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Originally Posted by Anteater
1. It really isn't of any consequence. Other than our GDP and obesity rates, what does the U.S. actually "excel at" over other countries right now? If your looking for the latest and greatest in environmental technology, most of that isn't being developed here. The only thing we can really boast about is that it's easier to establish a successful small business here than, say, Ireland or Germany.
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^ This point is something of a red herring isn't it? The real reason that Trump's decision is significant is this: with approx 2% of the world population, the USA generates approx 20%
* of the world's carbon emissions. In terms of pollution per capita, America is one of the dirtiest countries on the planet. That's why America's presence at the Paris Agreement table is significant, and that's why people are calling Trump's decision "immoral." He's leaving the planet to pay the ecological bill so that his prefered industries can have an easy ride.
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* on tv last night I heard a figure of 30%, this morning I read a figure of 15%, so take your pick!)
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2. The point of posting that anon message was to show there's two sides to every story. The truth is somewhere between the "cherry picked" opinions of the liberal elite and what was described in that post. Both sides have their respective agendas, and there's a lot of $$$ at stake. My opinion is a compromise between two extremes that each hold part of the truth.
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^ Thank you for the insight that there are two sides to every story. I don't know why you subjected us to an anonymous rant against a non-existent "Church of Climate Change" in order to make such an elementary point.
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3. The Internet would have never made it to the public without private enterprises who were willing to develop the things most people take for granted (like UX and UI related advances). Otherwise we'd still be stuck with massive magnetic tape mainframes in countless warehouses and we'd have a population far less educated about the internet that we do now (if things had gone a little differently). We all owe a big debt of gratitude to Tim Berners-Lee and others in that space for that.
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^ Much of Tim Berners-Lee's work on the internet was done when he worked at CERN - in fact CERN boasts the world's very first web address. CERN is a project of international cooperation established by the governments of many European countries; it's not a private enterprise. Thus you seem to have undermined the point you were trying to make, unless you are taking the difficult-to-defend position that CERN would ever afterwards be content with "massive magnetic tape mainframes in countless warehouses" if private enterprise had not come to their rescue.
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4. The advances you are currently seeing in renewable energy research (especially the solar boom) are all because of the deregulation of those industries. As in, government pulling away so that people have more choice in the market. Here in north Texas, for example, there are a mix of regulated / deregulated areas and providers. I happen to live in an area that still hasn't been deregulated, so I don't get to choose to get my power from a more environmentally friendly provider or even install solar without going through fifty mountains of paperwork and hassle.
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^ Don't know anything about regulation of US domestic industries, so I can't comment on this.