Katowice, Poland, is hosting the world’s largest climate conference. Dignitaries, scientists, politicians, and ambassadors from all over the world have come to discuss what is happening and (hopefully) what can be done to secure humanity’s place on our warming planet.
The United States has sent Wells Griffith, Donald Trump’s energy and climate adviser. Because Griffith represents one of the most powerful countries on the planet, he was allowed to speak on Monday. He spent his speech explaining how we need to continue to push for coal because it make people money and couldn’t be completely suspended from use right away.
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Griffith: We strongly believe that no country should have to sacrifice economic prosperity or energy security in pursuit of environmental sustainability.
About 200 people began to laugh at Griffith at this point, with many standing to throw their hands up in disgust. Many in the crowd were protesters and began a chant against a man who seems to have a personal interest in, at the very least, hair oil.
After dozens of activists had shouted, “Keep it in the ground!” and “Shame on you!” for roughly 10 minutes, they marched together from the room. In the calm that followed, administration officials continued with their pitch for carbon-capture technologies to clean up coal, hydraulic fracturing to unearth gas and a new generation of nuclear energy plants.
One of the reasons for the protest, besides pointing out the United States’ current anti-climate change administration and the obvious disingenuous positioning at the conference, was to drive home that many of these conferences lack transparency—something more alarming when powerful players like the United States bring terrible policies to the table.
Watch the ruckus in the video below.