Against the backdrop of extreme weather across the country, Chris Jansing welcomed Penn State University’s Michael Mann to declare that “we have less than a decade” to save the planet.
Jansing teed Mann up quoting President Biden and wondering, “So, let me ask you specifically about what the president just said, that ‘the science tells us the window for action is rapidly narrowing.’ How rapidly and how narrow is it?”
Repeating Biden’s words, Mann went full Doomsday prophet, “Rapid and narrow. We have less than a decade now to bring carbon emissions down globally by 50% if we are to remain on a path that keeps warming below that, sort of, catastrophic one-and-a-half degree Celsius, three degree Fahrenheit warming of the planet where the things that we’re starting to see now become much worse and we get extremes that we haven't seen before and so that’s not someplace we want—we want-- to go.”
For Mann, there is still some good news, “We want to prevent the problem from getting worse and that means decarbonizing our economy rapidly. That means we need legislation and there’s still an opportunity to pass climate legislation this term in Congress, if we can, you know, get a few stragglers to get behind some—some--, you know, basic policies that would incentivize renewable energy that would begin to defund infrastructure for fossil fuels.”
People paying over $5 per gallon might have something to say about that, but Mann didn’t care, “These are things we need to do now. We can't wait, because we have to get on that path immediately if we are to prevent the worst impacts of climate change.”
Starting to bring the segment to a close, Jansing hoped recent disasters could spur change, “We've only got 30 seconds, but I have to ask you, do you think that because of the economic impact, not to mention lives lost because of the extreme weather conditions, governments that have been slow to act, members of Congress who have been slow to act, might actually take more action?”
Mann replied that was his hope and used gun control as his analogy, “Well, let's hope so. We never thought that we would see any possibility of any sort of common sense gun legislation, and we're seeing that now because there's a demand on the part of the people, because people are crying out and demanding their policy makers to do something. We need to see the same thing with climate. We need to demand that our policymakers act now before it is too late.”
Just once it would be nice if a host could ask Mann or his associates about some of the past prophecies that have failed to come true, but that would require some criticism of Mann, which he does not take well.
This segment was sponsored by Fidelity.
MSNBC Chris Jansing Reports
6/17/2022
1:53 AM ET
CHRIS JANSING: So, let me ask you specifically about what the president just said, that “the science tells us the window for action is rapidly narrowing.” How rapidly and how narrow is it?
MICHAEL MANN: Rapid and narrow. We have less than a decade now to bring carbon emissions down globally by 50% if we are to remain on a path that keeps warming below that, sort of, catastrophic one-and-a-half degree Celsius, three degree Fahrenheit warming of the planet where the things that we’re starting to see now become much worse and we get extremes that we haven't seen before and so that’s not someplace we want—we want-- to go.
We want to prevent the problem from getting worse and that means decarbonizing our economy rapidly. That means we need legislation and there’s still an opportunity to pass climate legislation this term in Congress, if we can, you know, get a few stragglers to get behind some—some--, you know, basic policies that would incentivize renewable energy that would begin to defund infrastructure for fossil fuels.
These are things we need to do now. We can't wait, because we have to get on that path immediately if we are to prevent the worst impacts of climate change.
JANSING: We've only got 30 seconds, but I have to ask you, do you think that because of the economic impact, not to mention lives lost because of the extreme weather conditions, governments that have been slow to act, members of Congress who have been slow to act, might actually take more action?
MANN: Well, let's hope so. We never thought that we would see any possibility of any sort of common sense gun legislation, and we're seeing that now because there's a demand on the part of the people, because people are crying out and demanding their policy makers to do something. We need to see the same thing with climate. We need to demand that our policymakers act now before it is too late.
