Putin Says Climate Change is Not Man-Made
Putin Says Climate Change is Not Man-Made
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MOSCOW - Climate change was not caused by human activity as the White House announced that President Donald Trump would decide by May on continued US participation in the landmark Paris Agreement limiting global carbon emissions.
Russian leader Vladimir Putin on Thursday said after visiting the Franz Josef Land archipelago in the Arctic. Putin claimed that icebergs had been melting for decades and suggested that global warming was not mankind’s fault.
“The warming, it had already started by the 1930s. That’s when there were no such anthropological factors, such emissions, and the warming had already started.”
,” Putin said in comments broadcast from an Arctic forum held in the northern Russian city of Arkhangelsk.
The Kremlin strongman added: “The issue is not stopping it... because that’s impossible, since it could be tied to some global cycles on Earth or even of planetary significance. The issue is to somehow adapt to it.”
The declaration came as the White House said Trump would make his pronouncement on the Paris Agreement before a meeting of G7 leaders in Sicily that is scheduled to begin May 26.
Putin supported his argument by saying that an Austrian explorer who had a “photographic memory” visited the Franz Josef Land archipelago “in the 1930s.”
Twenty years later the explorer was shown photographs from another expedition there “by the future king of Italy” and concluded that “there were fewer icebergs there,” Putin said.
It wasn’t immediately clear which explorers Putin was referring to and Italy did not have a king in the 1950s.
Austrian explorer Julius von Payer discovered and mapped the archipelago during an 1872-1874 expedition. The only Italian expedition to the area was organised in 1899 by Prince Luigi Amedeo, who was also an explorer. The archipelago was declared Soviet territory by the 1930s.
Putin had previously hailed global warming for exposing natural resources and transport routes which had long been too expensive to exploit. He had also once speculated that warming by “two or three degrees” could be a good thing for Russians who would no longer need fur coats.
The latest declarations were a far cry from Putin’s speech at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris in November 2015.
“The quality of life of all people on the planet depends on solving the climate problem,” he had said, adding that Moscow had “exceeded” its obligations under the Kyoto Protocol.
“Russia’s efforts have slowed global warming by almost a year. We were at the same time able to nearly double our country’s GDP over the same period,” he said.
“We consider it crucial that the new climate agreement be based on the UN Framework of Climate Change and that it be legally binding.”
Russia is warming at twice the rate of the rest of the world, according to government data, and both scientists and emergencies officials have indicated that disasters such as deadly floods and wildfires are influenced by climate change.
Russian leader Vladimir Putin on Thursday said after visiting the Franz Josef Land archipelago in the Arctic. Putin claimed that icebergs had been melting for decades and suggested that global warming was not mankind’s fault.
“The warming, it had already started by the 1930s. That’s when there were no such anthropological factors, such emissions, and the warming had already started.”
,” Putin said in comments broadcast from an Arctic forum held in the northern Russian city of Arkhangelsk.
The Kremlin strongman added: “The issue is not stopping it... because that’s impossible, since it could be tied to some global cycles on Earth or even of planetary significance. The issue is to somehow adapt to it.”
The declaration came as the White House said Trump would make his pronouncement on the Paris Agreement before a meeting of G7 leaders in Sicily that is scheduled to begin May 26.
Putin supported his argument by saying that an Austrian explorer who had a “photographic memory” visited the Franz Josef Land archipelago “in the 1930s.”
Twenty years later the explorer was shown photographs from another expedition there “by the future king of Italy” and concluded that “there were fewer icebergs there,” Putin said.
It wasn’t immediately clear which explorers Putin was referring to and Italy did not have a king in the 1950s.
Austrian explorer Julius von Payer discovered and mapped the archipelago during an 1872-1874 expedition. The only Italian expedition to the area was organised in 1899 by Prince Luigi Amedeo, who was also an explorer. The archipelago was declared Soviet territory by the 1930s.
Putin had previously hailed global warming for exposing natural resources and transport routes which had long been too expensive to exploit. He had also once speculated that warming by “two or three degrees” could be a good thing for Russians who would no longer need fur coats.
The latest declarations were a far cry from Putin’s speech at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris in November 2015.
“The quality of life of all people on the planet depends on solving the climate problem,” he had said, adding that Moscow had “exceeded” its obligations under the Kyoto Protocol.
“Russia’s efforts have slowed global warming by almost a year. We were at the same time able to nearly double our country’s GDP over the same period,” he said.
“We consider it crucial that the new climate agreement be based on the UN Framework of Climate Change and that it be legally binding.”
Russia is warming at twice the rate of the rest of the world, according to government data, and both scientists and emergencies officials have indicated that disasters such as deadly floods and wildfires are influenced by climate change.
(rnz)
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