President Trump has unilaterally withdrawn the United States from the Paris Agreement's previously global human commitment, which had set aside personal ego and political posturing to stand united as a species toward averting the climate change crisis threatening our future and our children's future and endangering all the beauty and diversity of life surrounding us. We were, until today, sharing the common human goal of transitioning away harmful emissions and onto clean, renewable energy.
The United States now stands alone in petty, ignorant, corrupt opposition of this critical global endeavor, and, if we follow along with this executive decision in apathy, the rest of civilization will come to see the United States as an enemy of its own species and saboteur of our one and only collective home, an embarrassment to humanity and an awkward 18th century mistake outstaying its welcome. This is not my desired course as an American whatsoever, but it is the course that has been officially chosen for the United States nonetheless.
However, the current POTUS and his supporters in the White House and Congress do not represent the will of the American people in this: 70% of Americans approve of the Paris Agreement. He does not speak for several of our most important economic and cultural centers at the state government level: New York and California and Washington have already formed a Climate Alliance pledging to continue onward with the mission statement of the Paris Agreement, and more state and city governments appear eager to follow. Apple's Tim Cook, Tesla's Elon Musk, and other influential US tech leaders have condemned the White House's decision and will continue treating this climate crisis as a threat to humanity that must be acknowledged and addressed, not a petty game.
Throw me in with that lot, too.
On behalf of my community here at NeoGAF -- a beautifully diverse, global membership & audience of every country, ethnicity, religion, orientation, socioeconomic status, and video game platform loyalty -- I denounce the US government's decision to withdraw from the historic Paris Agreement that the entire world, including the United States in a vocal leadership role, had already formed universal consensus on and committed to, and I pledge to act in spirit with the mission statement of the Agreement, both personally and professionally as founder and CEO of NeoGAF.
I will not let the whims of the White House determine my own role in preserving or destroying the future. No disingenuous political talking points, or payoffs, or short-sighted selfishness will allow me to rationalize away the realities of our circumstances in favor of apathy or senseless profit. I've been fortunate enough to witness first-hand a great deal of the beauty and diversity in culture and and life and landscape that this planet has to offer, and these experiences have had a profound impact on me that cannot be assigned a dollar value. I refuse to accept that future generations should be left with experiencing what I've seen through the lens of an ancient and whimsical Planet Earth episode or VR simulation while thousands of species go extinct and billions of people lose their homes.
I will continue contributing to environmental activism efforts such as The Sierra Club and NRDC, I will continue to remain conscious of my personal footprint and take steps to reduce and offset it, and I will continue investing in clean, renewable energy technology and infrastructure.
Don't let cynicism or apathy or ignorance or selfishness win. Any conscious effort and action, within your means, to preserve our shared future and the beauty of our collective home is infinitely preferable to an indifferent shrug. This isn't a time for judging or making demands of others; I won't tell you how you should be living your life, how to spend your money, or how to determine and order your priorities, or what you can afford to or have a moral obligation to do. Just take a moment, look inward, and decide whether this whole thing means something to you, and if so what choices you're comfortable with given what you know about the stakes here; whether you're an American or any other brand of human. Meanwhile, I'll do what I can.
You in?
