From blaming politicians for storm damage, to lamenting economic growth, to blaming democracy for the lack of solutions, it was a busy Monday morning for CNN's resident climate alarmist Bill Weir as he commented on the COP26 summit in Glasgow.
Weir got going in the 10:00 Eastern hour on CNN Newsroom where he attacked President Biden's climate plan from the left, "This is a plan with an awful lot of carrots and not enough sticks."
Weir also suggested politicians are to blame for the economic fallout of storms, "$55 billion a year is less than half of what the storms so far will cost the United States. We've had -- it's not even -- you know, we just started November, a couple months ago, the storm tally so far is well over $100 billion. So the cost of inaction, people are saying, would be stratospherically higher than anything we could do you know, in the near term to sort of shore up for this and prevent the worst-case scenarios for our kids."
A few minutes later, host Erica Hill joined in on the alarmism, asking "Is there a sense that warnings, like we just heard from the U.N. Secretary General, that we're digging our own graves, is that starting to sink in more across the globe?"
Weir, trying to be an optimist, declared: "I think there's an awful lot of Greta Thunbergs sitting at an awful lot of kitchen tables, not just in the United States, but around the world pressing their folks, their grandfolks for answers on how this mess was made. Absolutely. I mean, the urgency is compounded by every drought, every wildfire season that we're seeing, every big storm, as well. But so much of this is human nature and how we're not equipped for this."
He then lamented people are incentivized to prioritize economic growth: "You don't get elected to public office or board of directors by saying 'you know what, guys, we've got to slow down on our consumption, we need to ease off cutting down the next forest in order to build another subdivision.'” That's not how the financial structures of the developed world are set up."
Later in the morning, Weir appeared on At This Hour to react to President Biden's speech. He blamed the lack of "grand ambition" on Sen. Joe Manchin, who he tried to lump in with China's authoritarian communist regime, and continued with the Doomsday prophecies:
You got democracies that are hugely messy and difficult to get things done who are struggling to meet these promises. You have one-party governments like China, because of a power crunch there, has tripled their coal capacity in recent years. So it could be argued that the fate of life as we know it is in the hands of Joe Manchin and President Xi of China largely... Humanity has no choice but to learn from the unintended consequences of the Industrial Revolution and stop using fuels that burn ASAP.
By ASAP, Weir means as soon as he, Wolf Blitzer, and Kaitlan Collins fly home, because if you've ever wondered how many CNN reporters does it take to cover an overseas climate summit, the answer is apparently three. Can't get those picturesque backdrops of medieval Scottish castles over Zoom.
CNN Newsroom was sponsored by Liberty Mutual and At This Hour was sponsored by United Healthcare.
Here is a transcript for the November 1 shows:
CNN Newsroom
10:03 AM ET
WEIR: It's really a stretch, Jim, to be honest. This is a plan with an awful lot of carrots and not enough sticks. A lot of incentives, tax incentives for folks to maybe to go out and buy an electric car, but there's no punishment for utility companies that don't switch off of coal or natural gas onto something cleaner fast enough, so you may be charging your electric car with coal, which really defeats the purpose and just to put it into perspective, that's $550 billion over ten years. So $55 billion a year is less than half of what the storms so far will cost the United States. We've had -- it's not even -- you know, we just started November, a couple months ago, the storm tally so far is well over $100 billion. So the cost of inaction, people are saying, would be stratospherically higher than anything we could do you know, in the near term to sort of shore up for this and prevent the worst-case scenarios for our kids.
…
10:09 AM
ERICA HILL: You know Bill, as we look at all of this, it just comes back to, yet again, an incredibly important issue that is facing not just the United States but the world that has been politicized over a number of years. This is not new. Coming into this, is there a sense that things are starting to change? Is there a sense that warnings, like we just heard from the U.N. Secretary General, that we're digging our own graves, is that starting to sink in more across the globe?
WEIR: You would think so, Erica, to be sure. I think there's an awful lot of Greta Thunbergs sitting at an awful lot of kitchen tables, not just in the United States, but around the world pressing their folks, their grandfolks for answers on how this mess was made. Absolutely. I mean, the urgency is compounded by every drought, every wildfire season that we're seeing, every big storm, as well. But so much of this is human nature and how we're not equipped for this. You don't get elected to public office or board of directors by saying “you know what, guys, we've got to slow down on our consumption, we need to ease off cutting down the next forest in order to build another subdivision.” That's not how the financial structures of the developed world are set up. But there's still so much hope. Humans are the greatest problem solvers on the planet as well and the same frontal lobes that made this mess can fix it with the right political will, but so much of this particular conference, again, the 26th Conference of Parties, so we've been talking about this over 25 years, this one's about trust and Wolf touched on a big one, which is trust from developing countries who didn't make this mess who are suffering the brunt of the pain, saying you guys got to pay your tab and years ago, the rich countries said we'll give $100 billion a year to the poorer countries to help them braise, help them adapt to clean energy, skip the mistakes of the Industrial Revolution. And none of that has really gone out the door yet. Boris Johnson, he upped the U.K commitment today by over a billion dollars, it looks like maybe 2023 they can start to see the-- but in India, for example, which burns more coal than U.S. and Europe, they're saying until we start seeing that money, we can't afford to get off of coal. So everything is connected politically.
…
At This Hour
11:11 AM
WEIR: Right, well, all of that is the grand ambition of what they originally wanted to do has been watered down so much, that what you really have now is a bunch of incentives for people to clean up their day-to-day lives, get a more efficient stove or car. What has been stripped way thanks to the Joe Manchins of the world would have the biggest effect, that is incentivizing and punishing giant utility companies to switch away from coal and natural gas into clean renewables, which are now hugely competitive from a price standpoint right there. So he actually changed his language instead of saying we're going to reduce by a certain percentage by 2030 he said we'll reduce it by well over a gigaton of carbon. So, to put that in perspective, in 2020, despite the COVID shutdown, the world emitted 31 tons -- gigatons of carbon. So, his pledge is, you know, in the next less than ten years, 1/30th of the problem will be cut back on. Meanwhile, China say they will hit peak emissions in the same year. So, as the United States tries to shave it and bend the curve reasonably dramatically, China will still be going up. There are experts who say they could do it sooner if they want to but that's the rub here. You got democracies that are hugely messy and difficult to get things done who are struggling to meet these promises. You have one-party governments like China, because of a power crunch there, has tripled their coal capacity in recent years. So it could be argued that the fate of life as we know it is in the hands of Joe Manchin and President Xi of China largely. But the hope here for the 30,000 delegates, presidents, prime ministers, scientists, even corporations hoping to put a green face on themselves these days is we have to. Humanity has no choice but to learn from the unintended consequences of the Industrial Revolution and stop using fuels that burn ASAP.
