Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s got a solution to avoiding the harms of climate change: Just live somewhere else.
Pompeo gave an interview to the Washington Times on Friday, during which he addressed the Trump administration’s approach to combating global warming.
The top diplomat claimed that the climate “always changes,” and so “societies reorganize, we move to different places, we develop technology and innovation.”
Pompeo also suggested that the risks of climate change wouldn’t be so bad anyway.
“If waters rise — I was just in the Netherlands, all below sea level, right?” Pompeo said. “Living a wonderful, thriving economic situation.”
“The world will be successful. I’m convinced,” he continued. “We will figure out responses to this that address these issues in important and fundamental ways.”
In May, Pompeo praised rising sea levels caused by climate change as a boon for trade opportunities.
“Steady reductions in sea ice are opening new passageways and new opportunities for trade,” Pompeo said during a speech at an international summit on environmental protection. “This could potentially slash the time it takes to travel between Asia and the West by as much as 20 days.”
