The United States’ second exit from the Paris Agreement wasn’t unexpected. Even before he was reelected, now-president Donald Trump had promised for months that he would pull the country out of the United Nations pact to limit global warming: the Paris climate “ rip-off ,” as he called it.

Trump signed an executive order that begins the process of withdrawing from the Paris Climate Agreement, which he also did during his first term.

Although hardly a surprise, President Trump’s executive decision to exit the international effort to halt global heating for a second time has been met with dismay on this side of the Atlantic. View o