CNN’s Christmas Eve edition of State of the Union with Jake Tapper earned itself a huge lump of coal by devoting its entire hour to climate propaganda. In other words, religious counterprogramming. It is here that former Vice President Al Gore came on and blamed populist movements around the world on, you guessed it…climate change.
Watch as Algore concocts a new climate change boogeyman out of thin air:
JAKE TAPPER: So that's- that’s the good news, the good vision, but what happens if the world doesn't act? What's the worst-case scenario?
FORMER VICE PRESIDENT AL GORE: Well, the scientist who warned us of these mega-storms and the floods and mud slides and droughts and the ice melting and the sea level rising and the storms getting stronger and the tropical diseases, and climate and migrants crossing international borders in large numbers, they were dead right when they warned us about this and so we need to pay more attention to them now. Here’s one thing they say: if we don't take action, there could be as many as 1 billion climate refugees crossing international borders in the next several decades. Well, a few million has contributed to this wave of populist authoritarianism and dictatorships and so forth. Uh, what would a billion do? We can’t do this. We could lose our capacity for self-governance.
I’m curious as to which are the populist dictatorships that were swept into power due to climate change. We don’t know because Tapper chose not to ask that particular follow-up question, or any other question, for that matter. Instead, a nodding Tapper allowed Gore to bloviate for another minute and 40 seconds before wrapping the interview.
Not that the rest of the program was any better. Tapper followed up this interview with a panel discussion on climate change, an interview with billionaire Ray Diallo on how to better bring big business aboard with climate change policy (wasn’t that the purpose of ESG?), and an appeal to authority for skeptical conservatives citing President Ronald Reagan. The show ended with a call for Big Tobacco-style litigation upon the oil and gas industry.
Other Sunday public affairs shows mostly offered either reruns of notable interviews or predictions on 2024. This Christmas, CNN’s State of the Union with Jake Tapper chose to foist climate propaganda upon their viewership.
Click “expand” to view the full transcript of the aforementioned interview as aired on CNN’s State of the Union with Jake Tapper on Sunday, December 24th, 2023:
JAKE TAPPER: Welcome back to CNN State of the Union. I'm Jake Tapper. World leaders finally addressed the elephant in the room this month when it comes to climate change, the burning of fossil fuels. That is the primary cause of our warming planet. Former Vice President Al Gore has been warning the world about fossil fuels for more than 20 years, and he is still working on the issue. He runs a non-profit devoted to solving the climate crisis and, somehow, looking to the future with hope that maybe human beings can change.
And joining me now is former Vice President, Al Gore. Vice President Gore, thanks so much for joining us. So Mr. Vice President, 2023, officially the hottest year on record. Deadly heat waves, catastrophic floods, devastating wildfires. More powerful storms. We've gotten dangerously close to the 1.5-degree Celsius threshold beyond which experts say humanity and the planet will struggle to adapt. What do you think 2024 will look like?
AL GORE: Well, we still have the ability to seize control of our destiny. Here’s the good news, Jake. If we stop adding to the overburden of these greenhouse gas pollutants in the sky, if we reach what they call true net zero and stop adding to the heat trapping capacity up there, the temperatures will stop going up right away. And if we stay at true net zero, half of the human-caused greenhouse pollution will fall out of the atmosphere in as little as 25 to 30 years. We have the ability to do this. And it's not impractical, because we now have the cheapest new source of energy in the history of the world with solar electricity and wind electricity and the electric vehicles reached 20% of sales globally this year. The batteries are- we had one giga factory several years ago, now there are 200 and another 400 being built. You know, a long time ago, one of the Saudi Arabian oil ministers said, we better remember, the stone age didn't end because of a shortage of stones, it ended because something better came along. We've got something better now. We can do this if we just overcome the greed and political power of the big fossil fuel polluters who’ve been trying to control this process. It's time for people at the grassroots level in every country to speak up and the good news is, that's happening, too.
TAPPER: So you say we can fix this. What needs to happen?
GORE: Well, we need to- we need to break through this blockade that the fossil fuel industry and the big petro states have been using to block progress. We also need to reform this U.N. process, because it requires what they call consensus now, which is similar to requiring it to be unanimous if the president of the COP decides that they don't see any objections, then he declares there's a consensus. And that's why it's so important that that person who's in charge of the process not have a direct conflict of interest. We have to make a decision to get past fossil fuels and start accelerating the shift over to renewable energy and efficiency. And, you know, this is beginning to happen, anyway, Jake. Last year, if you look at all of the new electricity generation installed worldwide, 80% of it was solar and wind. In India, it was 93%. It's cheaper now. And it creates three times as many new jobs for each dollar invested compared to dollars invested in the old dirty polluting fossil fuels. So we have what we need. The International Energy Agency says that we've got all of the solutions that we need with proven deployment models to cut the emissions in half this decade. And we've got a clear line of sight to get the rest of it done before mid-century. So we can do this. The only thing that we need is sufficient political will, but as many pointed out, political will is itself a renewable resource, and these young people around the world are helping the world to renew it.
TAPPER: So that's- that’s the good news, the good vision, but what happens if the world doesn't act? What's the worst-case scenario?
GORE: Well, the scientist who warned us of these mega-storms and the floods and mud slides and droughts and the ice melting and the sea level rising and the storms getting stronger and the tropical diseases, and climate and migrants crossing international borders in large numbers, they were dead right when they warned us about this and so we need to pay more attention to them now. Here’s one thing they say: if we don't take action, there could be as many as 1 billion climate refugees crossing international borders in the next several decades. Well, a few million has contributed to this wave of populist authoritarianism and dictatorships and so forth. Uh, what would a billion do? We can’t do this. We could lose our capacity for self-governance. Already, we're seeing people driven from the places they've always called home, and we're seeing an expansion of areas in the world that are physiologically unlivable now, because of the combination of heat and humidity. They're relatively small areas now, but if we don't act, they will expand to include most of India, large parts of northern South America, the Philippines, Indonesia, Pakistan, the list goes on. The survival of our civilization is at stake. And it sounds dire, but it is dire. And, but again, the good news is, we can reclaim control of our destiny if we summon the political will and the courage and the moral courage to do it. You know, there's a European politician, Claude Juncker who said, we all know how to do, we just don't know how to be re-elected if we do it. Well, this is why grassroots pressure from people who understand how high the stakes are is the critical element. And the good news again is, people are rising up and demanding action. Your new CNN poll shows that more than three quarters of Americans including a majority- 76% of independents, more than half of Republicans, support action. We just have to break the political power that the fossil fuel industry has exerted with its fixers and its lobbyists, and its bags of money, its revolving-door colleagues. But we can do this, Jake. We can do it.
TAPPER: Vice President Al Gore. Thank you so much for your time today, sir.
GORE: Thank you, Jake.
