IF YOU EVER wondered why international climate negotiations feel janky and feeble — with each individual country making a “pledge” (that mostly goes unfulfilled) instead of signing an enforceable treaty — the primary answer is American political dysfunction. Sometime after the Kyoto treaty process collapsed more than a quarter century ago (time flies when you’re wrecking the planet) it became clear to all the other players that two-thirds of the U.S. Senate would never be willing to approve a bill that did anything to rein in the fossil fuel industry that paid for their elections. And since a two-thirds majority is what a treaty requires, the world instead would have to rely on the jury-rigged process we now see.
All this is a long way of saying: If you’re looking for a silver lining to the horror that is Trumpism, it’s entirely possible that the world will work better with the United States out of the way.
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