In a remarkable United Nations address, the president lashed out at wind turbines and environmentalists while dismissing the dangers of climate change.
By Somini Sengupta and Lisa Friedman, The New York Times
President Trump went on a rant against climate change at the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday, calling it the “greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world” and saying that the scientific consensus on global warming was created by “stupid people.” He also berated countries, including close allies of the United States, for adopting renewable energy.
It added up to an extraordinary diatribe that overlooked the human suffering caused by the heat waves, wildfires, and deadly floods exacerbated by the burning of fossil fuels, while simultaneously standing at odds with the rapid expansion of renewable energy worldwide.
He chose his two targets, demonizing immigrants and green energy, and called them a “double-tailed monster” that he claimed, without evidence, are “destroying” Europe. Both subjects play well to his base in the Republican Party. But it was remarkable that he said all this to a global audience.
“You need strong borders and traditional energy sources if you’re going to be great again,” he said. “I worry about Europe, I love the people of Europe. I hate to see it being devastated by energy and immigration.”
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