To the editor: The president could not have done a better job of portraying our country and its leadership in a ugly way than in how he behaved during his address to the annual United Nations convocation (“Trump calls climate change ‘the greatest con job ever’ in combative U.N. speech,” Sept. 23).
There was no diplomacy, deference or respect provided to any representative of the nations assembled. President Trump was alternately angry, belligerent, insulting, condescending and boastful. The message he delivered could be summarized as, “America first, last and always, and the hell with all of you.” If that sounds like an exaggeration, he told the U.N. that “your countries are going to hell.”
His lack of respect and disparagement of the myriad individuals who recognize the threat that is posed to the world due to man-made changes in the climate was a disgrace, Trump referring to those who recognize the challenge as “stupid people.”
What a worldwide embarrassment for the United States.
Oren Spiegler, Peters Township, Pa.
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To the editor: In his address to the U.N. General Assembly, Trump portrayed climate agreements as a “globalist concept” that forces successful nations to “inflict pain on themselves.”
This framing is deeply misleading. The real “pain” comes from failing to act: fires, floods, food shortages and widespread economic disruption are not abstract risks, but lived realities that will worsen without emissions reductions.
International agreements, far from being acts of self-punishment, are acts of solidarity and recognition of common responsibility. Industrialized nations, who built their prosperity on fossil fuels, have both the capacity and the obligation to lead the transition.
Far from a burden, this shift is an opportunity — clean energy industries already create millions of jobs, while preserving habitability for future generations.
Rejecting cooperation because it is “globalist” ignores the reality that the atmosphere has no borders. A politics of denial and isolation may sound defiant, but it leaves us all weaker in the face of this shared crisis.
Terry Hansen, Milwaukee
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To the editor: When I read about people denying climate change, it makes me wonder if they even know what it is. I am not sure if our president knows the difference between weather and climate. I am not sure if he could even explain the greenhouse effect.
Regardless, the idea that 8 billion people on Earth are not affecting our planet’s atmosphere is ludicrous. The hole in the ozone layer is just one good example.
Every time I see a denial like this, I just marvel that we have so many people in power who are so uneducated (or willfully ignorant) and will ignore what is happening to our planet due to climate change.