US president Donald Trump announced today that he will pull the country from the Paris climate agreement, the global community’s greatest effort to date to reduce the pollution that causes climate change.
“I was elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris,” Trump said. “I promise I would exit or renegotiate any deal which fails to serve America’s interest.”
Turns out the mayors of both Pittsburgh and Paris beg to differ with the president’s assessment.
In pledging to stick by the Paris agreement’s guidelines, Pittsburgh’s mayor, Bill Peduto, joins his counterparts in New York, Los Angeles, and several other large cities. He also took pains to point out that Pittsburgh did not, on the whole, vote for Trump (though he did win the swing state of Pennsylvania overall).
In an editorial, the city’s main newspaper, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, had implored the president to stick with the Paris deal. “If the United States pulls out of the Paris accord, it simply won’t have a place at the table to negotiate the future of energy production and consumption and its effect on economic development,” the board wrote. “The best interests of America lie inside this decision-making tent.”
The editors also no doubt had this picture in mind: