by Dr. H. Sterling Burnett
One year after the US pulled out of the Paris Climate Accord, Earth is still here, and new evidence shows, alarmists’ claims to the contrary, the United States continues to lead the world in reducing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.
When President Donald Trump
announced he was pulling the United States out of the Paris Climate
Accord in June 2017, left-wing environmentalists around the globe were
apoplectic. From Canada to China and throughout Europe, Asia, and
Brazil, the world denounced Trump’s decision as recklessly contradicting
“settled science.” Without the Paris Agreement, they argued, Earth
would soon find itself cascading off the global warming cliff.
One year later,
Earth is still here, and new evidence shows, alarmists’ claims to the
contrary, the United States continues to lead the world in reducing
carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.
According to a June report by BP measuring
global CO2 emissions from the use of oil, gas, and coal, the United
States reduced its CO2 emissions by 41.8 million tons, marking the third
consecutive year Americans’ CO2 emissions fell. From 2006 to 2016, the
United States slashed its CO2 emissions by about 12 percent, BP reports.
The decade-long decline in
U.S. CO2 emissions is attributable primarily to the increased
consumption of natural gas relative to other forms of energy.
In the wake of America’s
declining CO2 emissions, dire predictions of Armageddon are just another
example of global warming alarmists’ fearmongering. Leaders of
countries big and small criticized Trump for keeping his campaign
promise and withdrawing the United States from the Paris Climate Accord.
Yet in 2017, just a year after Paris, many of these leaders presided
over countries that emitted millions of tons of additional carbon
dioxide emissions, illustrating clearly the hypocrisy and utter
impotency of the accord.
China, for example,
increased its CO2 emissions in 2017 by 119 million tons—the most in the
world—despite its alleged commitment to the Paris Accord.
French President Emmanuel
Macron previously castigated Trump for pulling out of the Paris
Agreement, stating, “I tell you firmly tonight: we will not renegotiate a
less ambitious accord. There is no way. Don’t be mistaken on climate:
there is no plan B because there is no planet B.” Apparently, however,
there was a plan B: a plan in which France jacked up its CO2 emissions
by 5.5 million tons.
According to The Guardian,
Izabella Teixeira, who led Brazil’s negotiating team in Paris,
described Trump’s decision to pull out of the Paris Agreement as a
“heart attack.” Perhaps a heart attack is in the offing, but it won’t
happen because of the United States’ CO2 emissions. On the other hand,
Brazil’s record, where the largest carbon dioxide emitter on the South
American continent raised its CO2 emissions by 4.7 million tons in 2017
alone and by approximately 32 percent over the past decade, would bear
some responsibility for the “heart attack” Teixeira predicted.
The Canadian government
might deserve the crown for being the world’s biggest CO2 charlatan.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau criticized the Trump administration’s
decision to leave the Paris Accord, saying he was “deeply disappointed”
while crowing for the world to hear, “Canada is unwavering in our
commitment to fight climate change and support clean economic growth.”
Canada then proceeded to emit 17 million additional tons of CO2 in 2017
compared to 2016. Is the definition of “unwavering” that different north of the U.S. border?
Sadly, hypocrisy is more
the rule rather than the exception in politics. All too often, “leaders”
pontificate on positive reform while hesitating to take the substantial
actions necessary to fix big problems. Consider immigration or the
social safety net for retirees, for example. In this instance, however,
the fact the Paris climate cabal leaders’ actions don’t match their
words is a blessing, because the world is much better with the
affordable energy generated by fossil fuels and the tremendous economic,
social, and public health benefits they have delivered for more than
two centuries. Cutting carbon dioxide emissions by the amount necessary
under the Paris Agreement would take developed countries back to the
economic standards of the nineteenth century and blunt the economic and
social progress in several developing countries. Nothing could be more
foolish or misguided than that.
- Guest essayist Justin Haskins and H. Sterling Burnett. Haskins is an executive editor and research fellow with The Heartland Institute.
SOURCES: BP; The Guardian; Fox News
Source: https://www.heartland.org/publications-resources/newsletters/climate-change-weekly?utm_source=iContact&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=memo-environment&utm_content=CCW
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