I am an environmentalist and was outraged by yesterday´s news. Are you outraged of Trump withdrawing from the Paris agreement as well? Maybe its not that bad after all:
Since the Paris Agreement was never a mandatory contract of any sort the current administration would not have actively done anything to reach these goals of COP21 anyway. In fact Trump already proposed or made cuts to the EPA.
The Paris Agreement is symbolic, as important as that is, but it was never mandatory. The US withdrawing sends, in fact, an awful message out to the world. But remember whether he had withdrawn or not, he and his administration would not have done anything regarding climate change anyway, because they wouldn't have had to.
So maybe the fact he did, is actually not that bad, since governments around the world now are reassuring their commitment. They are pointing fingers which in return might leave them responsible to take action themselves? The hope is for the next administration to take this issue seriously and do a lot more than the Paris agreement actually asks for. But the republican senate would not have done anything anyways.
On another note: there is only so much a government can do to not piss their voters off, except, what it seems like, in the case of Trump. You as an individual have tremendous power over your personal footprint which is what at the end it´s boiling down to. If you decide to eat less meat, go vegetarian or vegan you will have tremendously decreased your green house gas footprint. Going vegan is the most effective and most impactful step an individual can take to save the planet on so many levels. E.g. rainforest destruction, bio diversity loss, water usage, land use, ocean dead zones, climate change and so much more. For example did you know that meat and dairy production produce more greenhouse gases than all planes, trucks and cars combined? Even if we switched to 100% renewable energy, the 2°C target would still be unrealisable, unless we significantly reduce our consumption of animal products.
Please watch "Cowspiracy" on Netflix to get informed of the enormity of this issue. If you dont know how to approach such a switch in diet, comment down below and ill help you out.
