President Donald Trump called climate change the “greatest con job ever perpetuated” and a “scam” during his address at the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday.
In a lengthy diatribe against the long-established science, President Trump said climate change was “made by stupid people” and warned other countries against enacting green policies.
“If you don’t get away from this green scam, your country is going to fail,” he told the audience of more than 150 world leaders and other officials.
“All of these predictions made by the United Nations and many others, often for bad reasons, were wrong,” Trump claimed. “They were made by stupid people.”
Read more: Scientists Slam Trump Administration’s Climate Report as a ‘Mockery’
“They said global warming will kill the world, but then it started getting cooler. So now they could just call it climate change, because that way, they can’t miss. It’s climate change, because if it goes higher or lower, whatever the hell happens, there’s climate change,” he continued.
Trump also claimed the “carbon footprint is a hoax made up by people with evil intentions, and they’re heading down a path of total destruction.”
The science behind climate change is supported by decades of research showing the unprecedented warming rate of the Earth. Climate change is causing hotter temperatures, stronger and more frequent storms, and increased drought risk, among other issues.
And while a 1989 statement from a U.N. official claiming that nations could be wiped off the Earth by 2000, which Trump pointed to, has indeed not come true, there are rising concerns about how the effects of climate change are already impacting vulnerable communities. Weather-related disasters have already caused 220 million internal displacements in the last decade, according to the UNHCR.
Trump’s remarks follow a pattern of attempts by his administration to diminish the threat of climate change. A recent Department of Energy (DOE) report characterized climate change as “less damaging economically than commonly believed.” More than 85 scientists denounced the report, accusing officials of cherry-picking facts and figures to allow for the administration’s fossil fuel ambitions.
The Trump Administration has also dismantled the State Department office behind climate negotiations and targeted regulations aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions from aircraft engines. During his last term, the President pulled the U.S. from the Paris climate accord.
Trump celebrated his many climate-related actions on Tuesday: “The United States has been taken advantage [of] by much of the world, but not anymore,” Trump said when discussing U.S. energy exports.”
Trump’s statements come just one day before the 2025 UN Climate Summit, where countries will present their new climate action policy plans.
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