CBS Celebrates How Racial Justice Is Fighting Climate Change... Somehow

April 28th, 2021 4:39 PM

On Wednesday, CBS This Morning continued its efforts to forward the left’s climate agenda when co-hosts Anthony Mason and Tony Dokoupil brought on leftist Avengers actor and The Solutions Project co-founder Mark Ruffalo and The Solutions Project president and CEO Gloria Walton to promote their climate change organization. Mason set up Walton to rattle off a series of social justice clichés by gushing that “racial justice is an essential part of tackling climate change.”

Mason began the leftist propaganda by shamelessly promoting the group for being a part of the show’s “Eye on Earth” series:

 

 

As we continue our series “Eye on Earth,” we're introducing you to one organization that isn't waiting for Congress to take action on climate change. The Solutions Project, co-founded by award winning actor Mark Ruffalo aims to transition to 100% clean, renewable energy for everyone by 2050. 

Dokoupil joined in on praising the group by exclaiming that “the project has supported and funded more than 100 grassroots organizations, 95% of which are run by people of color” and contending that “climate change is obviously a global issue.” 

Dokoupil then asked about the organization’s “strategy,” which set up Ruffalo to celebrate New York’s fracking ban and its “progressive” legislation that will move the state to “100% renewable energy”:

I moved my family to upstate New York right in the moment that they were going to put 55,000 fracking wells in my community. And so my experience of this is from the frontline. My community had to fight with very little resources. It was a rural community and we had to fight literally for our lives and our children's lives. It would poison the air and the water and would create an enormous amount of pollution. And what I saw was how efficient, how effective that kind of organizing was, and how little resources you needed to actually create change. And not only did we ban fracking, but we also pushed the state to 100% renewable energy with the most progressive legislation in the nation on transitioning away from dirty fossil fuels. 

Dokoupil celebrated Ruffalo’s “good news,” which enabled Walton to spout off woke talking points in which she connected “racism, pollution, and poverty”:

I think about how racism, pollution, and poverty are interconnected. And in this time of racial reckoning, I feel like climate justice really is an opportunity to transform our systems in a way that leaves no communities behind. 

Mason expressed his exhilaration for Walton’s claims and encouraged her to further expand on them by asking “I just wanted to say because you say racial justice is an essential part of tackling climate change. Can you make that connection? How does that work?”

With Mason nodding along, Walton continued to rattle off racialized social justice clichés:

So it's no coincidence that the same communities that are criminalized and dying at the hands of police officers, who swore to protect and serve us, are the very same communities that are first and worst impacted by climate change. And that's not by chance. So decisions have been made to create a lot of conditions that black indigenous, Asian American, and Pacific Islander and other people of color communities are living with, and these communities have a history of being under resourced, and it's not coincidence that these communities are often surrounded and living adjacent to freeways, oil drilling, fracking sites, and even petrochemical plants. 

It is doubtful that the leftist climate advocates at CBS will be having any right-wingers on to promote conservative environmental solutions anytime in the future.

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Read the full April 28th transcript here:

CBS This Morning

4/28/21

8:16:21 AM

ANTHONY MASON: As we continue our series “Eye on Earth,” we're introducing you to one organization that isn't waiting for Congress to take action on climate change. The Solutions Project, co-founded by award winning actor Mark Ruffalo aims to transition to 100% clean, renewable energy for everyone by 2050. 

TONY DOKOUPIL: That's coming up. The project has supported and funded more than 100 grassroots organizations, 95% of which are run by people of color. Mark Ruffalo and the Solutions Project president and CEO, Gloria Walton, join us now. Good morning to you. Mark, I want to start with you. As a co-founder of the Solutions Project, you know, climate change is obviously a -- a global issue, but the focus of the project is on local actors. How did it come about and why that strategy? 

MARK RUFFALO (ACTOR & CLIMATE SOLUTIONS ADVOCATE): Well, thanks for having us on. It's great to be here talking about the good news of -- of this moment we're living in. I -- I moved my family to upstate New York right in the moment that they were going to put 55,000 fracking wells in my community. And so my experience of this is -- is from the frontline. My community had to fight with very little resources. It was a rural community and we had to fight literally for our lives and our children's lives. It would poison the air and the water and would create an enormous amount of pollution. And what I saw was how efficient, how effective that kind of organizing was, and how little resources you needed to actually create change. And we -- not only did we ban fracking, but we also pushed the state to 100% renewable energy with the -- the most progressive legislation in the nation on transitioning away from dirty fossil fuels. 

DOKOUPIL: Yeah.

RUFFALO: And so I saw the power of community organizing to actually effect change and -- and implement the -- the change that needs to happen in order for us to survive in this new climate reality and crisis. 

DOKOUPIL: Hey, Gloria, we just heard Mark say that he's happy to talk about the good news of this particular moment that we're living through. I think a lot of people would be surprised to hear there is good news. From where you're sitting there as president of the Solutions Project, what do you like, what do you see? 

GLORIA WALTON (THE SOLUTIONS PROJECT PRESIDENT & CEO): Wow, so so much. To -- to Mark's point, this is a moment where we have the President of the United States saying environmental justice and that has everything to do with the decades of organizing and power building in frontline communities. I particularly feel like we're in a moment that I should speak to, right? A moment of racial reckoning. And you know, I think about how racism, pollution, and poverty are interconnected. And in this time of racial reckoning, I feel like climate justice really is an opportunity to transform our systems in a way that leaves no communities behind. 

MASON: So -- so -- 

WALTON: And I say this  --

MASON: Gloria, I just wanted to say because you say racial justice is an essential part of tackling climate change. 

WALTON: Absolutely.

MASON: Can you make that connection? How does that work? 

WALTON: Yes. Great question, Tony. So it's no coincidence that the same communities that are criminalized and dying at the hands of police officers, who swore to protect and serve us, are the very same communities that are first and worst impacted by climate change. And that's not by chance. So decisions have been made to create a lot of conditions that black indigenous, Asian American, and Pacific Islander and other people of color communities are living with, and these communities have a history of being under resourced, and it's not coincidence that these communities are often surrounded and living adjacent to freeways, oil drilling, fracking sites, and even petrochemical plants. And so the air quality is often bad and highly polluted and what that means is that these communities have higher rates of asthma and other respiratory illnesses, cancer, and even higher rates of mortality, right? Than white communities. And so when you look at something like COVID for example, and they’re saying how these same communities are disproportionately impacted, it's not coincidence that these are the communities that are on the front lines of environmental degradation, right? And so if your lungs are already compromised, if you get COVID, you're going to be one of the sickest, right? And so for generations, environmental justice communities, or as we like to call it frontline communities, those most impacted and closest to the problems, are often the first to the solutions --

MASON: Yeah.

WALTON: -- and in fact are innovating transformative climate solutions that are tackling multiple problems at once. 

MASON: Yeah.

WALTON: So they're creating living wage green jobs, training opportunities, affordable housing powered by solar, addressing public health by fighting for policies to improve air quality, advocating to keep oil in the ground, and putting buffer zones between where families live and children play.

 MASON: Yeah.

WALTON: And so this is a moment where our government and corporate industry leaders need to be looking to the expertise and innovation happening in frontline communities. It's time to invest and scale community centered and --

 MASON: Right. Yeah.

WALTON -- community led solutions. 

MASON: Gloria Walton. Mark Ruffalo. We appreciate you both for joining us, thank you very much. 

GAYLE KING: Mark, could I say I loved you and I know this much is true. Congratulations on your Emmy. You were so good. 

RUFFALO: Thank you.

KING: My thought, if he doesn't win, something's wrong. Had nothing to do with climate change, but you were awesome. Nice to meet you, Gloria.