We are all going to die. Black and brown people will go first. All this because President Donald Trump backed the United States out of the Paris Agreement on climate change.

So goes the apoplectic and apocalyptic messaging of some leading left-wing activists who hate the decision. Reason and rationality be damned, because Trump has finally ordered the imminent demise of planet Earth. Examples:

We’re told Trump’s decision is racist, because climate change is racist.

Colorado Democratic gubernatorial candidate Cary Kennedy issued a statement saying “Climate change is the greatest threat to humanity.” In response to Trump’s announcement, Kennedy proposes raising Colorado’s renewable energy standard from 30 percent to “at least 50 percent.”

We are to believe the fecklessly political Paris treaty would stop global warming, achieve social justice, racial equality and save humanity from extinction. If only the dinosaurs had been so fortunate to have this magic plan.

Never mind that our country had no chance of meeting promises set forth in the accord, even if President Barack Obama had successfully imposed the Clean Power Plan. The executive order was his final mechanism for abiding by the agreement, but the Supreme Court of the United States placed it on hold. The court did so because the plan posed “immediate and irreparable harm” within the United States.

Colorado’s clean power mandates, upon which Obama devised his Clean Power Plan, have already done irreparable harm – particularly to “communities of color.” The cautionary tale is Pueblo, where Hispanics and other minorities comprise nearly 60 percent of the population. The median household income is $24,000 below average for Colorado, and clean power mandates gave the city some of the highest electric rates in the country.

Charity directors, ministers and social service workers told the Colorado Public Utilities Commission last summer about the extraordinary economic hardships the soaring electric rates have caused Pueblo’s working class. Families have lost homes and businesses have closed as a direct result of costs to obey clean power mandates. Yet, as governor, Kennedy would impose an additional 20 percent burden.

There is a reason Pueblo, a reliably Democratic stronghold, defied decades of tradition and voted for a Republican president last November. It is because Trump landed in Pueblo and promised to end the war on energy. He promised economic relief to people who need it most.

Like Colorado’s clean power mandates, the Paris arrangement would be easy for the rich to afford. A 30 or 40 percent increase in utility bills won’t phase the average household in Aspen or Boulder, where activists insist on these standards. By contrast, these costs are a nightmare for those who already struggle to make ends meet.

The world would hypothetically see a temperature reduction of two-tenths of one degree, if all countries achieved the aggressive, unrealistic goals of the Paris accord. In the unlikely event we could achieve this infinitesimal temperature decline, it would not stop tornadoes from wiping out trailer parks or save “black and brown people” from asthma. If we want to help people who struggle, we will avoid mandates that instantly raise their living costs to indulge a fashionable cause promoted at cocktail parties in Cherry Creek.

Clean, renewable energy is the future with or without political mandates. Of course we want to power homes, offices and vehicles with the wind and sun. Entrepreneurs and investors are racing to invent, improve and sell clean power. Companies such as Wal-Mart, Google, Facebook and Amazon are turning to renewables as a means of lowering overhead. That’s why our country’s carbon footprint has declined by nearly 20 percent in the past 17 years, out-pacing all other countries in greenhouse gas reduction.

The Paris Accord has no significant implications for the future of life on earth, with or without the United States. Our country’s withdrawal is not the dawn of Armageddon, despite the far left’s amusing and hysterical reaction.

THE GAZETTE EDITORIAL BOARD