A news commentator is suggesting that India’s newly-elected Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, may be confused about the causes of climate change, notwithstanding his commitment to introduce solar power in every home across the country by 2019. “While Modi’s speech was short, it was the more than one-hour long Q&A that made the headlines,” Malina Mehra writes. “Not his statements on saving electricity or the need for toilets for girls, but his bizarre explanation of climate change, which many slammed as climate denial.” When a student asked the Prime Minister about her generation’s concern for the climate, Modi reportedly replied that “climate has not changed. We have changed…our tolerance and habits have changed. If we change, then God has built the system in such a way that it can balance on its own.” Mehra comments: “In a country that faces power cuts on a daily basis, the idea of spending an evening in the dark is not a novelty, but Modi somehow made it appear desirable.”
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