Obama vs. Donald Trump: 'You Can't Build A Border Wall' to Stop Climate Change, Says President
President Barack Obama took a jab at 2016 Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, who continues to advocate for building a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border as a solution to the immigration crisis in America.
While speaking on "CBS This Morning," Obama talked about the importance of addressing climate change, and noted that it's not possible to "build a border wall" in order to protect people from the fallout of global warming.
During the interview, Obama also talked about the $3 billion pledge he took last year for the U.S. to contribute to an international fund for developing countries like India to cope with the effects of climate change.
"Keep in mind, these are pledges over a number of years. And this is in our interest," he told CBS anchor Norah O'Donnell.
"Let's take a country like India that's got over a billion people. If they are to develop, using let's say, coal as their main way of generating electricity, with a billion people ... you're looking at an amount of carbon that would mean South Florida's gone, because the oceans would have risen too high," said the president.
He went on to make a reference to Trump, who is infamous for using anti-immigration language during his campaign trail.
"You can't build a border wall when it comes to carbon emissions or global temperatures or the oceans. We've got to make sure that people have incentives to work with us," said Obama.
Previously, Trump has called criticized the president for proclaiming that "no challenge poses a greater threat to future generations than climate change" during his State of Union address.
In response, the GOP front runner said Obama's remark was "one of the dumbest statements I've ever heard in politics."
Later, Obama clarified his statement, reasoning that terrorists can be defeated, but climate change which could destroy our planet.
"We're going to get ISIL. They will be defeated. There will be ongoing efforts to disrupt the world order from terrorists, from rogue states ... and we have to be vigilant in going after them," said the president. "But if you start seeing the oceans rise by five, six, seven feet, if you see major shifts in weather patterns so that what have been previously bread baskets to the world suddenly can no longer grow food, then you're seeing the kind of crisis that we can't deal with through the deployment of the Marines. We can't deal with it through pouring money at it."
The president also responded to Trump's criticism of his climate change remarks, suggesting that the billionaire businessman do more research on the issue.
"Mr. Trump should run back a tape or quote on some of the stuff he's said -- 99.5 percent of scientists in the world say this is a really urgent problem," Obama said.
He also suggested that the international community is working together to combat climate change, while "some Republicans in Congress or folks on the campaign trail" have stood in opposition.
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