June 4 (UPI) — Former Vice President Al Gore on Sunday described Donald Trump‘s decision last week to pull the United States out of the Paris climate accord as a “threat to humanity and bad for the U.S. position in global politics.”
“I think it was reckless,” Gore said on CNN’s State of the Union. “I think it was indefensible. It undermines America’s standing in the world. It threatens the ability of humanity to solve the climate crisis in time.”
Gore said he was disappointed he was unable to sway the president at Trump Tower in New York in December. At the time, Gore called their discussion “lengthy and very productive.”
The former vice president also met with Trump’s daughter, Ivanka, at the time and said he spoke with her special times since that meeting. Trump’s daughter was among those in the White House seeking for the U.S. to remain in the agreement. Instead Trump announced Thursday the United States will join only two nations — Syria and Nicaragua — in not backing the accord.
“I thought that he would come to his senses on it, but he didn’t,” Gore said.
Goren said leaving the agreement “interferes with their business plan.”
“The No. 1 fastest-growing job is wind power technician,” Gore said on ABC’s This Week. “The renewable energy sector and the sustainability revolution are the brightest spot for economic growth and prosperity in this country,” he said. “The rest of the world is moving forward. President Trump isolated the United States with this reckless and indefensible decision, but if he won’t lead, the American people will.”
Gore said backing out of the accord is indefensible.
“The administration comes off as tongue-tied and confused about the climate crisis because the truth is still inconvenient for the large carbon polluters,” said Gore, who won a Nobel Peace Prize and produced the climate documentary An Inconvenient Truth.
Trump has previously called climate change a “hoax” manufactured by the Chinese, and his aides have avoided questions about whether he still believes that conspiracy theory.
On Sunday, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt avoided answering a question from ABC’s George Stephanopoulos on whether the president believes that global temperatures are warming due to human activity — via carbon emissions — which is a consensus from scientists.
“Frankly, George, I think the whole question is an effort to get it off the point and the issue of whether Paris is good for this country or not,” Pruitt said. “And the president has indicated the climate changes.”
Gore said he is pleased to see others denouncing Trump’s stand.
“We’re now seeing governors and mayors and businesses and civic leaders really beginning to move regardless of what the White House says. … The American people are going to provide leadership, even if President Trump will not,” he said on ABC.
