Trump and Greta Thunberg Address Elites at Davos as Oxfam Condemns Mounting Inequality

Edited by Lena Valverde Jordi
2020-01-21 18:00:35

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As the impeachment trial gets underway, President Trump is in Davos, Switzerland, for the World Economic Forum, where he delivered a speech earlier today to the gathered elites.

The climate crisis was the top priority for this year’s forum. But Trump focused on touting his tax cuts, immigration policies, and trade deals with China, Canada and Mexico. He also claimed that U.S. air and water was cleaner than ever. Trump has worked to dismantle environmental regulations since taking office and has denied climate change. Trump also told reporters in Davos the impeachment trial was a “hoax” and a “witch hunt.”

Meanwhile, a new Oxfam report released ahead of the World Economic Forum warns that “economic inequality is out of control,” with the world’s richest 1% owning twice as much wealth as nearly 7 billion people. The report also finds that just over 2,000 billionaires have more combined wealth than 4.6 billion people. The website Quartz calculated that Trump’s two-day appearance in Davos will cost U.S. taxpayers over $5.6 million.

Seventeen-year-old climate activist Greta Thunberg is also in Davos, where she spoke on a youth climate panel earlier today.

Greta Thunberg: “If we are to have a 6 to 7% chance of limiting the global average temperature rise to below 1.5 degrees Celsius, we had, on January 1st, 2018, about 420 gigatons of CO2 left to emit in that budget. … Since last summer. I’ve been repeating these numbers over and over again in almost every speech. But honestly, I don’t think I have once seen any media outlets or person in power communicate this and what it means. I know you don’t want to report about this. I know you don’t want to talk about this. But I assure you I will continue to repeat these numbers until you do.”

“We don’t need a 'low-carbon economy.' We don’t need to 'lower emissions.' Our emissions have to stop,” Thunberg said. “And until we have the technologies that at scale can put our emissions to minus, then we must forget about net zero. We need real zero.”

Taken from: democracynow.org


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