QUOTE OF THE DAY: Obama’s ‘Emerald Isles’
Barack Obama evinced a foggy understanding of Scotland during a speech last week at the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow.
THE QUOTE
The former president made the remarks during a speech in which he called out China and Russia for insufficient commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Obama at Cop26, "Since we're in the Emerald Isles" pic.twitter.com/S8lAgEKVgZ
— Irish Daily Times (@irishdailytimes) November 9, 2021
“Since we’re in the Emerald Isles here, let me quote the bard, William Shakespeare. ‘What wound,’ he writes, ‘did ever heal but by degrees,'” Obama declaimed. Our planet has been wound by our actions. Those wounds won’t be healed today or tomorrow or the next, but they can be healed. By degrees.”
THE PROBLEM
As Twitter users pointed out, Ireland is known as “the Emerald Isle” and Shakespeare was English, while Glasgow is in Scotland.
Barack Obama, at COP, in Glasgow, apparently said "Since I'm here in the Emerald Isle, let me quote the bard, William Shakespeare" in case you were wondering what a public intellectual looks like these days
— Kevin Hargaden (@kevinhargaden) November 12, 2021