Even if Washington leaves climate accord, Americans won’t quit protecting Earth

From Ophelia to Harvey, we’ve had 10 Atlantic hurricanes this year. Puerto Rico was hit especially hard, with nearly all of its 3.4 million U.S. citizens without electricity and more than a third without access to safe drinking water a month after the storms.

The damage from Ophelia in Europe is also staggering. It slammed Ireland with 109-mile-per-hour winds that tore rooftops off houses, and lashed Northern England and Southern Scotland. Along with the heavy rains came winds mixed with an eerie orange dust, drawn from the ash of wildfires originating in Spain and Portugal.

This is what climate change looks like. Of the 17 hottest years on record, 16 have occurred in this century. Rising seas threaten coastal communities from the Maldives to Miami. An iceberg the size of Delaware broke off Antarctica last July.

Diplomats representing nearly 200 countries gathered in Bonn, Germany, this month to build on the promise of the 2015 Paris Agreement to protect future generations from the growing dan- gers of climate change.

Regardless of whether Washington pulls us out of the Paris Agreement, large majorities of Americans say they are very or somewhat concerned about climate change and say more should be done to address it. More than 2,500 states, cities, universities, businesses and investors are moving forward with the action we need. This group, representing a third of the U.S. economy, has pledged to help meet the Paris goals. This month, 13 U.S. federal agencies unveiled a scientific report saying humans are the dominant cause of the temperature rise that has created the warmest period in the history of civilization.

We appeal to our allies and friends who were in Bonn to keep it up. The people of the United States stand with you, and together we must not — will not — stop moving forward.

Rhea Suh is president of the Natural Resources Defense Council. Lin-Manuel Miranda is a playwright, composer and actor. Vanessa Nadal is an engineer, a lawyer and Miranda’s wife. Miranda, Nadal and Prizeo.com are raffling tickets to the London opening of Hamilton next month to benefit NRDC and 10:10 Climate Action.