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What are your thoughts?

Well, I guess I'd never seen myself dying of old age anyway.
I just didn't think it'd be because I'd drown in the rising tides, or starve because there was no longer enough arable land, or, who knows, just die of lung cancer or something from all the pollution we're just pretending isn't a problem anymore.

Wasn't this unofficially known since, like, January?

Depressing regardless.

also, yay for states' rights

On the bright side, there's this to hope for:

Under terms of the deal, the earliest the U.S. can formally withdraw is just after the next presidential election in November 2020. The United States would join Nicaragua and Syria, the only two countries that declined to participate in the agreement.

(Emphasis mine).
We just need to hope he doesn't get re-elected. Or that he gets impeached. Or the rest of your government invests in a pacifier.

Or that he gets impeached.

I take it you haven't met Vice President Mike "War on Coal" Pence then.

Edit: "For some reason or another, this issue of climate change has emerged as a paramount issue for the left" —Mike Pence

As someone who had him as both a US Representative and Governor, Pence is your typical corrupt Republican politician: money first, religion second, and everything else is bad for America. And yet, he comes across as a good, caring guy. In other words, he's a sociopath.

So, yeah, I don't know if I'd really want an impeachment. A narcissistic dunce would probably do less damage than the avaricious darling of the GOP.

Yeah, I wouldn't count on a President Pence to be the saviour of the environment.

It will be up to the next Democratic President to do what damage control he or she can, but I imagine the damage to America's international leadership will be irreversible by then. After spurning not one but two climate change agreements it helped to negotiate (we never ratified the Kyoto Protocol), who would trust anything America has to say on the matter? Doubtless the world will continue forward, not particularly giving a shit at this point what America does. This is bad for American leadership and American business...when even Exxon supports staying in, you know it's to the overall good.

And the worst thing about it is, I actually believe that most Republican politicians actually understand that climate change is real, and they do and say the things they do to pander to people who are ignorant or in denial about it. I know here in West Virginia people are happy about it because they believe it'll make coal magically come back, and suddenly everyone will be hiring coal miners, who will be rich beyond their wildest dreams.

Perhaps the worst thing about the Trump Administration is the way climate change denial has been used to enable those people to  cling to fantasies of returning to the past instead of adapting to the modern economy.

I'm aware of Pence. That's why impeachment was the second item on the list. The only reason it was an item was 'cause I wanted to invoke Rule Of Three, as well as acknowledge alternative methods of avoidance. =P

I don't know about the "trusting America" issue. At least over here, people are already ignoring everything coming out of America. But I'm fairly sure respect (at least) would come back when the current government leaves. So long as the replacement is someone who is vaguely competent. Which really is not a high bar, all things considered. Or maybe I'm being optimistic.

I'm not sure that countries have respected America for a long time, but at least they were safe in knowing that the country would honour its commitments and be a reliable partner. I don't think that's the case anymore...now people know that when the next president doesn't like what the previous president committed the country to, he'll renege on that commitment. I don't think it's just not liking the current president and waiting for a better one, I think he's doing real damage to the trust other countries have in us regardless of who is president.

I wonder if it would have been better if America hadn't entered the agreement to start with, rather than relying on Executive powers to implement in a way the next president could undo. I know President Obama did it to side-step a do-nothing Congress, but without Congressional approval as a treaty it doesn't have the binding protections that a commitment like that should have.

Actually, since Trump loves Executive Orders as much as Obama, I can't help but wonder if we'll see more instances like the Mexico City policy, where since being adopted in the 80s every Democratic president has rescinded the order and every Republican president has reinstated it.

I hear headlines are reading "Trump to World: Drop Dead" which sounds pretty accurate to me. I mean even North Korea signed it....

The only two countries that didn't sign are Nicaragua, which pulled out in protest because they felt that the Accord didn't do enough, and Syria, which is a tad preoccupied at the moment.