On: Withdrawing from Paris Climate Agreement

To Folks Who Identify as Trump Supporters:  Here is why you should be concerned with President Trump's withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement and it has nothing to do with climate change.

I get it it, it feels good to flip the bird to all those European countries who, it seems, still think they're smarter than us and to all the climate change alarmists who make us feel like the world is ending tomorrow. That can drive me nuts too.

Here's the problem, the rest of the world is moving in the direction of adapting to climate change and adopting solutions to the challenges it presents. Their economies, their scientific research and development, their energy industries, their manufacturing industries, their national defense and many other aspects. To be sure, the United States can probably catch up and take the lead in this race if and when we want. But the competition is on now. The Paris Agreement was the framework for the rules of that game. I hear you...screw all those other countries. We're America and we do what we want. This is different though. Trump pulling the United States out of the Paris Agreement is like the New York Yankees leaving MLB because they don't like the salary cap -- who would they play? The winningest team in baseball history would be a team without a league. We're not the best if we are alone.

To Folks Who Identify as Republicans or Conservatives: Preserving and advancing American's position of power on the international stage has been central to your value systems for generations. You're hawks and liberals and Democrats are doves. Building and advancing the American economy and putting jobs first has been another tenent of your values. How does withdrawing from one of, not the only of course, but one of the major fields of battle for economic and international power help us advance our position of dominance in the world? How does going in the opposite direction of innovation, which brings jobs and wealth, a good thing.

To Folks Who Identify as Liberals, Progressives or Democrats: Calm down. This is not the end. It takes a few years to completely disentangle ourselves from the Paris Agreement. This is definitely bad because it is a step back from progress made and it sends the wrong signal to weaker nations who read our actions to set their direction. With that said, Trump's credibility on the world stage isn't great. His decision to withdrawal will be interpreted by some countries as foolish, further evidence they should ignore him.

However, we need to learn an important thing: many people in this country don't like things like the Paris Climate Agreement and countering their opinion with more facts and trying to paint a more vivid dark picture of the threat of climate change isn't going to open any minds. We have aren't smarter than people who don't like the Paris Agreement, we just have a different opinion, even if we are armed with facts. Facts don't matter for things like this. Stories do.

There is a race to lead the world in sustainable energy solutions. Just like there was a race in the industrial era in the late 1800's, in the medical field starting in the early 1900's, in militarization in WWII and post-war, the space race, in the financial services in the 1920's and then again in the 1980's and onward, in technology and software in the 1990's through today, and, of course, in fossil fuels starting with coal in the 1800's to oil today, economies can evolve and grow tremendously during these races. Or,  economies can stall and decline. There are winners and losers in race. America has either won or basically tied with a few other countries in all these races. If sustainable energy isn't the next big economic race, what is? It's not fossil fuels. Those are diminishing. What's the next American economic boom story going to be if we're not in the sustainable energy race?