On Thursday evening's Amanpour & Company show, CNN/PBS host Christiane Amanpour presided over a discussion of the Democratic presidential race which descended into environmental alarmism as she spoke with Telemundo environmental reporter Vanessa Hauc, who helped moderate the most recent Democratic debate, and CNN host Van Jones.
As loaded terms like "climate crisis" and "existential issue," were used to hype the issue, Jones became so hyperbolic as to complain that fossil fuel companies spent millions to make Republicans into global warming "deniers," thus derailing alarmists in "the most crucial decade in the history of human civilization and our planet."
After Hauc listed "the climate crisis" as being one of several issues the next president will have to deal with, host Amanpour made it known that the climate issue was the reason she invited Hauc onto the show. Amanpour asked Hauc to explain how she goes about doing her job, leading the Telemundo reporter at one point to claim climate change "disproportionately" affects minorities:
VANESSA HAUC, TELEMUNDO: Over the past couple of years, I have found myself more and more covering the impacts of climate change. And if you think about it, minority communities here in the States -- especially African Americans and Latino -- are disproportionately more affected by the impacts of climate change. So for me, as a journalist, it's not only my job, it is my responsibility to communicate this message to the Latino community and to tell the story of what is happening to our planet.
She soon added:
HAUC: We have to listen to the scientists -- they have given us 10 years to turn around and make a huge impact in the way that we're living, in the way that we're consuming energy. So really in order to make it happen and to do what they are asking us to do, that is to reduce our fossil fuel, our CO2 emissions by half by 2030 and to zero by 2050, we really need to start right now. That's why this election is so important.
Hauc then suggested fossil fuel executives should be punished by the government for supposedly covering up knowledge that they were destroying the climate.
When Jones got his next turn to speak, he talked up former Vice President Al Gore as a "global Paul Revere" and longed for times like the 2008 presidential election when both parties nominated candidates who believed the liberal exaggerations about global warming harming the climate:
He then complained that Republicans became "deniers" during Obama's presidency as he blamed the energy industry for spending millions to lobby them, in what he hyped as "the most crucial decade" of the planet's history:
JONES: The oil companies and other energy companies poured hundreds of millions of dollars into moving the Republican party into the denier camp -- not the camp that says, "We've got a problem, we've got a difference about how to fix it, how much market solutions, how much government solutions," but into the complete denier camp, "There is no problem -- this is a hoax." And that cost us a decade -- the most crucial decade in the history of human civilization and our planet are wiped out because of this billionaire kind of buyout of the conversation. And, as a result, we have lost critical time.
Host Amanpour could be seen nodding her head in agreement as Jones presented his left-wing commentary.
Below is a transcript of relevant portions of the Thursday, February 20 Amanpour & Company on PBS:
VANESSA HAUC, NOTICIAS TELEMUNDO: The next President of the United States is going to have a lot of responsibilities -- not only with the economy, with migration, but also with the climate crisis that we're facing here in the United States and over our planet.
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: So I'm going to bring up climate because you, Vanessa, are the first ever climate journalist to ever be a moderator, and we've taken note of that. And that's one of the reasons we wanted to talk to you. What does it mean to be a climate journalist for Noticias Telemundo? What are you doing? I mean, what do you see your mission as?
(…)
HAUC: Over the past couple of years, I have found myself more and more covering the impacts of climate change. And if you think about it, minority communities here in the States -- especially African Americans and Latino -- are disproportionately more affected by the impacts of climate change. So for me, as a journalist, it's not only my job, it is my responsibility to communicate this message to the Latino community and to tell the story of what is happening to our planet.
(…)
We have to listen to the scientists -- they have given us 10 years to turn around and make a huge impact in the way that we're living, in the way that we're consuming energy. So really in order to make it happen and to do what they are asking us to do, that is to reduce our fossil fuel, our CO2 emissions by half by 2030 and to zero by 2050, we really need to start right now. That's why this election is so important.
Vice President Biden -- what I asked him was what he was going to do to hold the executives of the fossil fuel companies accountable because we know that they knew for decades that they were causing irreversible damage to our planet, and they didn't do anything about it. They just continued business as usual. So I think this question of accountability is something that many people want to know. What is the next President of the United States going to do to hold these companies accountable?
(…)
VAN JONES, CNN: Back in 2006, 2007, Al Gore became this sort of global Paul Revere and brought the climate issue forward. And we had the remarkable outcome that in the 2008 election, McCain and Obama both ran as climate champions. There was no, "Oh, it's a hoax, it's not real, fixing it is socialism," none of that from the Republican party. McCain ran as a climate hawk as did Obama.
Immediately after that, when Obama was elected, you know, the oil companies and other energy companies poured hundreds of millions of dollars into moving the Republican party into the denier camp -- not the camp that says, "We've got a problem, we've got a difference about how to fix it, how much market solutions, how much government solutions," but into the complete denier camp, "There is no problem -- this is a hoax." And that cost us a decade -- the most crucial decade in the history of human civilization and our planet are wiped out because of this billionaire kind of buyout of the conversation. And, as a result, we have lost critical time.
