Editor’s note: The views expressed by guest columnists are not necessarily those of The Costa Rica Star, its advertisers, or its staff. 

By Britt Nelson

The worldwide uproar over President Donald Trump’s decision to pull the USA out of the United Nations sponsored Paris Climate Accord is mostly due to two reasons – one the loss of trillions of dollars overtime to help other countries clean up their own pollution and two the continued erosion of former President Obama’s legacy.

The Paris Climate Accord was signed in Paris in 2015 by 195 nations around the world. So far 148 nations have signed and ratified the agreement, while another 47 countries have not made a final commitment to the accord. Only Syria and Nicaragua have neither signed nor ratified the accord.

The main purpose of the agreement is to set specific goals with time limits to globally reduce greenhouse gases like exhaust fumes from cars, trucks, trains and airplanes; coal-burning electrical power generators and other industrial smokestack pollution. Sounds simple enough but none of this agreement is enforceable because it’s 100-percent voluntary. It’s nothing more than ink on paper – no country will be forced to reach their goal and no country can be punished for not reducing their emissions. But to the American tax payer it amounts to a blank check in yet another big time U.S. Federal Government giveaway and that’s why foreign leaders are flipping out by having to say goodbye to free money from the USA. So far the USA has paid $1 billion in cold hard cash to the accord, but no other country has, according to Wikipedia.

In a related matter, USA tax payers already pay out $2.93 million every hour in U.S. Foreign Aid to other countries which totaled $43 billion in 2016, according to NationalPriorties.org. It’s time to pull the plug on Foreign Aid, as well.

The Democrats and their co-conspirator mainstream media are hitting President Trump and his team hard over this ‘pull out’ decision which really is a no brainer using basic cost-benefit analysis, which Democrats don’t comprehend. They just can’t stand to see their hero former President Obama diminished in any way.

President Trump keeps saying this Paris Climate Accord is up for a total renegotiation, but numerous European leaders are pushing back saying the matter will not be renegotiated and it stands as written. With the USA out of the agreement, the world’s other big time polluters – United Kingdom, China, Russia and India – will have little or no incentive to clean up their environments because the USA will no longer pay the bill. According to the agreement — the UK, China, Russia and India have many years before their emission reduction goals were even to begin. With no enforcement they will do nothing different. But these countries and their neighbors are suffering from intolerable air and water pollution inflicted upon their citizens.

“In order to fulfill my solemn duty to protect America and its citizens, the United States will withdraw from the one-sided Paris Climate Accord,” said President Trump last week in Washington. “We will no longer be robbed at the expense of the American worker. We are putting America first.”

Right after President Trump’s announcement to withdraw from the accord the Dow Jones stock market on Friday hit an all-time record high of 21,206 in an obvious statement of business-sector agreement with this decision.

The climate change argument is a two-sided sword. Of course emission pollution cannot be good for the environment. It has been going on since the beginning of the USA’s Industrial Revolution more than 140 years ago that spread worldwide. It all needs to stop. Those that say climate change is a “hoax” are wrong. But the Earth’s climate has changed many times throughout the history of this planet. Alaska used to be a lush-tropical environment hence their vast underground oil fields.

The Paris Climate Accord is as useless as the United Nations organization that sponsored it.

It’s up to each and every country to ‘go green’ on their own accord, for example Germany and Costa Rica. Both these counties are very close to using 100-percent renewable energy sources to produce 100-percent of their electricity. They both are shining examples of what’s possible.

Governments should demand electric cars, trucks and buses replace the internal combustion engines, diesels, too. Costa Rica is starting to use hydrogen powered buses for public transportation. All countries should make much greater use of water, wind, solar and thermal power to replace all fossil-fuel usage. Eliminate home furnaces that use heating oil, coal or natural gas. No more plastic bags. No more fracking under the Earth’s surface to release natural gas. Completely redesign jet airplane engines to no longer burn fossil-based jet fuel. How about nuclear-powered cruise ships? These changes alone would make a difference to the survival of the only planet we all share. We are all in this together and to think otherwise is brain-dead stupid. Old technology got us in this mess to begin with and new technology will get us out.

Here’s an analogy about why those other counties are screaming at President Trump for cutting off the Paris Climate Accord funding.

Many of us have had that rich uncle that always pays for dinner. Let’s call him Uncle Sam. When Uncle Sam is in town he takes everyone out for dinner every night during his annual visit to see the family. Everyone eats and drinks whatever they want on Uncle Sam’s credit card laughing all through dinner. Then one year Uncle Sam shows up again, but he’s a bit down on his luck. At the restaurant Uncle Sam asks for someone else to pay for dinner because he’s over extended his bank account and nearly broke. Everyone gets offended and goes home leaving Uncle Sam to fare for himself. It’s the same thing with this Paris Climate Accord.

About the Author

Britt Nelson relocated to Costa Rica in 2011 from Florida, where he served as news editor for the Palatka Daily News, a newspaper owned by the New York Times Regional Newspaper Group (NYT-RNG) for 20 years.

Nelson served the NYT-RNG for 18 years in Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, North Carolina and Florida as a correspondent, reporter, staff writer, senior staff writer training new reporters, copy editor, page designer, editorial writer, editorial page editor and editorial board member.