China, India, Russia doing 'absolutely nothing' to clean up their smokestacks, plants: Trump
New York, Nov 13: US President Donald Trump has said countries like China, India and Russia are doing "absolutely nothing" to clean up their smokestacks and industrial plants and the garbage that they drop in sea floats into Los Angeles.
Terming climate change as a "very complex issue", Trump said he considers himself to be, in many ways, an environmentalist, believe it or not".
"So I'm very much into climate. But I want the cleanest air on the planet and I want to I have to have clean air water, Trump said in remarks at the Economic Club of New York on Tuesday.
Trump told the audience that the US withdrew from the one-sided, horrible, horrible, economically unfair, 'close your businesses down within three years,' 'don't frack, don't drill, we don't want any energy' the horrible Paris Climate Accord that killed American jobs and shielded foreign polluters.
He said the Paris Climate Agreement was a "disaster" for the US, adding that the deal would have resulted in trillions and trillions of dollars of destruction to America.
"And it is so unfair. It doesn't kick in for China until 2030. Russia goes back into the 1990s, where the base year was the dirtiest year ever in the world. India, we are supposed to pay them money because they are a developing nation. I said, 'We're a developing nation, too', Trump said amidst laughter from the audience.
Responding to a question about how he thinks about risk as it relates to trade policy and issues like climate change, Trump said, "when people ask the question about climate I always say: You know, I have a little problem.
"We have a relatively small piece of land the United States. And you compare that to some of the other countries like China, like India, like Russia, like many other countries that absolutely are doing absolutely nothing to clean up their smokestacks and clean up all of their plants and all of the garbage that they're dropping in sea and that floats into Los Angeles, along with other problems that Los Angeles has, by the way.
"But when you see this happening, it's nobody wants to talk about it. They want to talk about our country. We have to do this. We have can't have planes any longer. We can't have cows any longer. We can't have anything. I said, What about China? , he said.
He said he wants clean air and crystal-clean, clear water and the US today has the cleanest air we've ever had in our country, meaning, over the last 40 years. I guess, 200 years ago was cleaner, but there was nothing around.
But I want clean air. I want clean water, environmentally, he said.
The US last week formally notified the United Nations of its withdrawal from the 2015 Paris Climate accord, a landmark global agreement which brought together 188 nations, including India, to combat global warming.
The Paris Agreement, in which Trump's predecessor Barack Obama and Prime Minister Narendra Modi played instrumental roles, was adopted at the UN climate conference "COP 21" held in the French capital in 2015 with an aim to reduce the hazardous greenhouse gas emissions.
Although Trump had announced his decision to withdraw from the historic agreement on June 1, 2017, the process began on November 4 with the formal notification and the US will be out of the pact on November 4, 2020.
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Annamalai's remarks about Mumbai misconstrued for political gains, says BJP MLA
Mumbai (PTI): BJP MLA R Tamil Selvan on Monday defended party leader K Annamalai's remarks about Mumbai, saying his statements, aimed at highlighting the city's global importance, had been deliberately misconstrued for political gains.
The Shiv Sena (UBT) last week demanded that Annamalai be arrested for his remark that "Bombay is not a Maharashtra city".
While campaigning for the January 15 civic body elections last week, former IPS officer and ex-Tamil Nadu BJP president Annamalai had said, "People want a triple engine government. This is the only metro city in the country where a triple engine is possible. Modi is in Delhi, Fadnavis is the chief minister, and now Mumbai will have a BJP mayor. Mumbai is not a Maharashtra city but an international city."
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Talking to reporters, Selvan, who represents the Sion Koliwada assembly constituency, said, "Our leader Annamalai described Mumbai as a city respected across the world. What he wanted to say was that Mumbai is becoming the world's number one city, mainly because of the blessings of Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis. Be it the Metro project, road construction or the provision of services, Mumbai has emerged as an important city on the global front. Annamalai was talking in this context."
The BJP leader's words were being distorted for political gains, he said.
"How can anyone separate Mumbai from Maharashtra? Not even a prime minister will be able to do it. Annamalai did not say those words out of disrespect. He was only saying that Mumbai has a global identity," he said.
Responding to Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray's "Rasmalai" jibe at Annamalai, Selvan said, "Raj Thackeray is a senior leader, and many respect him. I still respect him, but he should respect others as well. I am also from Tamil Nadu, but I have won the assembly elections thrice with the support of around 90,000 Marathi voters. They did not see my background."
The BJP gives tickets to people who serve the society, he said.
Selvan claimed that he had worked extensively in Maharashtra, even in rural areas, and invoked icons such as Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar and Lokmanya Tilak in his speeches.
In a dig at his critics, the BJP MLA said, "Now people have seen who uses foul language against our chief minister, who works for the people's welfare. We oppose such use of foul language. CM Fadnavis will take appropriate action against such people."
