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The Global Fallout of American Climate Negligence

11 min readFeb 25, 2025

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A fading US flag is in the background as the Chinese flag is raised over the glove.
(Image credit: Created by the author with DALL-E)

The United States has effectively sounded the death knell for its role in global climate leadership. Within the first month of the Trump administration, the U.S. not only backed out of the Paris Accords but also withdrew from the World Health Organization — a body that tracks the devastating impacts of climate change on human health.

As if that weren’t enough, U.S. delegates were barred from attending IPCC meetings, the very talks that shape international climate policy. And let’s not forget NOAA’s newly mandated denial of the link between climate change and rising temperatures.

It’s a catastrophic abdication of responsibility, a political spectacle that would be laughable if the stakes weren’t so high.

But here’s the kicker: this might be exactly what the world needed. Not in some pie-in-the-sky, “everything happens for a reason” sense, but in the cold, calculated realm of geopolitical power dynamics. Without U.S. participation — or, more importantly, without U.S. interference — other nations may finally feel free to take aggressive, meaningful climate action.

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Edge of Collapse
Edge of Collapse

Published in Edge of Collapse

Becoming collapse aware in the age of the permanent polycrisis.

Angus Peterson
Angus Peterson

Written by Angus Peterson

Becoming collapse aware in the age of the permanent polycrisis. Follow to get all the new stories: https://anguspeterson.medium.com/subscribe

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