Climate Change Is An ‘Existential Threat To This Generation,’ Nancy Pelosi Says
House Democrats led by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Friday warned of the dangers of climate change comments that criticized President Donald Trump over his environmental policy.
“The reality of the crisis has to be met with the actuality of action that we take,” the House speaker said, per The Hill.
The comments came not long after the president defended his record on the environment at this week’s NATO summit in London.
“I’ve done many environmental impact statements over my life,” Trump said. “I believe very strongly in very, very crystal clear, clean water and clean air. That’s a big part of climate change.”
Pelosi wasn’t the only Democrat concerned with the state of the climate.
Chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee Rep. Raúl Grijalva, an Arizona Democrat, said the concern about climate change extends beyond survival, but also has implications on the economy.
“It’s not only an issue of survival for species and for human beings, it is an issue that deals with the economics and the future generations of this country. And this visit reaffirms… the fact that we have a role — a principled role — in the fight against climate change,” Grijalva said.
This week, Pelosi and Democrats participated in a climate change summit in Madrid, Spain aimed at supporting the Paris Climate Accord, signed by President Obama and other world leaders in 2015. The plan aims to drastically reduce global carbon emissions, but President Trump has stated he plans to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris Agreement.
The president – in the past, despite many of his actions in the White House – has spoken out in favor of policy to combat climate change. As The Hill noted, in 2009 when President Obama was fresh in his role as the 44th president, a series of business leaders that included then-reality star Trump, his sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, and his daughter, Ivanka Trump, participated in the discussion and were “among the signatories” who signed an advertisement to preserve Earth.
The decade-old full-page advertisement in The New York Times urged then-President Obama to not “postpone the earth.”
The advertisement said, “It is scientifically irrefutable that there will be catastrophic and irreversible consequences for humanity and our planet.”
The advertisement had been placed in The New York Times ahead of a 2009 climate change summit in Copenhagen, according to The Hill.
However, according to a September article from The New York Times, the Trump administration has rolled back – or begun the process of rolling back – at least 85 environmental protection regulations. The majority – 24 – involved regulations relating to air pollution and caps on emissions. Eighteen rolled-back regulations pertain to drilling and extracting, 13 to infrastructure and planning, 10 to animals, 7 to water pollution, 5 toward toxic substances, and 8 relating to other environmental regulations.
As The New York Times noted, not all rollbacks have gone smoothly. Several rules had to be reinstated after legal challenges others face similar battles in federal court.
