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French President-Elect Macron Urges Action On Climate Change (newsweek.com)

Posted by EditorDavid on from the vive-la-difference dept.

After Sunday's election in France, Macron's victory "is likely to be a boon for the French digital economy and its startup scene," writes a foreign policy think tank blog, "but the country's frosty relationship with U.S. tech companies is likely to remain over the next five years." Yet even before he was elected as France's new president, Emmanuel Macron was already warning the U.S. that withdrawing from the international Paris Climate change agreement could cost America its brightest innovators. Thelasko writes: French President elect Emmanuel Macron has a message to U.S. scientists and engineers working on climate change. "Please, come to France. You are welcome. It's your nation. We like innovation. We want innovative people. We want people working on climate change, energy renewables and new technologies. France is your nation."
Newsweek reports this week that without America's involvement, the Paris Climate agreement "will have no way of meeting its goals of reducing global net carbon emissions" -- but that Macron could persuade the U.S. to honor its agreement. ("It reportedly took just one phone call conversation between Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the president for Trump to reconsider withdrawing entirely for NAFTA, another international agreement signed into law prior to his tenure in the Oval Office.") And in the meantime, Macron has also promised not to cut France's energy-research budget, and will even reinforce it "to accelerate our initiative."

11 of 174 comments (clear)

  1. As the US by Esteanil · · Score: 5, Insightful

    As the US continues falling into a post-intellectual, foreigner-fearing state, the brain drain will only continue.
    Vast parts of the scientific progress the US "gave" the post WWII-world was built on immigrants, but now the tide is turning - the empire falling apart at the seams.

    --
    I'm a dreamer, the world is my playpen. But hey, I'm a serious person, I can't dream all the time.
    1. Re:As the US by Esteanil · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Trump, and even the whole Republican party, is hardly the only source of anti-intellectualism in the US, it's been ongoing for quite a while.

      You've got colleges and universities that can't handle debate, and appear to value the contributions of their sports teams far above any science produced.
      Ideological interests have been shaping your school books for decades, and the problem's getting worse.
      The right disbelieves global warming, the left disbelieves GMO and nuclear safety - two of the most important tools to actually solve some of the problems caused by said global warming.
      Federal science funding has been stagnant / dropping in real value since the 80s.
      Your corporates are raiding the most successful university labs - turning them from basic to applied science, and locking that science up to the point where they're blocked from even discussing in general terms what they're working on with their peers.

      This is just off of the top of my head, I'm sure the slashdot community can come up with more examples.

      And, of course, if Trump gets his budget through thousands of US scientists will be unable to get funding and be forced to look for employment elsewhere.

      That the US is going to see significantly more brain drain in the years to come does not seem to me like a very controversial prediction.

      Here's to hoping things change or that I'm just wrong.

      --
      I'm a dreamer, the world is my playpen. But hey, I'm a serious person, I can't dream all the time.
    2. Re:As the US by Gravis+Zero · · Score: 3, Insightful

      As the US continues falling into a post-intellectual, foreigner-fearing state

      Sweeping generalizations like this lack accuracy. There is a good possibility we can emerge from this slump with a more enlightened perspective on the world.

      --
      Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
    3. Re:As the US by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      A narrow minded cherry-picked story if I've ever heard one.

      Yes many scientifically progressive people ESCAPED their home countries to work for the US in post WW2 timelines. If that's what you mean.
      These scientists were not babies in the US, growing up here due to immigrant parents, we cannot claim them.

      But it is a modern narrative to believe the latest generations of illegal immigrants are our future. No they are not, they are one of many contributors to the US's and the world's future...

      So this whole "Waiting For SuperCitizens" to grow up & contribute, whilst the rest of the regular US citizenry lay about like bums is incorrect. Very incorrect.

    4. Re:As the US by Esteanil · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Where did I say anything about illegal immigrants? The fact is the US has been a significant brain drain on the rest of the world for ~70 years. You've had some of the best schools, the best labs and the best funding for science. This has attracted top-league scientists and entrepreneurs.

      But the growing security state, the rising xenophobia and the very public hostility to science is now leading many of the same kinds of people to avoiding visiting the US altogether, much less wanting to immigrate.

      --
      I'm a dreamer, the world is my playpen. But hey, I'm a serious person, I can't dream all the time.
    5. Re:As the US by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Chicken shit. The terrorists have won...at least with your sorry ass.

    6. Re:As the US by GameboyRMH · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Mod parent Informative. This is how terrorism works.

      --
      "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
    7. Re:As the US by iMadeGhostzilla · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Krugman had said the market would crash immediately on Nov 9 if Trump had won and would never recover. An MIT professor Simon Johnson, a former chief economist of the IMF, said on Oct 29, "A big adverse surprise – like the election of Donald Trump in the US – would likely cause the stock market to crash and plunge the world into recession."

      All I'm saying is, these are complex events, and the pattern has been that what what experts and lay people alike have said will "obviously" happen when it comes to Trump has been consistently wrong. I think we need to pause and look at things differently if we want to guess more accurately what will happen during his term.

    8. Re:As the US by acrimonious+howard · · Score: 3, Insightful
      Not going to challenge the main point, but

      The right disbelieves global warming, the left disbelieves GMO and nuclear safety...

      Almost all left-leaning people I talk to believe in GMO and nuclear safety, and the few that don't are always open to listening to my persistent arguments for them. I'm open to hearing who I should be talking to, I'm just sharing that it's hard for me to see these people being powerful voices based on my admittedly anecdotal experiences. Hrm, maybe it's because I live in Texas?

  2. Re:Innovate, but don't profit by fabriciom · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Yes you pay more in taxes and you get more from society like affordable healthcare and education.

  3. Re:King Emmanuel the Panderer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The new French President, in 2017, is a royalist? You'd better explain what you mean.