On Monday's PBS NewsHour, the show hyped the latest U.N, report on global warming that makes dire predictions about the climate's future while pushing for dramatic new regulations on carbon dioxide emissions.
As the lead story for the show, viewers were treated to a seven-minute segment dominated by global warming alarmist Katharine Hayhoe of the Nature Conservancy with no balance from anyone from the right. Never mind that the show's open highlights the sales words "Honest, Balanced, Trusted."
In the opening tease, co-host Geoff Bennett intoned: "Scientists at the U.N. issues a stark warning about climate changing, saying it's now or never for taking the drastic steps needed to prevent catastrophe."
Moments later, he introduced the first segment: "Welcome to the NewsHour. Scientists warned today that climate change is warming the planet to the point where it's causing irreversible damage in some parts of the world."
Co-host Amna Nawaz then added that the report warns of the latest decade-framed time limit for action:
The new report ... found that, within a decade, the world is likely to miss its goal of holding global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, or 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit. If or when the planet reaches that level, scientists say Earth will pass tipping points that will lead to catastrophic environmental damage...
Viewers were then shown several soundbites of U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres making his own dire warnings:
Humanity is on thin ice, and that ice is melting fast. (editing jump) The rate of temperature rise in the last century is the highest in 2000 years. Concentrations of carbon dioxide are at their highest in at least two million years. The climate time bomb is ticking.
After bringing aboard Hayhoe as a guest, Nawaz began by reiterating:
That is strong language from Antonio Guterres there, saying humanity is on thin ice, the climate time bomb is ticking. This is about as dire and urgent a report and a warning as we've heard, Why now?
Hayhoe responded:
It is completely justified. Our scientists have been warning of the impacts of climate change on humans and all of the life on this planet for decades. Yet our carbon emissions continue to rise. As the IPCC report says, the window of opportunity we have to make decisions that will lead us to a better future is closing rapidly.
The environmental alarmist has notably been called out for her views by the right-leaning Climate Depot.
Nawaz cued up her guest to make her own gloomy predictions:
That increase in global average temperature you've been trying to keep to 1.5 degrees Celsius -- that's often referred to as the "tipping point." We seem to be hurtling towards that right now. Just, as we cross that threshold, if we are to cross that threshold, help us understand: What does that mean for life here on Earth? For viewers who have kids or grandkids, how would their lives be different?
Hayhoe went on to implicate global warming in recent extreme weather events -- a point which has been disputed by global warming skeptics. She even alluded to the debunked claims of polar bears being endangered.
Later in the segment, Nawaz mildly pressed her liberal guest by vaguely alluding to critics of previous dire predictions: "some who'd said there could be a warming of four degrees or more sooner, which now looks unlikely. There will be some who look at this and say, 'Will these predictions be wrong as well?'"
But the PBS host did not push back when her guest lamely claimed that the predictions by the left have not been wrong. Hayhoe began her response:
The previous predictions were not wrong. The uncertainty is us. The predictions were what is going to happen depending on the choices we make. Prior to the Paris agreement in 2015, the world was heading towards a future that was between four and five degrees Celsius warmer than today....
This environmental activism was paid for in part by Consumer Cellular and by taxpayers like you.
Transcript follows:
PBS NewsHour
March 20, 2023
7:00 p.m. Eastern
GEOFF BENNETT (opening tease): Scientists at the U.N. issues a stark warning about climate changing, saying it's now or never for taking the drastic steps needed to prevent catastrophe.
(...)
7:02 p.m.
BENNETT: Welcome to the NewsHour. Scientists warned today that climate change is warming the planet to the point where it's causing irreversible damage in some parts of the world.
AMNA NAWAZ: The new report from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change -- or IPCC -- found that, within a decade, the world is likely to miss its goal of holding global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, or 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit. If or when the planet reaches that level, scientists say Earth will pass tipping points that will lead to catastrophic environmental damage, including dangerous sea level rise, entire species going extinct, and even greater suffering in many nations, especially the poorest. U.N. secretary general Antonio Guterrez said the time to act is now.
ANTONIO GUTERRES, UN SECRETARY GENERAL: Humanity is on thin ice, and that ice is melting fast. (editing jump) The rate of temperature rise in the last century is the highest in 2000 years. Concentrations of carbon dioxide are at their highest in at least two million years. The climate time bomb is ticking.
NAWAZ: For a closer look at the report and what can be done to change the direction the planet is headed, I'm joined by Katharine Hayhoe, climate scientist at Texas Tech University and chief scientist for the Nature Conservancy. Katharine Hayhoe, welcome back to the NewsHour. That is strong language from Antonio Guterres there, saying humanity is on thin ice, the climate time bomb is ticking. This is about as dire and urgent a report and a warning as we've heard, Why now?
HAYHOE: It is completely justified. Our scientists have been warning of the impacts of climate change on humans and all of the life on this planet for decades. Yet our carbon emissions continue to rise. As the IPCC report says, the window of opportunity we have to make decisions that will lead us to a better future is closing rapidly.
NAWAZ: That increase in global average temperature you've been trying to keep to 1.5 degrees Celsius -- that's often referred to as the "tipping point." We seem to be hurtling towards that right now. Just, as we cross that threshold, if we are to cross that threshold, help us understand: What does that mean for life here on Earth? For viewers who have kids or grandkids, how would their lives be different?
HAYHOE: One and a half degrees is not a magic threshold or a tipping point, but, rather, it is a goal we have set for ourselves knowing that the science is very clear. Every bit of warming matters. Every little bit that the planet warms carries additional cost with it. So how much do we need to do? As much as possible. When? As soon as possible. Why? Because we will all benefit from that action.
NAWAZ: And if we don't, paint that picture for us. What looks different here on Earth?
HAYHOE: Well, we are already seeing the impacts here today in the way that climate change is loading the weather dice against us. We know we've always had droughts and floods and hurricanes and heat waves, but, in a warming world, they're getting stronger and more dangerous. And they're impacting all of us, but they are particularly affecting those that are vulnerable and marginalized the most. The warmer the world gets, the more it endangers our food supply, our water supply, the safety of our homes, our own health, our economy and supply chains, the natural environment, every aspect of life on Earth, including our life on Earth, is at risk the warmer this planet gets.
NAWAZ: So this report says, in order to shift course, we'd need to slash greenhouse gases in half by 2030 and stop adding carbon dioxide into the atmosphere altogether by the early 2050s. Do you see that happening?
HAYHOE: It is possible. If we have the will to do so, we can accomplish it. ...
(...)
NAWAZ: Yeah, there are some who've said there have been worse climate scenarios predicted before -- some who'd said there could be a warming of four degrees or more sooner, which now looks unlikely. There will be some who look at this and say, "Will these predictions be wrong as well?"
HAYHOE: The previous predictions were not wrong. The uncertainty is us. The predictions were what is going to happen depending on the choices we make. Prior to the Paris agreement in 2015, the world was heading towards a future that was between four and five degrees Celsius warmer than today. And you might say, "Well, that doesn't sound so bad -- it's four or five degrees outside or inside warmer."
But think of it in terms of the human body. The temperature of the planet has been as stable as the human body over the course of human civilization on this planet. If our body is running a fever of one or two degrees Celsius, or three or four or five or six degrees Celsius, that is life-threatening. So we have already, thanks to the Paris agreement, changed -- reduced the amount of change that we expected due to policies that have already been enacted by at least a degree. But we still need more because every bit of warming carries a cost with it.
NAWAZ: This cost, as you say, have been coming for decades. So I'm curious why you think it is that the climate threat has resided in many people's minds as a future threat, not necessarily an imminent one?
HAYHOE: For many of us, it's because we haven't seen the impacts with our own eyes. We've heard about them -- we know what's happening to polar bears or Antarctica or ice sheets, but we're not seeing it here and now. Well, that has changed. Over the last year, at least one in three Americans were personally affected by the way that climate change has made extreme weather more severe.
We might live somewhere where sea level is rising, where hurricanes are getting stronger, where wildfires burning greater area, where the summers are now dominated by record-breaking heat waves. Climate change is no longer a future issue. It is right here where we live -- it is right now -- and the time to fix it is also here and now.
NAWAZ: That is Katharine Hayhoe, climate scientist and chief scientist for the Nature Conservancy. Thank you for joining us.
