On Saturday night, CNN host Pamela Brown brought onto her show liberal educator and environmental alarmist Bill Nye to link the recent tornadoes that hit Kentucky to global warming and the burning of fossil fuels.
The two even went on to speculate that it will someday stop snowing in most parts of the United States, even though liberals have been making this prediction for decades.
Brown set up the segment linking global warming to recent examples of extreme weather:
A December unlike any other. Record heat is fueling weather-related disasters at an unprecedented rate. Earlier this week, unseasonably warm weather brought Minnesota its first December tornado in its history. That was just one of many tornadoes to rip through the central U.S. December is typically a modest month for tornadoes -- on average, only 23 nationwide. But in 2021, 116 have been reported this month already.
She then blamed human activity for these catastrophes:
This isn't just a U.S problem, it's a global one. A super typhoon has devastated the Philippines this week, leaving dozens of people dead. Experts agree that warming temperatures are making typhoons, hurricanes, and cyclones more intense and destructive. The common thread among these disasters is the human factor. Are we taking the proper steps to curb climate change? No. That's the answer. In fact, the world is posed to burn a record amount of coal next year, undermining efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
After bringing aboard Nye as her guest, Brown fretted over melting ice in Antarctica:
We are seeing the results of human-caused global warming in our own backyards. But some of the most alarming changes are in Antarctica. A critical ice shelf safeguarding the, quote, "doomsday glacier," is at risk of falling. It's the size of Florida. So what happens to sea levels if the doomsday glacier falls into the ocean?
Nye predicted that rising sea levels would cause much disruption as people have to relocate to higher ground, and then blamed the fossil fuel industry for discouraging people from taking the danger seriously:
And this gets back to the old problem that we've been talking about for 30 years where scientific concerns have not been heeded by governments -- by people around the world because generally the fossil fuel industry has been very successful in introducing this idea that scientific uncertainty.
Ignored was the argument that western Antarctica has historically been more prone to melting because of volcanic activity while ice is currently increasing in the eastern part of Antarctica.
And even though extreme tornado activity in the U.S. is not unprecedented, Nye suggested that the tornadoes in Kentucky might have a silver lining in getting more people to take global warming seriously, and again complained about the world's use of coal for energy:
And as you point out, the plan is to burn more coal next year than we did this year -- and I say, "we," humankind -- because coal is everywhere. It's just everywhere -- we'll never run out of coal. But we can't do that anymore. We got to stop -- we got to do things a new, better way.
Brown then brought up the decreased likelihood of snow on Christmas this year, and asked if it was likely that snow would become a "rarity" in the U.S. someday, leading Nye to speculate that it probably would be.
This episode of CNN Newsroom with Pamela Brown was sponsored in part by Walgreen's Their contact information is linked.
Transcript follows:
CNN Newsroom
December 18, 2021
8:41 p.m. Eastern
PAMELA BROWN: A December unlike any other. Record heat is fueling weather-related disasters at an unprecedented rate. Earlier this week, unseasonably warm weather brought Minnesota its first December tornado in its history. That was just one of many tornadoes to rip through the central U.S. December is typically a modest month for tornadoes -- on average, only 23 nationwide. But in 2021, 116 have been reported this month already.
This isn't just a U.S problem, it's a global one. A super typhoon has devastated the Philippines this week, leaving dozens of people dead. Experts agree that warming temperatures are making typhoons, hurricanes, and cyclones more intense and destructive. The common thread among these disasters is the human factor. Are we taking the proper steps to curb climate change?
No. That's the answer. In fact, the world is posed to burn a record amount of coal next year, undermining efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions. I want to bring in science educator Bill Nye. Thank you so much for joining us tonight, So, Bill, we are seeing the results of human-caused global warming in our own backyards. But some of the most alarming changes are in Antarctica. A critical ice shelf safeguarding the, quote, "doomsday glacier," is at risk of falling. It's the size of Florida. So what happens to sea levels if the doomsday glacier falls into the ocean?
BILL NYE, SCIENCE EDUCATOR: Well, it's estimated the ocean will rise about a half a meter -- 20 inches, 19 inches -- which is, you say, "Well, I've been around 19 inches of snow or something like that," but this would be catastrophic. A place like Florida would be -- southern Florida would be under water. And the problem with that is that people will leave. Where are they going to go? What are they going to do when they leave? It won't happen instantly, but it'll happen fast enough.
And this gets back to the old problem that we've been talking about for 30 years where scientific concerns have not been heeded by governments -- by people around the world because generally the fossil fuel industry has been very successful in introducing this idea that scientific uncertainty. When will the glacier fall? Tomorrow? Ten years from now? Well, that's too uncertain. The scientific uncertainty is somehow the same as doubt about the whole thing. And this is leading to catastrophes big enough where I think people are noticing them.
BROWN: Right, so, I mean, on that note, if it can take decades as we know to see, for example, the fallout from rising sea levels, so how do you convince people that now is the time to act when it's so hard to visualize?
NYE: Well, it's -- I don't think it's that hard to visualize right now. The tornadoes that -- or the very large tornado that swept through Kentucky set all kinds of records. It was on the ground for two and a half hours -- went over 200 statued miles -- tore up everything. In December. So I think people will now be able to see that these predictions that scientists have been making -- climate scientists have been making for decades, 30 years -- since 1988 anyway when James Hanson testified in front of the U.S. Congress about this.
People are seeing it in their own front and back yards, so maybe now, this could be the -- a good thing that comes out of these disasters is we will take it seriously. And as you point out, the plan is to burn more coal next year than we did this year -- and I say, "we," humankind -- because coal is everywhere. It's just everywhere -- we'll never run out of coal. But we can't do that anymore. We got to stop -- we got to do things a new, better way.
BROWN: This week, NOAA released its white Christmas probabilities. Unsurprisingly, most of the country's white Christmas odds have decreased. Are we looking at a future where snow on Christmas is a rarity in any part of the country?
NYE: I'm not an expert on that, but probably...
