Canada Skips Climate Summit, Obama Disses Politicians Who Think Issue Is A 'Joke'
United
States President Barack Obama delivered a scathing rebuke to world politicians
this week telling them if they aren’t prepared to act on climate change then
they’re not fit to be leaders.
“Any leader
willing to take a gamble on a future like that, any leader who refuses to take
this issue seriously or treats it like a joke is not fit to lead,” Obama said
Tuesday.
While on a
three-day visit to Alaska, he urged foreign ministers at the GLACIER conference
to action — a meeting Canada's Foreign Affairs Minister Rob Nicholson skipped.
“The time to
heed the critics and the cynics and the deniers is past,” Obama said. He
elaborated on “ambitious investments” his government has made in reducing carbon
emissions and referenced strict climate measures the U.S. passed earlier this
summer.
But on a
global level, time is running out, he said.
“On this
issue — of all issues — there is such a thing as being too late.”
The dig came
amid the noticeable absence of senior Canadian government representatives at
the summit. The country's official delegation was represented by a civil
servant.
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