Never mind that most Americans as well as many businesses and Republicans wanted the United States not to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement. Now that Donald Trump has decided to withdraw from it anyway, Fox News is there to cheerlead.
In case you can't get to your TV, the top of FoxNews.com gets the message across, despite a few nods toward balance:
On Your World, that noted climate expert (not), John Bolton endorsed Trump’s “excellent decision.”
Bolton sneered that the climate agreement is “a self-licking ice cream cone.”
Despite his lack of climate science credentials, Bolton announced that the agreement “really would’ve had next to no effect” short term, but that there was “danger” in the long term. “The overall effect on climate by any reputable scientific analysis is zero,” he dubiously insisted. “Why would anybody agree to something like that because of the failure of the predecessor agreements - Kyoto and Copenhagen.”
According to Fox’s newest climate expert, the agreement was really a stealth way of subsuming our country to “global governance.” He said, “We could be dealing with global cooling here, if the objective were to put more carbon emissions in the atmosphere to increase the Earth’s temperature, these people would be arguing for the same structures, because their overall objective is more international governance.”
Expect more Fox News cheerleading to come.
Meanwhile, watch Bolton play a climate expert on TV below, from the June 1, 2017 Your World.
*paranoia (the rest of the world is out to “get us”) … boo hoo. What’s happened to America’s famous “can do” mentality?
*victimism 1) (the rest of the world is “getting us”, ignoring the fact that America is still the largest economy in the world),
*victimism 2) (the rest of the world is laughing at us: I actually agree but it’s because there’s a clown in the Oval Office. In any case, the immediate sequel to every guffaw is preoccupation: this guy is volatile, unreliable, a bully, selfish, disconnected from reality, etc. etc.)
*allarmism: the Paris Accord is based on mutual trust and entirely voluntary, with each country promising to do it’ best to set maximum but realistic goals … It had no teeth so the withdrawal was for the cameras. Full stop.)
*rank/wilful ignorance (the USA is the second greatest producer of carbon emissions, right after China, and even Russia has confirmed its commitment to the Paris Accord. Only two countries have not signed it: Syria because they’ve got a war on their hands and Nicaragua who wanted a pact with sharper teeth) The USA has become a rogue state in the eyes of the whole world!
*partial/alternative facts (160,000 coal jobs vs over 450,000 jobs in alternative energy sources; the USA is not leading the world in the struggle against climate change because it remains the second largest polluter on the planet),
*selfishness/lack of generosity (as in IGM-FU), reversing over a half century of actions inspired by the idea that peace is fostered by a willingness to collaborate in making the world a better place. Methinks we’re in for a trade war if not actually a military one and even NATO is wondering if it should get involved).
In short, I feel that the address reflected a totally un-Christian (me only), un-American (anti-historical) position. I trustthat the rest of the world and many players within the USA (states like California and cities like Pittsburgh) will prevent this from becoming the worst political decision in history.
I’m seriously depressed … and totally embarrassed by a country that I – and many in Europe – used to count as my/our second home. I guess it’s time for us to grow up and cut the ombelical cord that has tied us to the USA since the American revolution.