On Friday's edition of MSNBC Live, host Katy Tur took the opportunity to talk about President Biden's environmental agenda while also implying that former President Trump and Republican policies more generally are to blame for natural disasters. After her opening monologue on the subject, she welcomed radical climate crusader Greta Thunberg to pressure Biden from the far-left.
After giving a history lesson on previous Republican presidents' environmental policies, such as Richard Nixon creating the EPA, Tur argued that things have changed, "But after a massive disinformation push by the fossil fuel industry, including heavy lobbying and financial contributions to GOP lawmakers and some Democrats, there has been a shift toward devastating denial and inaction even in the face of scientific consensus."
Turning her ire specifically towards Trump, Tur tried to connect Trump's policies to natural disasters:
Over his four years in office, Donald Trump laid siege to environmentalism, he curtailed the clean power plan, he promoted coal and fracking, he denigrated clean energy. He claimed wind turbines cause cancer. He deregulated the oil and gas industries and pulled out of the Paris Climate Accord. All of the while natural disasters raged across United States and the world made worse by climate change. In fact, during Donald Trump's term eight million acres in California burned by wild fires. Last year alone we broke record for the frequency of named storms, 30 of them
The claim about windmills aside, Tur never did prove the connection between Trump's policies and wildfires--which are not unique to countries governed by "climate deniers"-- or storms.
Tur then welcomed 18-year old climate activist Greta Thunberg on to discuss how Biden will be different. Thunberg initially tried to strike a moderate tone, calling the return to the Parris Accords as "a crucial first step," but urged to him to do more.
Later in the segment, however, Tur invited Thunberg to share her thoughts on the need for "big systemic changes across governments and the world in order to address what needs to bed as quickly as it needs to be addressed."
After calling conservatives and conservative media a bunch of fearmongers on the Green New Deal, Tur wondered how climate change activism could be sold to a moderate audience, "Is there a way to message on climate change and the need to fight it? The urgency of it, but in a moderate way?"
Thunberg, in a long and rambling answer, essentially said no, "I mean, the Green New Deal, obviously, if you include crucial aspects like the aspects of equity and so on it’s very, very far from being enough... it at least gets the discussion going and you could argue that we need more moderate suggestions, because that will at least get passed, and that it can be a way as long as we make clear, if it’s better than nothing that this is very, very far from being enough and so on. And we must also remember that we can't negotiate and compromise with the laws of physics."
This segment was sponsored by Fidelity.
Here is a partial transcript for the January 22 show:
MSNBC
MSNBC Live with Katy Tur
2:34 PM ET
KATY TUR: But after a massive disinformation push by the fossil fuel industry, including heavy lobbying and financial contributions to GOP Lawmakers and some Democrats, there has been a shift toward devastating denial and inaction even in the face of scientific consensus. Culminating in Donald Trump who was not just a climate skeptic, you could call him an outright climate denier, as president, and he also called global warming an expensive hoax. Over his four years in office, Donald Trump laid siege to environmentalism, he curtailed the clean power plan, he promoted coal and fracking, he denigrated clean energy. He claimed wind turbines cause cancer. He deregulated the oil and gas industries and pulled out of the Paris Climate Accord. All of the while natural disasters raged across United States and the world made worse by climate change. In fact, during Donald Trump's term eight million acres in California burned by wild fires. Last year alone we broke record for the frequency of named storms, 30 of them
…
GRETA THUNBERG: I think it is a crucial first step that the U.S. rejoin the Paris agreements. That is absolutely necessary to avoid the worst consequence of the climate crisis, and I, well the climate activists as well, we welcome that they say they're going to take it seriously and that they say it is an existential threat. But I guess time will tell if they will really act and fulfill their promises and of course their climate targets are not in line with the Paris agreements and so on, but I guess it's a start at least, it gets the discussion going.
…TUR: You also argue it is not just about individual change, its systemic change. And what the fossil fuel industry does and what the bad actors do is put it on to the individual to say that you need to change your life in this way in order to change what is going on around us when the real estate is that we need big systemic changes across governments and the world in order to address what needs to bed as quickly as it needs to be addressed. On that subject, Greta, the Green New Deal is something that was proposed in our Congress here a few years ago. It was widely panned by conservatives, right-wing media, use it as a cudgel against Democrats, saying they want to steal your hamburgers, et cetra, a lot of disinformation. In Michael's book he argues that the problem with the Green New Deal that it was too broad, it folded in social in initiatives that were not necessarily central to the climate fight and that it enabled the bad actors to paint it with a broad negative brush and it alienated those who were a little uneasy about progressive social change. Is there a way to message on climate change and the need to fight it? The urgency of it, but in a moderate way?
THUNBERG: I mean, just to comment on that, how can we expect people will want climate action? How can we expect people to support any kind of planet action when the general pub welcome awareness is so low when it comes to the climate. We have not been made aware of what is happening because the climate crisis was never once treated as a crisis so how can we expect anything to happen when we are not treating this crisis like a crisis? And I mean, the Green New Deal, obviously, if you include crucial aspects like the aspects of equity and so on it’s very, very far from being enough [intelligible] the Paris Agreement and so on and that’s not that's my opinion. People may think that, but it is, it at least gets the discussion going and you could argue that we need more moderate suggestions, because that will at least get passed, and that it can be a way as long as we make clear, if it’s better than nothing that this is very, very far from being enough and so on. And we must also remember that we can't negotiate and compromise with the laws of physics.
