Five years ago, I argued that President Trump saved the planet when he scrapped the Paris Climate Agreement.
The Trump administration abandoned the promise of heavy-handed government edicts in favor of empowering individuals to make their own choices. It was the right call: Individual action—adopted on a broad scale—has clearly been shown as the best strategy in tackling climate change and other issues.
One year later, I defended the Trump administration again, praising Republicans because individual empowerment—sans federal government interference—was demonstrably working. By 2018, U.S. carbon dioxide emissions were at their lowest point since 1992. Per-capita carbon emissions were at their lowest level since 1950—outpacing our European allies.
Fast forward to 2022, and newsflash: President Trump was proven absolutely right to favor individual action over government coercion. He is still right about climate change. Under the Trump administration, U.S. greenhouse gas emissions plummeted, so much so that even the liberal media took notice. In 2020, the United States generated under six billion metric tons of emissions—down nearly 10 percent from 2019 and on par with the early 1980s. Pollution receded, leaving America as only the world’s 10th largest per-capita polluter—not ideal, but a substantial improvement and still better than the likes of Australia and Canada.
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