Contrasting the United States’ climate scenario with other countries, President Donald Trump termed China and India as ‘filthy’ as he pitched his record to American voters for reelection in Nov. 3 polls.
“We have the best carbon emission numbers that we’ve had in 35 years,” he said during a debate with Democratic challenger Joe Biden as winter smog hovered over major Chinese and Indian cities.
“Look at China. How filthy it is. Look at Russia. Look at India, it’s filthy. The air is filthy,” said Trump said when asked what he had done to address climate change.
Trump and his Republican allies have often dismissed climate change as a hoax. Trump pulled the U.S. out of the 2015 Paris climate agreement. The Paris agreement aims to cap global warming “well below” two degrees Celsius.
On the other hand, Biden called climate change “an existential threat to humanity. We have a moral obligation to deal with it.”
“We’re going to pass the point of no return within the next eight to 10 years,” he said.
The two candidates seemed to fare head-to-head in the debate held at Nashville, Tennessee. Trump putting Biden on the mat for his supporting a law that resulted in the incarceration of black people during the 1990s and also questioned why he had not done anything about the issues during his time as vice president.
Biden criticized Trump’s lack of effective response to coronavirus outbreak and the plight of immigrant children separated from their parents at the Mexican border.
The U.S. president has been critical of countries like India and China for their failures to tackle carbon emissions. A Global Carbon Project report in 2018 put India as the fourth highest emitter of carbon dioxide in the world, accounting for 7 percent of global emissions in 2017.
Both China and India see their large cities enveloped in smog during winters. New Delhi has also seen its summer temperatures soaring to unbearable levels.
In South Asia, Trump’s remark on India having filthy air sparked social media clashes between Indian and Pakistan.
Some American analysts keeping an eye on South Asia also noted the significance of the comment.
Another case of a negative reference to India in a Presidential debate; Trump refers to its "filthy" air.
— Michael Kugelman (@MichaelKugelman) October 23, 2020
Several Indians retorted by saying this does not affect them at all while others acknowledge the climate change bogging down the country.
Pakistani social media users exulted in Trump’s remarks, attacking the ruling rightwing BJP Indian government, which has drawn condemnations for perpetrating state repression against Kashmiris in the disputed Himalayan territory and its discriminatory treatment of Muslims and other minorities in Indian cities.
