Trump galvanizes support for Paris Accord?

[ by Charles Cameron — blowback (unintended consequence) i’m happy to see ]

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Trump galvanizes support for Paris Accord? That at least is what Gov. Jerry Brown of California believes just happened: President Trump‘s decision to withdraw from the Paris Climate Accord is a “very misguided action” which will “act as a catalyst to galvanize the people of California and, I would say, of the whole world, to do the right thing in getting us on a path of sustainability.”

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Two quick quotes:

I certainly don’t think Trump, in his statement toiday is the last word — far from it. This is a temporary deviation from the norm, the world norm, and it will be corrected. How soon? I don’t know..

Trump is going to act as the null hypothesis. He’s demonstrating that climate denial has no integrity and no future, and the opposite, climate activism, is the order of the day,

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Here’s the full context:

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We are, I think, used to the pattern of blowback in the negative sense, as when news of the abuses at Abu Ghraib feeds into AQ recruitment — here we have, from my POV at least, an example of (possible, plausible) positive blowback, with a damn foolish action on the President’s part rousing a contrary movement for the good of planet and humankind.

There’s something in all this that Chuang Tzu would relish, at least when not taking himself for a butterfly.

  1. zen:

    Unconsciously, Trump has trained his enemies to have a Pavlovian response.

  2. Charles Cameron:

    And now this, from WaPo:

    Trump’s Paris decision was an accidental call to action
    .
    A curious thing happened on President Trump’s way out of the Paris climate accord. American mayors, governors, corporate leaders and others immediately committed to meeting the agreement’s terms anyway.

  3. Grurray:

    This is a good sign. Important decisions should always be made at the most local level possible due to the unavoidable friction of rent seekers and bureaucratic inef­ficiencies. If Ann Arbor, Berkeley, and Cambridge, Mass want to reduce their carbon emissions, than good luck and Godspeed. Let’s even help them along by eliminating the footprint of tax payer dollars to their institutions. We can all do our part.