Loren: Life goes on without Trump

Sen. Loren Legarda slammed American president Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw the United States from the Paris Agreement.

“By this withdrawal, the United States has turned its back on the future. It puts a spotlight on a belligerent leadership that refuses to heed the voices of people, including his own, who are gravely threatened by the perils of climate change and global warming,” she told media persons at the Pan de Sal forum of Kamuning Bakery and Café Monday. 

Monday being World Environment Day, the chair of the Senate committee on climate change, finance and foreign relations, said it was “ironic that there are people, leaders like Mr. Trump, who are disconnected with nature, disconnected with the reality that climate change not only endangers the future but is actually a threat to our survival now.”

It has taken many years for the Paris Agreement, or Paris Climate Accord to be adopted by consensus on Dec. 12, 2015. The agreement deals with greenhouse gas emissions mitigation, adaptation and finance starting in the year 2020. 

As of June 2017, 195 members of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) have signed the agreement. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, who had initially tarried on giving his nod, ratified it, to many environmentalists’ relief. Only two countries refuse to ratify it, Syria and Nicaragua.

Article 2 of the accord enhances the implementation of the UNFCC by, among others, “Holding the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2?C above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5?C above pre-industrial levels, recognizing that this would significantly reduce the risks and impacts of climate change,” and increasing “the ability to adapt to the adverse impacts of climate change and foster climate resilience and low greenhouse gas emissions development, in a manner that does not threaten food production.”

Countries, according to the agreement, aim to reach “global peaking of greenhouse gas emissions as soon as possible.” The agreement has been described as “an incentive for and driver of fossil fuel divestment.” 

The Paris deal is the world’s first comprehensive climate agreement.

In short, the agreement calls for countries’ cutting down on emissions emanating from the use of fossil fuels, including coal, and adopting alternative sources of energy.

Trump sees the agreement as disadvantageous to the US economy and “a massive redistribution of United States wealth to other countries.”

At the Kamuning Bakery forum, Legarda nixed Trump’s suggestion that the Paris accord be amended to give the US fair treatment. No way, she said; global leaders have labored over the agreement for decades, and no one man can change it to meet his demands.

The senator echoes former US Secretary of State John Kerry’s dismay over Trump’s decision. He has been quoted as saying, “For a president to follow that historic step forward by unilaterally walking backwards from science and backwards from leadership on behalf of polluters and fringe ideologues may be the most self-defeating action in American history.”

An architect of the Paris climate accord, Kerry said, “America has unilaterally ceded global leadership on this issue, which for years even Republican presidents. . . pushed in this direction.” He called to mind former president Barack Obama’s use of his executive power to enter into the agreement, rather than seek its ratification by the US Senate. 

I thought Trump’s decision hit former US Vice-President Al Gore with a hammer. Mr. Gore and Senator Legarda have appeared in fora held in Manila and other venues; he is a champion of environmental causes. Kerry said Gore had tried to persuade Trump to keep the US in the agreement. 

Senator Legarda felt appalled about climate deniers, “even with the evident effects of climate change already happening all over the world.”

She said that sea level rise as a result of global warming is threatening to submerge small island nations like Kiribati, Marshall Islands and the Maldives. Around 20 percent of the global population, or approximately 1.3 billion people live in areas that may be directly affected by sea level rise. In the Philippines, at risk are 64 coastal provinces, 822 coastal municipalities, 25 major coastal cities and approximately 13.6 million Filipinos that need to be relocated away from danger zones.

Legarda said that ocean acidification is causing irreversible damage to coral reefs. With global warming of up to 2?C, 98 percent of coral reefs will die by 2050. A World Bank study shows that this would cause decrease in marine fish capture by about 50 percent in the southern Philippines by the year 2050.

Extreme weather events have brought so much destruction and claimed so many lives. She mentioned the wrath of typhoons in the Philippines, the killer floods in cities, the most devastating disasters that hit the US.

“If there is a silver lining following this announcement from Mr. Trump, it is the re-affirmation issued by other responsible leaders on their commitment to keep fighting against global warming. We applaud this honorable gesture.”

So many legislators and industrial leaders in the United States and other countries have expressed displeasure over Trump’s exit from climate change responsibilities. The governors of a number of states in the US said they will pursue their own programs to mitigate climate change.

Former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger took the first jab by his concern about Trump’s departure from the Paris climate agreement. “One man cannot destroy our progress,” he told ATTN, an issues-driven media company. “One man can’t stop our clean energy revolution. And one man can’t go back in time – only I can do that.” (Here Schwarzennegger is citing his Terminator role.)

Brad Smith, president of Microsoft Corp., said in a lengthy statement Thursday that the technology giant was “disappointed” with Trump’s decision.

“We believe that continued US participation benefits US businesses and the economy in important and multiple ways,” he said. “We remain steadfastly committed to the sustainability, carbon and energy goals that we have set as a company and to the Paris Agreement’s ultimate success. Our experience shows us that these investments and innovations are good for our planet, our company, our customers and the economy.”

Twitter Inc. chief executive Jack Dorsey called Trump’s decision to pull the out of the Paris agreement an “incredibly shortsighted move backwards by the federal government.”

Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey told a crowd that Trump’s decision could actually hurt American jobs in a growing clean energy sector.

Saving the planet is the major concern of right-thinking individuals, and that goes for you and me as we heed Senator Legarda’s advice that we practice good climate change habits.

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