On her 9:00 a.m. ET hour show on Thursday, MSNBC anchor Stephanie Ruhle welcomed the editor-in-chief of Time magazine on the program to promote the liberal publication’s latest issue devoted solely to preaching climate change activism. Amid all the fearmongering in the segment, Ruhle and her guest declared that “there is no other side” in the debate over the topic.
“Time magazine’s brand new issue is solely dedicated to climate change and only the fifth issue where every single page is dedicated to a single topic,” Ruhle gushed as she brought on editor and CEO Edward Felsenthal. She teed him up to argue why the entire issue needed to focus on the left-wing environmental agenda.
Felsenthal made some dire declarations:
This issue, as you said, only the fifth time in our 96 years that we have devoted front to back, every page to a single topic. And that’s really because of the urgency of the problem....Al Gore and others in the issue point out we’ve made progress. But the pace of climate change is outpacing that progress. And the problem becomes even more urgent and even harder to solve the longer we wait....As Gore says in the issue, mother nature is deciding to join the conversation...
While clearly supportive of the cause, Ruhle observed that the magazine didn’t feature any climate change “skeptics,” adding: “And there are still a lot of skeptics, possibly our president is one.”
Felsenthal dismissed that consideration: “You know, we can and should debate what is the best route to mitigate climate change and global warming. The science, the fact that it’s happening, is settled. There is no other side to the science.” Ruhle followed up: “Okay, so to you, there is no debate whether or not this exists. It exists, so there’s no reason to give voice to the other?” Felsenthal doubled down: “It’s right in front of us, the phenomenon. We can debate the methods, we can debate the policies....but the fact that it’s happening is – is settled.” Ruhle lamented: “It’s stunning that there are still people who are skeptical.”
She then proceeded to read a wildly outrageous claim from former Vice President Gore featured in the publication:
I want to share what Al Gore writes about the size of the problem, where he says, “Humanity is now spewing more than 110 million tons of global warming pollution every day into the atmosphere,” adding that it is “equal to what would be released by 500,000 Hiroshima-class atomic bombs exploding on Earth every single day.”
Rather than fact check the clearly unhinged statement, Ruhle simply accepted it as true: “That being the case, how is it that this isn’t being treated like more of an emergency?” For his part, Felsenthal complained about humans being “procrastinators” when it came to taking action on the subject and hoped that future natural disasters were “ultimately going to get people to change.”
Ruhle of course concluded the interview by urging viewers to tune in to MSNBC’s upcoming “Climate Forum 2020, a two-day forum featuring 2020 presidential candidates, including senators Bernie Sanders, Cory Booker, Mayor Pete Buttigieg and more. In conversation with young voters on climate change.”
Clearly there will be “no other side” represented in that friendly campaign event for Democrats either.
Here is a transcript of the September 12 segment:
9:54 AM ET
STEPHANIE RUHLE: A brand new AP poll out this morning shows that roughly three out of four Americans say they believe climate change is happening and a large majority of those think humans are at least partly to blame. Time magazine’s brand new issue is solely dedicated to climate change and only the fifth issue where every single page is dedicated to a single topic.
Time assembled a number of climate change activists to contribute to the publication, including former Vice President Al Gore, actress Angelina Jolie and Dr. Jane Goodall. And this is not the first instance where Time has committed an issue to climate change. Way back in 1989, the magazine replaced it’s annual Person of the Year issue with the Planet of the Year issue, titled, “Endangered Earth.” Time magazine editor-in-chief and CEO Edward Felsenthal joins me now. Edward, why are you dedicating an entire issue to this?
EDWARD FELSENTHAL: You know –
RUHLE: Nothing else to talk about?
FELSENTHAL: We have lots else to talk about on the website and in every other issue. This issue, as you said, only the fifth time in our 96 years that we have devoted front to back, every page to a single topic. And that’s really because of the urgency of the problem. You know, as you mentioned, my predecessors at Time had the wisdom 30 years ago to be one of the earliest and loudest sounders of the alarm that we had an impending problem. Because we – and we have acted, Al Gore and others in the issue point out we’ve made progress. But the pace of climate change is outpacing that progress. And the problem becomes even more urgent and even harder to solve the longer we wait.
RUHLE: But from 1989 until now we’ve done some stuff to help it but have we done more to hurt? Are we worse off than we were in ’89?
FELSENTHAL: That’s – overall, the issue is, we have made progress. Awareness has gone up immensely. One of the really interesting – we have reporting from every continent in this issue. In the United States, our reporting is from Iowa, where you can see, for the first time really, climate is a major topic in Iowa, in New Hampshire, in South Carolina, with all the coastal flooding. As Gore says in the issue, mother nature is deciding to join the conversation and you see the voters in Florida pressing the Democratic candidates on climate for the first time. So we do have progress, we do have change. The issue is that the phenomenon of warming is outpacing the change.
RUHLE: But Edward, you’ve got every continent represented but you don’t have any skeptics here. And there are still a lot of skeptics, possibly our president is one.
FELSENTHAL: You know, we can and should debate what is the best route to mitigate climate change and global warming. The science, the fact that it’s happening, is settled. There is no other side to the science.
RUHLE: Okay, so to you, there is no debate whether or not this exists. It exists, so there’s no reason to give voice to the other?
FELSENTHAL: It’s right in front of us, the phenomenon. We can debate the methods, we can debate the policies. We do in this issue, and all of our coverage, debate how we come at this, but the fact that it’s happening is – is settled.
RUHLE: It’s stunning that there are still people who are skeptical.
I want to share what Al Gore writes about the size of the problem, where he says, “Humanity is now spewing more than 110 million tons of global warming pollution every day into the atmosphere,” adding that it is “equal to what would be released by 500,000 Hiroshima-class atomic bombs exploding on Earth every single day.” That being the case, how is it that this isn’t being treated like more of an emergency?
FELSENTHAL: Well, you know, human nature is deadline oriented. And I think –
RUHLE: Human nature is deadline oriented.
FELSENTHAL: It is, it is.
RUHLE: Great way to put it.
FELSENTHAL: We’re procrastinators and I think the reason we’re beginning to see more action and the poll numbers change is because people – if you’re in Florida, it’s harder to get flood insurance. You know, if you’re in Paradise, California, the tragedy that unfolded there last year with those massive wildfires. It is visible and that is what is ultimately going to get people to change.
You know, you showed the cover of our issue, which I think has a really powerful message. It’s by a Japanese sand sculptor. He creates this – our cover is literally created of the Earth and it took – I think the message is, this is going to require collective action. That cover was the work over 14 days of seven people and to me that is symbolic of how we have to come together, work together, this is a global problem that’s going to require collaboration.
RUHLE: Without a doubt. Edward, amazing issue. Congratulations. Thank you so much.
FELSENTHAL: Thank you.
RUHLE: We certainly are covering it here. We’ve got a programming alert for you, Chris Hayes and my partner Ali Velshi will be moderating Climate Forum 2020, a two-day forum featuring 2020 presidential candidates, including senators Bernie Sanders, Cory Booker, Mayor Pete Buttigieg and more. In conversation with young voters on climate change. The forum streams live on NBC News Now and Telemundo, with special coverage across MSNBC.com and MSNBC. That is next Thursday and Friday, September 19th and 20th.
