That picture used with this post’s headline is one of Ukraine President Zelensky looking on as President Biden spoke at the United Nations yesterday. Zelensky looks as confused as the rest of us were because that speech by Biden was a hot mess.
Zelensky attended the General Assembly at the United Nations and spoke. He was there to plead the case for support of Ukraine, as he does, and then he made a weird turn into climate change. It was bad enough that Joe Biden used so much of his speech to babble on about climate change. But for Zelensky to do it seemed surreal. The man who is leading a war against Russian invasion takes the time to go to New York City. Then, when invited to speak at the United Nations, he feels compelled to include a lecture on climate change. Zelensky said, “…humanity is failing on its climate policy objectives.”
UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT VOLODYMYR ZELENSKY: Thank God people have not yet learned to use climate as a weapon, even though humanity is failing on its climate policy objectives. This means that extreme weather will still impact the normal global life and some evil state will also weaponize its outcomes. And when people in the streets of New York and other cities of the world went out on climate protests, we all have seen them, and when people in Morocco and Libya and other countries die as a result of natural disasters, and when islands and countries disappear underwater, and then tornadoes and deserts are spreading into new territories.
“Humanity” may be falling behind whatever superficial objectives he is referencing but the United States is not. The United States is ahead of its timeframe to reduce greenhouse emissions, enough so that Biden set new targets in 2021. Perhaps Zelensky should concentrate on the matter at hand, not liberal wishcasting about pie-in-the-sky goals that stifle economies, shut down manufacturing, and strive to take us back in time. The Biden administration uses climate to insist we should do away with our gas stoves, ceiling fans, and water heaters, not to mention our fossil fuel-powered vehicles. Environmental activists have gone over the cliff from reasonable thinking, and many of them are members of the Biden administration. Spare us the lecture, Zelensky. Go fight your war. Biden is on your side, both in the war and in being a climate change scold.
I started thinking that maybe Zelensky is doing so well in his fight against Russia and Mad Vlad Putin that he has time to ponder on such issues as climate change. It seems particularly odd because many of the world leaders gathered at the United Nations don’t want to focus on the Ukraine-Russia war but on devoting time and energy to naval gazing about climate change. It is to his detriment that he bends a knee to the environmental activists in countries around the world.
In November 2022 Zelensky lectured the attendees of the COP27 climate conference in Egypt that as long as the war is going on in Ukraine, action is postponed. “There can be no effective climate policy without the peace,” Mr Zelensky said.
“This Russian war has brought about an energy crisis that has forced dozens of countries to resume coal-fired power generation in order to lower energy prices for their people … to lower prices that are shockingly rising due to deliberate Russian actions.
“[It] brought an acute food crisis to the world, which hit worst those suffering the existing manifestations of climate change.
“The Russian war destroyed 5 million acres of forests in Ukraine in less than six months.”
So, we get it. Zelensky falls in line with the climate extremists. He doesn’t want coal-powered plants to operate and he doesn’t sound like a fan of nuclear energy, either. Nuclear energy is considered the cleanest of energy sources, and natural gas is clean energy, too. Common sense has left discussions on climate change.
Climate change and the war in Ukraine are dominating discussions today at the United Nations. There will be a Security Council session on the war in Ukraine and a special Climate Ambition Summit. These are considered the two most prominent crises in the world today. The war in Ukraine is a crisis for European nations and can spread to be a crisis for other countries, including the United States, if Putin is allowed to annex whatever territory he desires. I’ll agree with that. However, all the hand-wringing over climate change as a global crisis falls on my deaf ears. Weather is cyclical. I acknowledge that greenhouse emissions affect the air in our environment but those emissions are being dealt with, except for in the largest offenders – China and India. Too much of the climate hysteria ends up lining the pockets of grifter activists, like John Kerry and Al Gore, for example. Their dire predictions have not come true yet they have reaped financial rewards as though they are sage experts on the subject.
After Zelensky landed in New York, he went to visit wounded Ukrainian soldiers at Staten Island University Hospital. I did not know that wounded Ukrainian soldiers were in American hospitals. He thanked the soldiers for their service and he had a photo op as he helped one soldier out of his wheelchair and to his feet. He handed out commendations to the injured soldiers and toured the facility.
During a short address to the soldiers in the room, Zelensky reportedly issued the country’s battle cry, “Glory to Ukraine” with soldiers replying “Glory to the heroes” in Ukrainian.
“Slava Ukraini (Glory to Ukraine),” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says to Ukrainian soldiers at Staten Island University Hospital.
“Heroyam Slava (Glory to the heroes),” they respond.
The CEO of Northwell Health, Michael Dowling, which owns Staten Island University Hospital, said that 18 Ukrainian soldiers have received treatment at the hospital since March.
“We have an obligation to help with the situation in Ukraine as much as we possibly can,” Dowling said in front of Zelensky, hospital staff and the wounded soldiers, according to footage captured by Sky News.
“It’s our privilege to help any way we can,” he added.
There you go. I don’t have a problem with treating the soldiers, most of them were in need of prosthetics and are in wheelchairs. I was just surprised to read that they were in New York being treated. Dr. Brahim Ardolic, the executive director of the hospital, said that the soldiers are an inspiration because of their desire to get better and go back to Ukraine to help.
Zelensky also presented awards to the hospital staff. Nice touch.
Zelensky will meet with Biden and congressional leaders this week in Washington, D.C. He will ask for more assistance from the United States in its war against Russia and he will thank the United States for its help.
