College of the Atlantic president Darron Collins ’92.College of the Atlantic president Darron Collins ’92.The following is a statement from College of the Atlantic President Darron Collins ’92:

President Trump’s abandonment of the Paris climate accord is dangerous and misguided. The abdication of any official, global role for the United States in confronting climate change leaves our country sitting like a dunce in the corner of the international arena.

This decision, while disheartening, will not deter the thousands of climate justice activists working across the country. It has long been action on the local level that has led this issue. Small communities, cities, and states have been, and must continue to be, the driving force behind adaptation to and mitigation of climate change. Working with students like ours at College of the Atlantic, and those at other colleges and universities, we will continue to make progress on our relationship with the environment through entrepreneurship, creativity, and cooperation.

College of the Atlantic was the first college in the country to focus on humans and the environment. Today, our students are more dedicated than ever to improving that relationship. Since 2009, a delegation of our students has attended UN Climate Change negotiations as communicators, artists, and activists. They work on all ends of the climate change spectrum, taking on projects that touch business, technology, local planning, the law, and the international goals of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

College of the Atlantic will continue to support our students’ work for climate justice, financially and institutionally, regardless of where the U.S. stands in the international arena. We will do so because the beauty of the Paris Treaty is its attempt, if imperfect, at global cooperation on an issue that doesn’t recognize local or international boundaries. Climate change presents an opportunity to wrestle with an issue with the power to unite us as human beings. Walking away from the table will benefit neither the United States nor the planet.