Pittsburgh myth, Paris reality

From Patrick Gallagher
Patrick Gallagher is chancellor of the University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.

Science 16 Jun 2017:
Vol. 356, Issue 6343, pp. 1103

Summary

When announcing his decision to withdraw the United States from the Paris Agreement, President Trump reminded the world that, “I was elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris.” In doing so, he repeated a tired trope: that Pittsburgh is a rusty urban relic—a manufacturing city of steel that has fallen on hard times, held back by unfair global competition and onerous environmental regulation. But such a nostalgic version of Pittsburgh, and of many other communities across the country, is a myth. If the president truly wants to represent the interests of Americans, he would learn from the real histories of these regions and promote economic and environmental progress through research, education, and innovation.