President Trump officially withdrew the United States from the Paris climate accord, and one of the leading climate experts disputing the purported consensus on climate science is praising Trump for making the right decision for the American economy and for sound science.

"I'm glad that Trump had the fortitude to stick it out despite all the attempts to waylay him," said Dr. Tim Ball, a retired climatologist at the University of Winnipeg and author of "The Deliberate Corruption of Climate Science."

"He didn't have to rely on the false science," Ball told WND and Radio America. "He relied strictly on the economics of it, that it's a very, very bad deal for the United States. In fact, it's deliberately designed to punish the United States."

Ball said the Paris climate accord was simply the latest incarnation of the old Kyoto Protocol from the 1990s that sought to redistribute wealth from the industrial nations. He contends the Green Climate Fund, which is part of the Paris agreement, is the latest effort in that regard.

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Ball points out the nonbinding nature of the agreement – which is the only way the deal could be struck – means most nations have not contributed what they've pledged to the Green Climate Fund.

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Nonetheless, Trump's decision to withdraw the U.S. from the non-binding deal resulted in howls of protest from critics, with environmental activist Tom Steyer claiming the action was treasonous and CNN's Fareed Zakaria insisting the move means the U.S. is surrendering its role as leader of the free world.

Ball said none of the criticism is based in actual science.

"They use the environment, and they use the climate, as a vehicle for a political agenda," he said. "All they can do when you say, 'I'm not going along with the political agenda,' is invoke that the sky is falling."

Listen to the WND/Radio America interview with Tim Ball:

Ball said many of the political opponents of Trump are simply led to their position by perpetrators of bad science. He said Pope Francis is the perfect example.

"One of the most egregious ones was the pope. The pope got co-opted by (Hans Joachim) Schellnhuber at the Potsdam Institute in Germany. He was the key author for the pope's encyclical against global warming," Ball explained.

He said the notion that humans can dictate radical changes to the earth's climate are the height of arrogance.

"The reality is that the levels of energy involved and the amount of energy that humans put in are so minuscule that it is actually laughable to think that we can control the climate in any way," Ball said.

Trump did say he was open to renegotiating the Paris agreement or forging new deals with other nations that would be more beneficial to the United States. Ball said those talks should be done only after Trump gets a better handle on genuine climate science.

"What I hope will happen is that this will now allow a focus more on the science that is purportedly behind the claims that CO2 is a problem," said Ball, noting every United National climate change prediction has been astonishingly incorrect.

"It's got to be real science, proven science. Their science has failed," he said. "We know that because their forecasts have failed. If your forecasts are wrong, your science is wrong."

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