America's Day of Shame

     Last year, a wise American president, a man with foresight and vision, made the following statement.

     The United States, the world's largest polluter signed on to the Paris Climate Agreement along with every other nation in the world save two, Syria and Nicaragua.

     Today, Donald Trump, in an act of unbridled criminal aggression against the rest of the world, announced his plan to withdraw from this agreement, signalling an end to any pretense that the United States might still claim leadership of the free world. As Dan Rather, a distinguished American journalist, has stated so succinctly, "greed, cynicism, shortsightedness and ignorance triumphed over intelligence and leadership."
     The world will move on, Mr Trump. America will be left behind as other nations develop an economy based on clean technology and environmental stewardship.
     There are many who have postulated that the decline and fall of America had begun before today's announcement; the precipitous slope has just been greased. The United States has abdicated all claim to leadership and has ceded the moral high ground to Europe and China, with other emerging nations not far behind.
     Our own Prime Minister has stated that Canada will not waver in its commitment to environmental amelioration, although it will be more difficult to keep greenhouse gas levels down following Trump's decision today.

     Rather than enhancing America's prosperity Trump has embarked on a course which will diminish it. The rejection of science, the acceptance of an antiquated view of the world, coupled with the brilliant minds and acceptance of the dangers to human health and the environment by other nations, can only signal disaster for America.

     Time is running out for the only home we have. It is high time a few republicans in congress grow a spine and put the future of the earth and the welfare of their children ahead of partisan politics.

     This is not a time for business as usual and I urge my fellow Canadians to boycott travel to the United States. How can anyone, in good conscience visit that country and spend their hard-earned money there? How much do we wish to enhance the prosperity of a country that has just committed so heinous an act? It is time for Canadians to act; the time for mere outrage has passed.
     To those Americans who did not vote for Trump, who do not condone his recklessness, know that we are with you. Next year perhaps you can reverse the current state of republican domination of the entire political structure of your country and get it back on a track that accepts evidence over ideology. Much damage has been done with today's decision, but a more enlightened leadership could at least chart a course where the world will once again be your friend. Right now you have nothing but enemies. Angela Merkel is not alone when she says the time has come when America cannot be relied on.
     It is indeed a sad day for the world.