When Mr Trump was elected President of the US a friend from America wrote ‘We live in dark times.’ Little did I realise just how dark they were going to be. When Trump pulled the US out of the historic Paris Climate Agreement of 2015, it shows that we live in dark times. After all the US is the world’s largest carbon polluter and should be leading the way to bring about a reduction. Mc Kibben commented: ‘This makes 200 years of science and 20 years of diplomacy blown up by an ignorant man.’
This was Trump giving the two fingers to Pope Francis who only a few weeks ago asked him to consider his plea for action in his Letter to the World, ‘Laudato Si –on care of our common home’.
It makes it all the more important that people organise at a local level to continue to work for climate justice. We need to take steps to educate our parishes, advocate in our local communities and speak up to our leaders. We need to work with others to protect our common home. Pope Francis tweeted, “Through the darkness of today’s conflicts every one of us can become a bright candle, a reminder that light will overcome darkness.”
I received the following message from a spokesperson for 350.org in the US, Duncan Meisel: “Yesterday(June 1,2017) Donald Trump made one of the most dishonest and immoral speeches by an American President ever, withdrawing from the Paris Agreement and putting the profits of fossil fuel billionaires ahead of every other person on the planet. As he was speaking we were outside the White House with brass horns, drums, pots and pans, making all the noise we could to disrupt his announcement (he had to get a jazz band to try to drown us out). As soon as he was finished, we stood with thousands of allies outside his gates to deliver hundreds of thousands of messages of support for Paris from across the planet.
Very few people are following Trump’s lead today. World leaders — from Europe, China, India, the Pacific, Africa and beyond — say they are sticking with the Paris Agreement. Many US politicians are joining them. Big companies that pledged to go 100% renewable are sticking to their commitments. The damage Trump is doing is real. But the response will be bigger than anything he imagined.
Thank you for adding your name to this push. We delivered your message to the White House yesterday, and next week we’re also sharing it with the UN so that world leaders other than Trump get it as well. This is a critical moment to bring people into the movement — can you share this call to action with your social networks now?
The costs of climate change in terms of lives, homes and the economy are staggering. The fossil fuel industry contributes to millions of deaths a year. Meanwhile, the benefits of action are so clear: in the US, more people work in renewables than coal, oil and gas combined, 10 million people are working in renewables worldwide, and cutting carbon pollution will give millions more a chance to avoid sickness or early death.
The action we need from every leader – in business, in politics, in every field – is indisputable. Commit to a target of 100% renewable energy, without delay. Stop building new fossil fuel projects. Divest from coal, oil and gas companies. Anything less means Trump’s agenda of fossil fuel greed wins, and the rest of us lose. The Paris Agreement happened because of the work of millions of people who fought to make climate action a priority for every nation on earth. Those people aren’t going anywhere — in fact, we’re only getting stronger, and louder. So if you are furious, frustrated or feeling let down today — please also remember that you are not alone, and that together, things we can do great.” (You can find out more from 350.org)
These are, indeed, dark times. The US is becoming the kind of extremely, even violently , divided society that the North was, 30 years ago.
A loud mouthed buffoon is leading an angry illiterate mob of well- armed self-described Christians, who fear the loss of their privileged position to the rabble, and each side has its own news sources and its own sacred cows, and the gulf between them widens daily, until the middle ground has been swallowed whole.