Former United Nations Ambassador Andrew Young said Wednesday that the debate over whether the United States shoud remain in the Paris climate agreement was "an intellectual argument" and that President Donald Trump should be focused on "the real issues pertaining to climate change."
"The argument I would like to see us address is the floods in Missouri and Arkansas — and that we have in cities along the Mississippi River," Young, who served under former President Jimmy Carter, told Brooke Baldwin on CNN. "Those cities are about to flood."
President Trump said Wednesday that he was expected to announce his decision on the Paris agreement "very soon."
By addressing the practical issues created by climate change — flooding, for instance — Young said that Trump can create jobs and upgrade the nation's infrastructure.
"The Mississippi River — 36 states, six cities from top to bottom — that's where the job problem is," the former Democratic mayor of Atlanta said.
"It's got little or nothing to do with Paris," he added, noting the need to focus "on the people that voted for you and not the commentary and the discord that was generated by this campaign.
"There were some real people who were concerned about real issues, whose homes are flooding and who are going to flood.
"Preventing that flood damage would create jobs."
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