Obama Urges People to Stand against Climate Change As Trump Lies About Air, Water Quality

By Staff, Agencies

Former US President Barack Obama warned that the climate crisis "will force far harsher changes" on future generations than the coronavirus pandemic and urged people to "demand more" from leadership to protect the plant.

In a message on Twitter on Earth Day, Obama shared an Associated Press report about the young climate activists that have galvanized a global movement 50 years after Earth day was recognized, and how the youth-led movement has adapted to the current health crisis.

He said: "All of us should follow the young people who've led the efforts to protect our planet for generations, and demand more of our leaders at every level."

His successor Donald Trump meanwhile marked Earth Day's 50th anniversary by planting a tree outside the White House and declaring the US to have "the cleanest air and cleanest water than anywhere else on Earth" — it does not.

The nation's air quality has been in decline for several years, scientists and researchers have reported, including the American Lung Association's recent State of the Air report that found nearly half of the US, roughly 150 million people, is breathing polluted air.

This year also marks the 50th anniversary of the Clean Air Act, which the Environmental Protection Agency has cited for most of the emissions reductions within the last few decades. But the Trump administration has proposed dramatic rollbacks to the law or dropped enforcement entirely.