At a UN climate summit in Poland, a Trump administration representative spoke in front of a room about the value of expanding fossil fuel production. The people in attendance did not appreciate it, and erupted into protest.
Wells Griffith is the senior director for energy at the National Security Council. At the panel, Mr Griffith talked about the value of economic growth and harvesting coal in the United States. “We strongly believe that no country should have to sacrifice economic prosperity or energy security in pursuit of environmental sustainability,” he said, according to the Washington Post.
Mr Griffith argued that China continues to pollute, so the US can’t be expected to increase regulations.
Mr Griffith spoke for about ten minutes before the audience started laughing, mocking, and yelling at him. Eventually, they started chanting “keep it in the ground” and “shame on you,” according to the Guardian. Last year, people heckled representatives from the Trump administration at the same conference.
The timing was imperfect as well. A major study published on Tuesday demonstrated that climate policies, as they are, are predicted to warm the world by 3.3 degrees Celsius, which would have catastrophic global consequences. Another study found that Trump’s new coal rules will result in 1,400 more human deaths per year.
Another massive climate change report published on the day after American Thanksgiving demonstrated the increasing dangers fossil fuels present to the US.
