6690 Views

Abandoning The Paris Accord Means Abandoning The World

Abandoning The Paris Accord Means Abandoning The World
____________________________________________________________________________

Muqdisho  | QOL | June 03, 2017 — If nothing else, Donald Trump accomplished at least one big thing by withdrawing from the Paris Climate Accord. He gave the world the clearest possible demonstration of something Republicans have been aggressively proclaiming for years: American exceptionalism.

 With Trump’s June 1 announcement in the White House Rose Garden, the United States officially stands alone among the world’s industrial powers in dismissing the collective threat of climate change, willfully blind to the elementary truths of science, magnificently obtuse in the face of looming worldwide catastrophe. We’ve shown the world that we alone have the power to put the fate of the planet and its inhabitants in the hands of an ignorant, petulant child-man.

Not entirely alone, of course. We join two other countries, Syria and Nicaragua, to form a hardy little band of three that refuse to join the climate accord, defying the other 192 nations of the world. As our odd ménage a trois became apparent, numerous commentators were suggesting that America has put itself in unfamiliar and unseemly company.

But that suggestion underestimates the depth of America’s exceptionalism. After all, the Paris withdrawal isn’t the first time we’ve joined forces with unsavory outliers to defy a global consensus. Lest we forget, we are one of just three nations that have refused to ratify the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, alongside Somalia and South Sudan. In case you’re wondering, this is primarily due to opposition from America’s religious right who object to the treaty’s language criticizing corporal punishment.

There’s more: We’re one of just four nations, together with Swaziland, Lesotho and Papua New Guinea, that don’t promise paid maternity leave to mothers of newborns. We’re one of seven nations that have refused to ratify the U.N. Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, alongside Iran, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Tonga, Palau and the Vatican. We’re one of 13 nations that reject the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea, together with Iran, North Korea, Libya, El Salvador and a few others, including landlocked Afghanistan and Rwanda.

Source: Forward Logo

 

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Xafiiska Wararka Qaranimo Online | Mogadishu, Somalia

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Advertisement

_____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________

Share This Post

Post Comment