MSNBC’s Hardball host Chris Matthews brought on liberal Bill Nye the Science Guy during Tuesday’s show to lambast the President for tweeting about the liberal rush to promote climate change despite what’s been thought of as a once-in-a-lifetime polar vortex bringing record cold to large swaths of the country.
But the craziest part of the three teases plus seven-minute interview was a question from Matthews about whether the influx of illegal immigrations from Central America has to do with climate change making that part of the world less desirable.
“Up next, America’s denier-in-chief is at it again, tweeting misinformation about climate change that shows he just doesn’t get the science behind our warming planet. He gets it. He’s just selling to the yahoos. Bill Nye the Science Guy responds to President Trump,” Matthews screeched in his second tease.
Showing the liberal media double standard when it comes to pushing climate change after a major hurricane, Matthews abruptly dismissed the 2019 polar vortex and reiterated that the planet is still in dire straits prior to reading the President’s troll-ish tweet (click “expand”):
Right now, millions of Americans across the country are bracing for a once- in-a-generation arctic blast that could bring wind chill temperatures as low as minus 60 degrees. It’s the latest example of extreme weather around the world and last summer ranked as the fourth hottest on record in the United States, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the fourth worst and that factored into the increased drought conditions obviously that led to the most destructive forest fire in California’s history last year, taking the lives of 85 people and there was historic flooding throughout the parts of the country, following major hurricanes like Florence.
Matthews teed up Nye with quotes from three current or former Republican members of Congress dismissing climate change (or global warming — depending on what the left wants to call it) and then asked: “[W]hy do people do this? Why did they come up with this comical excuses to deny the science?”
Nye responded by suggesting that “the fossil fuel industry” is behind it because they have been “introduc[ing] the idea, that doubt, that scientific uncertainty, it’s plus or minus 2 percent is the same as plus or minus 100 percent.”
“In fact, they’ve hired the same people that the cigarette industry hired,” he added.
When it came to convincing Trump supporters, Nye told him that climate change “will add to the cost of food and the other problem is growing in North America, which is the bread basket of the world, even now, the agriculture in North America is going to have to move north into what would nominally be Canada and we don’t have the infrastructure” to make that happen.
Nye fretted that, for those not taking the issue as seriously as him, he ruled that “they’ve been hoodwinked, they’ve been led astray by this group of like-minded people who feel the economic effects of getting away from fossil fuels are going to be catastrophic, but that is just simply not true.”
Towards the end of the interview, Matthews dropped the illegal immigration question, which Nye thankfully swatted down (click “expand”):
MATTHEWS: I see it in Africa, people in these parts of land with the growing Sahara Desert and the Sahel, and there’s no more arable land left, there’s no trees left, and people are moving north into Europe and in our country, in our hemisphere, it’s people from Central and Latin America moving north because how much is climate related to the migration pattern?
NYE: Well, that’s not clear about Central America but it is clear about Florida. People are going — you know, there’s two cities. There’s Miami and there’s Miami Beach. People in Miami Beach are quite wealthy and they can afford to have so-called mitigation sea walls and so on., but middle class and lower income in Miami cannot afford to have their cars flooded once a month or wheel wells of their cars flooded once a month and they’re going to move north in Florida. Where are they going, and where are they going to — are they going to abandoned their mortgages? What is the economic effect of that? This is -- it’s far reaching and it — it — I understand it’s very troubling for a lot of us to think a human species, this — just a few people on the earth can somehow change the climate of the entire world but we’re doing it and if you live in the rural area — well, the effect may be less apparent because your neighbors are so far away but it’s happening.
Back on October 10, Matthews used a singular event in Hurricane Michael to make the case for climate change. In other words, one might conclude that Matthews is a hypocrite.
To see the relevant transcript from MSNBC’s Hardball on January 29, click “expand.”
MSNBC’s Hardball
January 29, 2019
7:15 p.m. Eastern [TEASE]CHRIS MATTHEWS: And Donald Trump once again mocked the scientific reality of climate change today saying we need climate — we — we need global warming. Hmm? Bill Nye the Science Guy will be there respond to our denier in chief.
(....)
7:40 p.m. Eastern [TEASE]
MATTHEWS: Up next, America’s denier-in-chief is at it again, tweeting misinformation about climate change that shows he just doesn’t get the science behind our warming planet. He gets it. He’s just selling to the yahoos. Bill Nye the Science Guy responds to President Trump. That’s next. Stay tuned.
(....)
7:44: p.m. Eastern
MATTHEWS: Right now, millions of Americans across the country are bracing for a once- in-a-generation arctic blast that could bring wind chill temperatures as low as minus 60 degrees. It’s the latest example of extreme weather around the world and last summer ranked as the fourth hottest on record in the United States, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the fourth worst and that factored into the increased drought conditions obviously that led to the most destructive forest fire in California’s history last year, taking the lives of 85 people and there was historic flooding throughout the parts of the country, following major hurricanes like Florence. And despite all of that, the President, Donald Trump, last night mocked the rule of climate change in response to the sub zero temperatures facing the Midwest. He tweeted: “What the hell is going on with Global Warming? Please come back fast, we need you!” Believe it. One of the Trump ‘s own agencies felt the need to correct the President. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration tweeted out a cartoon image with the caption: “Winter storms don’t prove that global warming isn’t happening.” In fact, his own administration has released multiple reports indicating the drastic role climate change is playing now. In 2017, 13 federal agencies unveiled — unveiled a report that found humans are overwhelmingly to blame for climate change and last year, another report was released by the administration, laying out the devastating effects climate change will have on the economy, health, and the environment and just this month, the Department of Defense released a report that called climate change a national security issue. Nevertheless, President Trump has long denied climate change and he’s not alone. Some of the most astounding rationales put forth by prominent deniers come up with next, along with my special guest, Bill Nye the Science Guy.
(....)
7:49 p.m. Eastern
MATTHEWS: At large — large parts of the country are preparing for the coldest temperatures seen in decades. President Trump has continued to down play the role of climate change in all this, and he’s not alone.
REPUBLICAN CONGRESSMAN TOM MCCLINTOCK (CA) [on 03/09/09]: If global warming is caused by your SUV, why is it we are seeing global warming on every other body in the solar system? As you know for the last decade or so, the Martian south polar ice cap is conspicuously receded, Pluto is warming about 2 degree Celsius over the past 14 years.
REPUBLICAN CONGRESSMAN MO BROOKS (AL) [on 05/16/18]: What about the White Cliffs of Dover, California, where you have the waves crashing against the shore lines, and time and time again you have the cliffs crashing into the sea? All of that displaces water, which forces it to rise, does it not?
REPUBLICAN SENATOR JAMES INHOFE (OK) [on 02/26/16]: We keep hearing 2014 has been the warmest year on record. I ask the chair: You know what this is? It’s a snow ball and that’s just from outside here. So it’s very, very cold out.
MATTHEWS: I’m joined right now by Bill Nye the Science Guy, author of Everything All at Once. Bill, why do people do this? Why did they come up with this comical excuses to deny the science?
BILL NYE: Well, it really starts with the fossil fuel industry, who has been working very hard to introduce the idea, that doubt, that scientific uncertainty, it’s plus or minus 2 percent is the same as plus or minus 100 percent. In fact, they’ve hired the same people that the cigarette industry hired and there was — Luntz, the — the — poller — pollster, who said doubt is your friend. He coached Republican presidential nominees that to introduce the idea that there’s doubt about the scientific uncertainty, so therefore, there’s doubt about the whole thing and that’s patently wrong and it’s very frustrating for those of us in the science education community on the fact-based science.
MATTHEWS: What can you say to the people on the ground out in — the great majority, almost two-thirds of Trump voters say it’s not an issue with them personally? Whatever you make of that, that’s what they say. It’s not an issue with me personally.
NYE: I think it really is. If you ask any farmer, any professional in agriculture. The pests and parasites are showing up earlier in the growing season and they’re sticking around longer and this makes farmers have more what we call inputs, more pesticides, more herbicides, more mechanical removal of rogue weeds and stuff — and this is very expensive. So, it will add to the cost of food and the other problem is growing in North America, which is the bread basket of the world, even now, the agriculture in North America is going to have to move north into what would nominally be Canada.
MATTHEWS: Right.
NYE: And we don’t have the infrastructure. We don’t have the railroads and roads to get food from that area to where we need it around the world and, of course, it can be built but the longer we mess around and not address the problem, the more difficult it’s going to be. I claim that the people in rural areas are affected perhaps even more than people in urban areas and they’ve been hoodwinked, they’ve been led astray by this group of like-minded people who feel the economic effects of getting away from fossil fuels are going to be catastrophic, but that is just simply not true.
MATTHEWS: You know, every time I see a Koch Brothers ad, I think these guys ought to get a tax write off of this and that would be a sick thing to do obviously, but it’s in their economic interest, isn’t it? The Koch Brothers, that industry, the fossil fuel industry, gas and oil, to deny? To deny, it’s in their economic interest to deny science and that’s why they run all of these advertisements. Yes.
NYE: That’s their perception. So, if everybody — I’m not a member — I’m not on the board of directors of the solutionsproject.org, but check it out. These are civil engineers who have done an analysis of our electrical grid and they believe, quite reasonably we could go 80 percent sustainable, renewable in 15 or 20 years and 100 percent in about twice that and this would change the world. We wouldn’t need — the United States wouldn’t need to get its energy from overseas. It would be domestic energy and, of course, some of the people that are very concerned about climate change are in the U.S. military and they would welcome not having to protect oil fields on the other side of the world.
MATTHEWS: Okay.
NYE: The overreaching effect of climate change is a problem that a lot of people have trouble with, because it’s happening and it would seem like slow motion and it is literally global.
MATTHEWS: I see it in Africa, people in these parts of land with the growing Sahara Desert and the Sahel, and there’s no more arable land left, there’s no trees left, and people are moving north into Europe and in our country, in our hemisphere, it’s people from Central and Latin America moving north because how much is climate related to the migration pattern?
NYE: Well, that’s not clear about Central America but it is clear about Florida. People are going — you know, there’s two cities. There’s Miami and there’s Miami Beach. People in Miami Beach are quite wealthy and they can afford to have so-called mitigation sea walls and so on., but middle class and lower income in Miami cannot afford to have their cars flooded once a month or wheel wells of their cars flooded once a month and they’re going to move north in Florida. Where are they going, and where are they going to — are they going to abandoned their mortgages?
MATTHEWS: Yeah.
NYE: What is the economic effect of that? This is -- it’s far reaching and it — it — I understand it’s very troubling for a lot of us to think a human species, this — just a few people on the earth can somehow change the climate of the entire world but we’re doing it and if you live in the rural area —
MATTHEWS: Thank you, Bill.
NYE: Well, the effect may be less apparent because your neighbors are so far away but it’s happening. Thank you, Chris.
MATTHEWS: We should have you back regularly and we will. Thank you, Bill Nye the Science Guy, teaching us all.
