On the Today show Wednesday morning, NBC weatherman Al Roker joined some of his other liberal media colleagues in trying to find a “silver lining” amid the coronavirus pandemic, namely that the deadly disease was improving the climate by forcing people to stay home.
“And an interesting correlation to the coronavirus, if there is any, any silver lining, pollution levels way, way down,” Roker declared during his weather report in the 7:30 a.m. ET half hour. A graphic appeared on screen with the headline “Vanishing Pollution,” as he explained:
This is what it looked like, our pollution looked like a year ago in and around the New York City area. Well, this year now, carbon monoxide levels are down nearly 50% because we’re staying home. Out in Los Angeles, you can see how bad the pollution is. Well, it gets knocked down completely, again, by over a half over a year ago – from a year ago.
Roker was far the first member of the media to make the “silver lining” claim during the global health crisis. Journalists on both PBS and CBS have used the exact same phrase to talk about the climate impact.
Back on March 9, CNN and PBS anchor Christiane Amanpour announced: “So if there is a silver lining to this crisis, it’ visible in the skies above China. The dramatic slowdown in manufacturing and driving has caused a reduction in carbon emissions.”
On March 19, CBS This Morning correspondent Vladimir Duthiers offered nearly identical analysis:
Let’s talk to you about Italy. Obviously that country, its people have been devastated by the coronavirus. But there is a little bit of a silver lining in some of its historic cities....This is a map, a satellite map showing you the level of pollution that has gone away the past three months because of the reduction of emissions across northern Italy.
On Wednesday, Roker apparently decided it was NBC’s turn to make the same observation about the United States.
Even as thousands around the world continue to suffer and die from COVID-19, liberal journalists can’t help pushing their environmental agenda. On Tuesday, MSNBC anchor Katy Tur hoped the pandemic would cause the U.S. to adopt a “greener economy.”
