Note: I wrote this in November 2020, after US pulled out of the Paris Climate Agreement.

Increasingly I feel that Trump represents something far more insidious than what meets the eye. Not because he often comes across as a monkey with a machine gun. He is not, in my reading, the agent of malevolent chaos. He serves a purpose. Trump is where he is and doing what he does – because he has been propped there for one reason – As the ultimate opiate of the masses. He is the easy target. This bumbling covfefe. A blithering stooge we can’t stop obsessing with. Meanwhile the geo-political, socio-economic machines roll on with only a fraction of illumination they had before he came along. This is the age of 24 hour news cycles where world views are defined by news feed on hand held screens. Trump ensures our empathy and cognition is sated, gratified and fatigued before we even begin to question anything at all. So – The Paris Climate Agreement I am not surprised that 99% of column inches and secondages have been devoted to Trump’s withdrawal yesterday. However, where is the debate on the agreement itself? It is by no means a perfect accord as far as multi-national agreements go, granted. It is however a flawed agreement in itself. Case in point, this critique from the NEW SCIENTIST from 2015 (https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn28663-paris-climate-deal-is-agreed-but-is-it-really-good-enough/) OR this one by POLITICO.EU ( http://www.politico.eu/article/paris-climate-deal-is-meaningless-cop21-emissions-china-obama/) OR if you have the time and inclination, this very indepth analysis by the university of OSLO, pdf warning, (https://www.uio.no/english/research/interfaculty-research-areas/globalgov/working-papers/2016/oslo-globalgov-academy-cop21ws-working-paper-2016-1.pdf). In the end, someone like Corben or Macron pulling out (sorry) would have generated a lot more debate. I am sure of it. Therein lies the problem. Trump’s withdrawal was dastardly. The job of the educated us is not to just chuckle and roll our eyes at him or trade memes and make rehashed jokes ( his dad should have pulled out, for one). Our duty, our burden, is to stick to the issue. And debate the issue. The paris accord will fall short. Like the Kyoto protocol. There is a new beast at work – Climate Economics. And past Climate burden. And the coming Climate Refugee crisis. Nothing has been addressed. This agreement is cotton wool. And no one is talking about it. If I had the weight of US presidency behind me, I would have pulled out of this too. And forced a different agreement in place. One that has punitive riders, one that makes clean energy tech patent free, one that has different standards for developed and developing countries – and one that ties into national treasuries. More importantly, I urge all my friends to not get distracted by this clown. There is a sub plot in this play we need to look out for. P.s. Trump signed 90 executive orders in the first 100 days. By contrast, Obama signed 277 in 8 years. Did we hear or read about them?