Well, it finally happened. President Trump pulled the final thread that has begun to unravel the entire world in a climate change apocalypse. Not really, but that’s the hysteria the liberal media was drumming up Thursday after Trump announced the United States would be withdrawing from the Paris climate change accord. The Big Three Networks (ABC, CBS, and NBC) were mobilized later that evening to tear into the President.
“And now to the impact in cities and states across the country where the effects of climate change are already being felt,” announced Savannah Guthrie, filling in for Anchor Lester Holt on NBC Nightly News. “And many leaders are already vowing to fight back against the president's decision by taking matters into their own hands.”
NBC’s Chief Environmental Affairs Correspondent, Ann Thompson was in full alarmist mode as she started her report. “Climate scientists say the warning signs are everywhere from Montana’s shrinking glaciers to Australia's bleaching Great Barrier Reef,” she declared. “A trend that could worsen experts say now that the U.S., the second largest carbon emitter in the world, plans to pull out of the Paris agreement.”
“That means record heat, more drought in some places, torrential rains and floods in other places, sea level rising drowning coastal areas, the world will be a mess,” Princeton University professor, Michael Oppenheimer told Thompson.
There was no mention of all the false predictions people like Oppenheimer have made in the past. According to Al Gore’s Inconvenient Truth, much of New York City should already be under water and every hurricane should be Katrina, even though some years there are no category five hurricanes. That’s not to mention the decades-long California drought that recently ended.
On ABC’s World News Tonight, Senior White House Correspondent Cecilia Vega touted the backlash Trump was receiving from Hollywood elitists and environmental organizations. “The Sierra Club saying, ‘Congratulations, President Bannon.’ Leonardo DiCaprio tweeting ‘our planet suffered,’” she reported. Vega failed to mention how DiCaprio pranced around the world on a private jet to preach to us about living with less.
ABC Anchor David Muir kicked off the program by setting a dire tone for the saying “And we begin tonight with reaction across this country and the world to President Trump’s decision to pull out the Paris climate accord.” He then added that “the U.S. joining only Syria and Nicaragua in not joining the deal.” He also showed high praise to the speedy condemnation of Trump from former President Obama:
Former President Barack Obama was among the first to weigh in before President Trump was even done in the Rose Garden. The former president issuing a statement, saying: “The nations that remain in the Paris agreement will be the nations that reap the benefits in jobs and industries created.” Adding: “I believe the United States of America should be at the front of the pack.”
Former Secretary of State John Kerry sat down with CBS’s Anthony Mason on CBS Evening News where he trashed President Trump for his decision. “Today [John Kerry] took to Facebook. He accused Mr. Trump of ‘walking backwards from science and backwards from leadership on behalf of polluters and fringe ideologues,’” hyped Mason, as he led into the interview.
“Tell me, where is the constituency in America to put coal sludge back into rivers and lakes? But that's what he's done. He's signed an executive order to do that,” Kerry shouted at Mason. “What Donald Trump is doing is serving the polluters. And serving a narrow group of ideological interests.” “That's not leadership. That's abdication of responsibility. And this step does not make America first. It makes America last,” Kerry smeared as he finished his rambling.
During his speech in the Rose Garden, President Trump quipped that he was elected to be the President of Pittsburgh and not Paris. All three of the furious networks made sure to note that the mayor of Pittsburgh had come out against the climate deal withdrawal.
All three asserted that the accord’s non-binding nature was a reason for the U.S. to stay. But they didn’t make the logical conclusion that that means countries don’t have to follow it nor that the U.S. could pursue their ideal regulations on its own. Instead, all three pretended as though pulling out of the accord spelled doom for the world and that the U.S. could no longer create the regulation they were looking for.
Transcripts below:
NBC Nightly News
June 1, 2017
7:04:37 PM EasternSAVANNAH GUTHRIE: And now to the impact in cities and states across the country where the effects of climate change are already being felt. And many leaders are already vowing to fight back against the president's decision by taking matters into their own hands. Our Chief Environmental Affairs Correspondent Ann Thompson with those details.
[Cuts to video]
ANN THOMPSON: Climate scientists say the warning signs are everywhere from Montana’s shrinking glaciers to Australia's bleaching Great Barrier Reef. A trend that could worsen experts say now that the U.S., the second largest carbon emitter in the world, plans to pull out of the Paris agreement.
MICHAEL OPPENHEIMER: That means record heat, more drought in some places, torrential rains and floods in other places, sea level rising drowning coastal areas, the world will be a mess.
THOMPSON: The Department of Defense labels climate change “a threat multiplier” fueling international conflicts. But today the President focused on the economy, claiming the Paris accord would cost the U.S. $3 trillion in lost economic activity and 6.5 million industrial jobs.
ARI VELSHI: The president sited a particular study today. That study has been widely debunked because it makes all sorts of incorrect assumptions about America's role in the Paris agreement.
THOMPSON: Under the Paris agreement, the U.S. pledged to reduce emissions 26% by 2025. In 2015, it was almost half way to that goal helped by power companies choosing cheaper, cleaner natural gas instead of polluting coal. The coal industry hopes the President's actions will ignite a renaissance but this week alone two coal-fired power plants in New Jersey and one in Massachusetts closed.
Many states and cities vow to fight climate change. California launching its own global coalition with Canada and Mexico. Los Angeles is reducing its carbon footprint with the biggest electric vehicle fleet in the country.
ERIC GARCETTI: We made a commitment to get off of coal by 2025.
THOMPSON: And Virginia is establishing its own carbon emissions standards for power plants. Many parts of America opting for cleaner energy sources with or without the President. Ann Thompson, NBC News, New York.
...
ABC
World News Tonight
June 1, 2017
6:31:09 PM EasternDAVID MUIR: Good evening and it's great to have you with us here on a Thursday night. And we begin tonight with reaction across this country and the world to President Trump’s decision to pull out the Paris climate accord. The U.S. joining only Syria and Nicaragua in not joining the deal. The President said today, it was a bad deal for America and that he was elected to represent the, quote, “citizens of Pittsburgh not Paris.”
Tonight the mayor of Pittsburgh among the many reacting, cooperate leaders speaking out. And President Trump a short time ago, fielding calls from the German chancellor and from the French president, who went on television saying, “make our planet great again.” Saying the United States has turned it back on the world. ABC's Senior White House Correspondent, Cecilia Vega leading us off.
(…)
CECILIA VEGA: He's making good on a campaign promise, but in his own inner circle, the divisions ran deep. Right there in the front row, the man who lobbied for withdrawal, his chief strategist Steve Bannon. Not seen, those who opposed leaving the deal -- daughter Ivanka. She was home, marking the Jewish holiday. The last-minute lobbying from around the world intense, but the bottom line for President Trump: American jobs.
(…)
VEGA: The reaction swift, the mayor of Pittsburgh tweeting, "I can assure you that we will follow the guidelines of the Paris agreement for our people, our economy & future." The Sierra club saying, "Congratulations, President Bannon." Leonardo DiCaprio tweeting "Our planet suffered." But the president said the benefits just didn't add up. A number of Republicans agreeing, including Paul Ryan, saying, the Paris climate agreement was simply a raw deal for America.
(…)
VEGA: But recently aides said his views are evolving. On that foreign trip, he faced intense lobbying from world leaders, including the Pope. The President's beliefs about global warming not made any clearer today. Just five minutes announcing his decision to leave the Paris accord, he declared his love for the environment.
(…)
6:35:59 PM Eastern
MUIR: Former President Barack Obama was among the first to weigh in before President Trump was even done in the Rose Garden. The former president issuing a statement, saying: “The nations that remain in the Paris agreement will be the nations that reap the benefits in jobs and industries created.” Adding: “I believe the United States of America should be at the front of the pack.”
...
CBS Evening News
June 1, 2017
6:34:33 PM EasternANTHONY MASON: Then-Secretary of State John Kerry, with his granddaughter on his lap, signed the Paris accord last year. Today he took to Facebook. He accused Mr. Trump of “walking backwards from science and backwards from leadership on behalf of polluters and fringe ideologues.” And said it “may be the most self-defeating action in American history.” I spoke to the secretary earlier today.
[Cuts to video]
Mr. Secretary, you call this an unprecedented forfeiture of American leadership. What do you mean?
JOHN KERRY: Well, when 195 countries come together working for decades and the United States of America takes the leadership in order to join with China, two largest emitters in the world of carbon emissions, to say we must begin to reduce. And then to have a president stand up and simply unilaterally walk away from that without scientific basis, not based on facts in terms of our economy.
The truth is the President-- no country is required by this agreement to do anything except what that country decided to do for itself. So Donald Trump is not telling the truth to the American people when he says, "We have this huge burden that's been imposed on us by other nations." No, we agreed to what we would do. We designed it. It's voluntary. And the President of the United States could have simply changed that without walking away from the whole agreement.
(…)
KERRY: The fastest growing job in America, the single biggest job is wind turbine technician. 2.6 million clean energy jobs have been created in America. And guess what? Half of them, 50 percent, are in states that Donald Trump won. He's going to hurt those people. He's going to hurt those states. America's going to lose economic leadership in this.
MASON: So you do think we have something to lose if we back out?
KERRY: I think we have indeed. Do you think American businesses are going to flourish when they knock on the door of a country and say, "We want to give you solar tech?" They're going to say, "You guys just walked away from the deal. You're not committed to this." That's why major companies, among them ExxonMobil, I mean, major Fortune 500 companies, all supported staying in the Paris agreement because they know what this means in terms of their job base, their growth, and economy.
(…)
KERRY: Tell me, where is the constituency in America to put coal sludge back into rivers and lakes? But that's what he's done. He's signed an executive order to do that. Where is the constituency to reduce ability of cars to-- to maintain lower automobile emissions? Why would you want to get rid of that? What Donald Trump is doing is serving the polluters. And serving a narrow group of ideological interests. That's not leadership. That's abdication of responsibility. And this step does not make America first. It makes America last.
(…)
