Monday, June 05, 2017

We Are Still In is grassroots activism by people with real money and power

Since Donald Trump vowed on June 1st to unilaterally pull America out of the Paris climate change agreement, there has been an unprecedented coalition of US state governors, city mayors, university presidents and company CEOs committed to meeting the USA's Paris targets.
In a remarkable show of solidarity and grass roots opposition to Trump's ill-advised policies, over 1,000 (and growing) states, cities, universities, investors and companies have joined together in an organization called We Are Still In, whose mandate and full membership list can be seen at its website. There is not much that Apple, Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Facebook, Twitter and SnapChat (to name just a few) can agree on, but climate change is clearly one of them. By participating in this initiative, all these organizations are declaring that they will continue to work to ensure the United States pursues ambitious climate targets, even as the Trump administration tries it's best to squash any such efforts.
Significantly, one of the first cities to sign up for the initiative was Pittsburgh, in a direct and unequivocal response to Donald Trump's claim that: "I was elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris". If that weren't enough, Pittsburgh is also part of the Mayors for 100% Clean Energy initiative organized by the Sierra Club.
And, when all's said and done, this does also reflect the will of the people. A recent ABC/Washington Post poll shows that Americans reject Trump's Paris agreement move by a margin of over 2 to 1. And the Gallup Daily poll on Trump's job approval in general is down to an all-time low of 37%.
The We Are Still In movement is being spearheaded by billionaire and ex-New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg, who is also putting his money where his mouth is by committing $15 million of his own money to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change Executive Secretariat.
Wow! It's amazing what can get done when someone with some real power and money gets the bit between their teeth, rather than the usual overworked and underpaid activists.

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