Mayor Bill de Blasio’s performance Tuesday at a Vatican climate-change conference called to mind the college sophomore who arrives late to a seminar, clearly hasn’t done the reading, but monopolizes the discussion nonetheless.
Invited by Pope Francis to address a global conference of mayors on “Modern Slavery and Climate Change” (don’t ask), the chronically late de Blasio managed to miss his speaking slot entirely. (He had chosen an overnight international flight scheduled to arrive in Rome only two hours before the start of his morning speech—a cushion most people would consider inadequate for a job interview.) The audience eventually heard New York’s mayor deliver a speech on climate change straight out of the alternative world from which he governs. He spoke of impending doom for humanity, warning that “the status quo is slowly killing” the planet and that current consumer habits would “hasten the destruction of the earth.” We need to act soon to “sustain life” and “preserv[e] life for future generations,” he said, calling the issue one of “survival.”
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