In the aftermath of President Biden's Wednesday announcements of new executive orders to curb global warming, MSNBC host Katy Tur opened her MSNBC Live show with the "news" that it was "a big step forward," that Facts and Science had arrived at the White House, ending four years of Climate Denial. It was that stark a paradigm shift. There was palpable relief that Democrats were back in charge.
KATY TUR: President Biden just took a big step forward on climate policy after four years of denial under President Trump. President Biden is now using the power of the presidency to label climate change an imminent and potentially catastrophic crisis for this country's future
Just minutes ago, the President signed a number of executive orders on the climate, including a ban on gas and oil development on federal land and an increase of conservation of land and water. The President committed to facing the country's climate policy on facts and science -- not hearsay and conspiracy. And he declares unequivocally that the climate is an issue of national security...
It had rhetorical swagger, and yet it carried a tone of panic that we should all fear for our lives. Echoing a clip of climate envoy John Kerry speaking on the issue, Tur called climate change an "existential threat."
Tur fretted that Biden's agenda may be doomed in Congress, and then further fearmongered: "Today, the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists announced its Doomsday Clock remains at 100 seconds to midnight, citing climate change as a key factor as to why it believes we are perilously close to a human-caused apocalypse." This metaphorical clock used to be used to scare us about a nuclear holocaust during the Cold War. Doom never happened. But the clock is still a public-relations ploy.
Tur spent the first 17 minutes of her show with unanimously liberal guests to talk up President Biden's plans. After NBC meteorologist and Today show regular Al Roker blamed recent extreme weather events on climate change, Pennsylvania State University's Michael Mann reiterated Roker's hyping recent storms and natural disasters. Here's Mann:
Climate change has become so profound that we now see it playing out literally in unprecedented weather events. It used to be about polar bears off in the Arctic -- now, it's about unprecedented heat, heat waves, droughts, wildfires, super storms, floods that are costing us in real time more than $100 billion in the U.S. last year as a result of climate-related extreme weather events. So the cost of inaction -- of not taking action -- is now far greater than the cost -- than any cost of taking action.
The closest the MSNBC host came to challenging her liberal guests came when she pressed from the left by asking former Barack Obama advisor John Podesta if the Obama White House should have done more to push a climate agenda.
In the next segment, Tur brought aboard radical Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) to further discuss the prospects for passage of Biden's $2 trillion climate proposal in Congress.
This episode of MSNBC Live with Katy Tur was sponsored in part by Liberty Mutual. Their contact information is linked.
Transcript follows:
MSNBC Live with Katy Tur
January 27, 2021
2:00 p.m. Eastern
KATY TUR: President Biden just took a big step forward on climate policy after four years of denial under President Trump. President Biden is now using the power of the presidency to label climate change an imminent and potentially catastrophic crisis for this country's future. Just minutes ago, the President signed a number of executive orders on the climate, including a ban on gas and oil development on federal land and an increase of conservation of land and water. The President committed to facing the country's climate policy on facts and science -- not hearsay and conspiracy. And he declares unequivocally that the climate is an issue of national security -- a sentiment his climate czar, John Kerry, echoes this morning.
JOHN KERRY: The stakes on climate change just couldn't be higher right now. It is existential -- a word we too easily throw away -- but we have a big agenda in front of us on a global basis, and President Biden is deeply committed -- totally seized by this issue as you can tell by this executive order.
TUR: Of course, executive action can only go so far, and these orders do little to curb the existential threat that is a warming climate. As the New York Times put it this week, quote, "The programs and proclamations are supposed to signal that climate change is back on the government agenda, bigger than ever. What they will not deliver, however -- at least, not yet -- is a steep and rapid reduction in greenhouse gases."
For that, the President is going to need help from Congress. His $2 trillion climate plan appears dead on arrival in the Senate, but, after four years of inaction or worsening action, is there time to hash it out? Today, the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists announced its Doomsday Clock remains at 100 seconds to midnight, citing climate change as a key factor as to why it believes we are perilously close to a human-caused apocalypse. When you put it like that.
Joining me now is Today show co-host Al Roker; former counselor to President Obama on climate and energy policy, John Podesta; and Penn State distinguished professor of atmospheric science, Michael Mann. Gentlemen, welcome.
So one of the arguments against going big and going fast, Al, is that climate change is in the future -- we can put it off -- we have time. You've been covering this -- as we all have -- for a long time. Talk to me about what we've seen in the last year alone that shows climate change is already upon us and is already quite deadly.
(AL ROKER)
Michael, go on from that for us. What does the science say is coming?
MICHAEL MANN, PENNYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY: Yeah, well, I could geek out all day listening to Al Roker talk about El Nino, and we do have natural climate variability, but climate change has become so profound that we now see it playing out literally in unprecedented weather events. It used to be about polar bears off in the Arctic -- now, it's about unprecedented heat, heat waves, droughts, wildfires, super storms, floods that are costing us in real time more than $100 billion in the U.S. last year as a result of climate-related extreme weather events. So the cost of inaction -- of not taking action -- is now far greater than the cost -- than any cost of taking action.
TUR: So, John, what I was struck by just then was the degree to which Joe Biden went out of his way to tweak the messaging on climate to tie it directly to jobs. He said, at the outset, "It's climate day at the White House, which means it is also jobs day at the White House." One of the days that climate deniers or people who are against addressing climate change have pushed back on big legislative bills and new regulations was that they would call them job killers. You' hear this especially in oil country or in coal country. Are they going to be able to break through? Or what are they doing differently today that will potentially be able to break through and get the message across that, "Hey, listen, these aren't job killers -- these are job creators"?
