Pittsburgh to Trump: You don't speak for us on climate
PITTSBURGH — In announcing plans to pull the U.S. out of the Paris climate accord, President Donald Trump declared that he was “elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris.” But the Steel City is hardly in Trump’s corner on this one.
At City Hall and on the streets, Pittsburgh residents expressed support for efforts to combat global warming and complained that the president, in singling out this city of 300,000, seemed to be thinking of a smoke-belching, soot-choked Pittsburgh that no longer even exists.
The steel mills and other factories that once made Pittsburgh look like “hell with the lid taken off” all but disappeared over the past generation, and the city has become known as a hub for technology, higher education, energy and health care. In recent years, in fact, it has worked to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
In the wake of Trump’s decision, Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto reaffirmed his city’s commitment to the 2015 Paris accord and called the president’s move “reckless” and “unacceptable.”
Pittsburgh’s Allegheny County went heavily for Democrat Hillary Clinton in last fall’s election, giving her 57 percent of the vote to Trump’s 40 percent.
“We have a history of pollution and industry, and we’re working really hard as a city to move past that through our growing industries,” said Isabella Sigado, a 21-year-old art history student at the University of Pittsburgh. “Pittsburgh is turning into a green city.”
Trump, she said, is “playing on a past generation and a lost industry, and we can’t bring it back.”
Nearly 4,000 miles away, Parisian Raphael Angeli said Trump’s decision puts him at odds with many of his fellow citizens and much of the world.
“I think the people of Pittsburgh understand that this is a global problem,” said Angeli, a 29-year-old digital communications manager.
