Trump Trashes Climate Scientists As ‘Foolish Fortune Tellers’ In Speech To World Leaders

In his remarks at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on Tuesday morning, President Trump railed against climate change activists and scientists who have been raising the alarm about the plight of the planet given the growing mountain of evidence that shows the world is careening towards a climate catastrophe.

In a speech just minutes before teenage activist Greta Thunberg addressed a session called Averting a Climate Apocalypse, Trump warned there were forces at work that aimed to “destroy our economy and wreck our country or eradicate our liberty”.

“This is not a time for pessimism. This is a time for optimism. To embrace the possibilities of tomorrow, we must reject the perennial profits of doom and their predictions of the apocalypse. They are the heirs of yesterday’s foolish fortune tellers,” he said.

“They want to see us do badly, but we don’t let that happen. They predicted an overpopulation crisis in the 1960s, mass starvation in the 70s, and an end of oil in the 1990s. These alarmists always demand the same thing: absolute power to dominate, transform and control every aspect of our lives. We will never let radical socialists destroy our economy, wreck our country or eradicate our liberty.”

“Fear and doubt is not a good thought process,” Trump said. “Because this is a time for tremendous hope and joy and optimism in action. But to embrace the possibilities of tomorrow, we must reject the perennial prophets of doom, and their predictions of the apocalypse.”

Trump once again repeated the lie that the U.S. has “the cleanest air in the world” when, in fact, his administration has made the air quality in the U.S. worse.

According to the Environmental Performance Index, a metric from environmental scientists at Yale and Columbia, the U.S. ranks 10th when it comes to clean air quality.

In her remarks to the world’s elite, Thurnberg said that they have done “basically nothing” to avert a climate catastrophe.

Climate activist @GretaThunberg tells #Davos2020 that "basically nothing" concrete has been done to tackle global CO2 emissions despite "young people pushing" for change, adding "this is just the very beginning"https://t.co/SpE7e8ERa3 pic.twitter.com/hXwHPHji8E

— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) January 21, 2020

“Pretty much nothing has been done since the global emissions of CO2 has not reduced,” Thunberg said. “If you see it from that aspect, what has concretely been done, if you see it from a bigger perspective, basically nothing, it will require much more than this, this is just the very beginning.”