And yet the fallout has already started. When China and European countries align in condeming a US move, you know it's big.

TBH Anteater, I'm surprised to see you say that it's of little or no consequence whether the U.S. leads the effort to continue the expansion of renewable energy technologies.

Trump's decision to back out of the Paris Agreement is making headline news around the world, and I trust more the (yes, cherry-picked) opinions of these guys as to how important it is, than your suggestion that deciding what America's role will be is "of little or no consequence":-

Also, I don't understand why you post a message from an anonymous girl in a bikini who denegrates funding research into addressing climate change as a " shakedown...extracting billions of dollars of taxpayers' money", but then post your own opinion that the way to fight climate change is through "the continued expansion of renewable energy technologies."
Surely, the research of the former leads to the expansion of the latter. A recent example of this quite normal process might be the internet; original research funded by the taxpayer led to a technological expansion of considerable benefit to us all.
If the girl in the bikini is a friend of yours perhaps you'll ask her how she morally justifies scorning the cost of research while enjoying the benefits it brings.

Man, this is blowing up big time globaly. The guy appeased his 35% shrinking base while pissing on 190+ plus ally countries.

Countries now opposed to the Paris accord.

Syria
Nicaragua
United States

Wow! The USA has just joined a small club with a really embarrassing membership list. I wonder if they'll get invited to Mar-a-Lago to beef up their solidarity together.

And people wonder why we had Prohibition. Our rednecks are unionized.

To be fair, I think your rednecks have always brewed their own.

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.

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.

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.

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.

I hope we get taxed up the ass by every single country until we join everybody in Paris. I want this country to dip into the mud with only the strong keeping their heads above the dirt. Then, Trump can be publicly lynched, the middle of the country can be flamethrowered, and we can start anew with a brand new outlook on how to be a country.

I've never despised a person so much.

His chances of being re-elected in three years are looking ridiculously slim. Most of the independents who swung his way back in November will not give him the benefit of the doubt again. So you won't get a lynching, but you'll see the political equivalent of that in 2020.

Also, this is the best article I've read in quite a long time. And from Salon of all places.

Wake up, liberals: There will be no 2018 “blue wave,” no Democratic majority and no impeachment - Salon.com