuck you.’”

Holthuas then pointed to an article that appeared to show other nations agreeing that they will have to be stronger in light of the United States—one of the biggest emitters of greenhouse gasses—and said Trump is on the “wrong side of history” when it comes to climate change.

“Future textbooks will remember him with contempt,” Holthaus wrote.

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Holthaus pointed out that even North Korea signed onto the Paris Climate Accord, highlighting how out-of-touch pulling out makes the United States seem to the rest of the world.

Holthaus also showed that Nicaragua, which did not sign the accords because they thought it was not strong enough, is on pace for “90 percent renewable energy by 2020.”

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Holthaus ended his stream of tweets by asking people to “talk about” climate change in an effort to bring attention to the issue and help “preserve the habitability of the only planet we have.”

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You can read all of Holthaus’s tweets below:

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The Daily Dot