‘We have a beautiful ocean called the Pacific Ocean where thousands and thousands of tons of garbage flows toward us, and that’s put there by other countries…’
(Claire Russel, Liberty Headlines) President Donald Trump said Tuesday that if 17-year-old Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg wants to see results, she should focus on the “other countries” that put “thousands of tons of garbage” in the Pacific Ocean and emit significantly more carbon than the U.S.
“We want to have the cleanest water on Earth, we want to have the cleanest air on Earth,” Trump said at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
“Our numbers, as you saw—we had record numbers come out very recently—our numbers are very, very good. Our environmental numbers, our water numbers, our numbers on air are tremendous,” he continued. “We have to do something about other continents, we have to do something about other countries.”
Without directly naming China, Trump went on to suggest that there is “another continent where the fumes are rising at levels that you can’t believe.”
India is often named as another developing country that, like China, has rejected globalist attempts to curb emissions, such as those prescribed by the Paris Climate Accord. Trump withdrew from the Obama-brokered deal early in his presidency but has continued making steady—albeit rational—progress toward reductions in U.S. emissions.
“I think Greta ought to focus on those places,” he added. “But we are doing better right now than we’ve ever done in terms of cleanliness, in terms of numbers. We have a beautiful ocean called the Pacific Ocean where thousands and thousands of tons of garbage flows toward us, and that’s put there by other countries, so I think Greta has to start working on those other countries.”
Trump announced at the forum that the U.S. would sign on to the trillion tree initiative, and dismissed the climate “prophets of doom,” such as Thunberg, who spread unnecessary climate alarmism. But Thunberg continued to spread her “predictions of the apocalypse,” to quote Trump, during her speech at the World Economic Forum.
“I wonder, what will you tell your children was the reason to fail and leave them facing the climate chaos you knowingly brought upon them?” she said, according to the New York Times. “Our house is still on fire. Your inaction is fueling the flames by the hour.”