Trump's order signals end of US dominance in climate change battle
Source: The Guardian, by Damian Carrington
Is Donald Trump’s determination to send US climate change policy back into the dark ages an “existential threat to the entire planet”, as the architect of many of Barack Obama’s green measures warns? Or is global momentum towards a cleaner, safer future “unstoppable”, as the UN’s climate chief said recently?
The answer lies somewhere in between and you can choose your point on that scale according to your optimism about whether society, governments and businesses will together rise to the challenge of beating global warming.
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China, the world’s biggest polluter, is now taking dramatic action to cut emissions, pushed by the foul air many of its citizens suffer and pulled by the likelihood of the low-carbon economy being the greatest growth story of the 21st century.
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It is doubtful that Trump’s blitzkrieg on “bullshit” climate change will herald the end of civilisation. But, given the issue’s critical importance for all nations and their unprecedented cooperation to date, it might just signal the end of the US’s dominance as the world’s pre-eminent political and economic power, with others taking up the mantle. Trump’s campaign pledge was “Make America great again” – his legacy could be “Made China great again”.
Read it all at: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/mar/28/trump-climate-change-executive-order-us-dominance-china?utm_source=Fareed%27s+Global+Briefing&utm_campaign=1fb6eb3305-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_03_28&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_6f2e93382a-1fb6eb3305-83261917