Over the weekend, CNN Newsroom host Jim Acosta fanned the flames of global warming hysteria in his coverage of both the wildfires in Hawaii and Tropical Storm Hilary in California. On Saturday, he had on environmental alarmist Professor Michael Mann to link fossil fuel use to the disaster in Hawaii, and, on Sunday, Acosta wrongly claimed that it was the first time that California had experienced a tropical storm in 84 years even though there have been others in recent years and decades.
As he set up an interview with California Congresswoman Barbara Lee, the CNN host claimed: “This after the storm hit Mexico’s Baja Peninsula, and California declared a state of emergency over the arrival of its first tropical storm in 84 years.”
Congresswoman Lee was also quick to claim there was “unprecedented” weather in her state:
…we know these kind of climate events are devastating and they’re unprecedented. You look at, in my area is prone, of course, to wildfires, as you know. We have earthquakes — we have floods — we have these unprecedented tropical storms.
Before switching to another topic, the CNN host agreed with her hysteria about the climate: “Yeah, California, no question about it, has been dealing with a lot of climate change, weather-related disasters in recent years, and it just seems to be getting worse and worse.”
In fact, the last time a tropical storm came ashore in California was in 1939, but there have been others in 1997 and in 2022 that came ashore in Mexico and then passed into California.
And on Saturday evening, Acosta gave five minutes to Professor Michael Mann of the University of Pennsylvania to blame the disaster in Maui on human-caused global warming. Mann warned:
But there is no amount of adaptation that will prepare us for what’s to come if we fail to deal with the underlying problem, which is the warming of the planet from the burning of fossil fuels and the increase in carbon pollution that’s resulting from that.
Acosta followed up by fretting about land developers:
And one of the things that we’ve been talking about, Michael, is this prospect that developers — land developers are going to try to come in and exploit the situation in Lahaina, and obviously the state of Hawaii has to be mindful of that when it comes to the effects of climate change because things are only going to get worse. The developers can’t just be allowed to go in their and do what they want.
Professor Mann called for “climate justice” as he responded:
Yeah, it’s a great point, Jim, and it sort of underscores the issue of climate justice and the need for us to deal with the, you know, the climate crisis in a just manner… Now, what we’re seeing is in the wake of this climate change, you know, driven disaster, that there’s special interests that are coming in to try to exploit that. And who’s going to lose out? It’s going to be the downtrodden, those with the least resources, those with the least wealth. And so it really sort of underscores the fact that climate is a matter of justice. Climate action is a matter of justice.
This misleading hyping of the weather was sponsored in part by Etsy and Sling TV. Their contact information is linked.
Transcripts follow:
CNN Newsroom
August 21, 2023
5:31 p.m. EasternJIM ACOSTA: Back to one of our top stories, Maui’s misery. As devastating as the fires are, there are warning signs to decipher concerning how Hawaii navigates its future, and that’s what we want to talk about right now with climate scientist Michael Mann. He joins me now. He’s the director for the Center for Science Sustainability and the Media at the University of Pennsylvania. And he’s also the author of Our Fragile Moment: How Lessons from Earth’s Past Can Help Us Survive the Climate Crisis. Let’s just get right to this, Professor Mann. I mean, how did climate change play a role in what took place in Maui? Is it too soon to put a pin on that? What have you been able to decipher?
PROFESSOR MICHAEL MANN, UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA: Yeah, thanks, Jim. Good to be with you. And no it isn’t. I mean, we can talk about how various attributes of climate change sort of laid the groundwork for what played out. First of all, there’s a long-term trend towards drying in that region. It’s been getting drier, less precipitation. Temperature has been increasing as it has around the planet, but that means more evaporation and moisture from soil. So you put those two things together, you’re going to get worse drought. And so there’s a trend towards worse drought, and what we saw, in fact, was — was extreme drought in parts of the island that were impacted where those wildfires spread rapidly and did so much damage.
And there’s another ingredient, which is that the winds that helped, for example, knock down those power lines and helped spread the fire — those very strong winds were related to a high-pressure system to the north and to a hurricane — a very low-pressure hurricane that traveled to the south. That hurricane intensified very quickly on very warm waters in the Eastern Pacific. That meant that those winds were stronger — those pressure differences were stronger — the winds were stronger. An estimate that was done — that the winds were at least five to six percent stronger because of that hurricane. And that hurricane intensified so quickly because of those warm waters. Those waters are so warm in part because of an El Nino event but also because of the large-scale warming of the planet from carbon pollution — from the burning of fossil fuels.
ACOSTA: And, I mean, so much loss — it happened so quickly. Given what is taking place with climate change around the world and Hawaii — as beautiful as it is — is obviously not immune from the devastating effects of climate change. Should Hawaii have been better prepared? Should they have seen this coming? How did this unbelievable, just unimaginable devastation — how did it take place so quickly? And could it have been avoided in any way? Or was this just one of those situations where the right ingredients were present for something as bad as this to happen?
MANN: Yeah, you know, we can second guess some of the decisions that were made, and that discussion will, you know, I’m sure, go on for weeks. And I’m not sure go on for weeks, and I’m not sure if I have any special, you know, expertise to speak to some of those larger questions. But what I can say is that Hawaii has to recognize that it is dealing with an increased level of threat. Even regions, you know, places that we think of as tropical paradises. Hawaii is one of my favorite places to vacation. But these tropical paradises, we’re seeing climate change impact them. No place on Earth — even those areas that we think of as paradises — including paradise California sadly — are, you know, have been free from the impacts of climate change, from the deleterious impacts of climate change, and that’s what we’ve seen play out in this tropical paradise, so there’s a new level of risk that Hawaii needs to deal with.
Ultimately, you know, there are steps that we can take to try to adapt to this drier environment, you know, land use policies, zoning issues about how we deal with grasses that might have contributed to this problem. There are things that we can do to try and increase our resilience. But there is no amount of adaptation that will prepare us for what’s to come if we fail to deal with the underlying problem, which is the warming of the planet from the burning of fossil fuels and the increase in carbon pollution that’s resulting from that.
ACOSTA: And one of the things that we’ve been talking about, Michael, is this prospect that developers — land developers are going to try to come in and exploit the situation in Lahaina, and obviously the state of Hawaii has to be mindful of that when it comes to the effects of climate change because things are only going to get worse. The developers can’t just be allowed to go in their and do what they want.
MANN: Yeah, it’s a great point, Jim, and it sort of underscores the issue of climate justice and the need for us to deal with the, you know, the climate crisis in a just manner because climate change is impacting sort of our sociopolitics, our socioeconomics, and, in this case, this disaster, and, you know, there are a number of factors that came together. But climate change was an important part of it. Now, what we’re seeing is in the wake of this climate change, you know, driven disaster, that there’s special interests that are coming in to try to exploit that. And who’s going to lose out? It’s going to be the downtrodden, those with the least resources, those with the least wealth. And so it really sort of underscores the fact that climate is a matter of justice. Climate action is a matter of justice.
ACOSTA: All right, Michael Mann, great to talk to you as always. Thanks for the time. We’ll have you back — really appreciate it.
(…)
CNN Newsroom
August 20, 2023
7:49 p.m. Eastern
JIM ACOSTA: This after the storm hit Mexico’s Baja Peninsula, and California declared a state of emergency over the arrival of its first tropical storm in 84 years. Democratic Congresswoman Barbara Lee represents the area around Oakland near San Francisco. She’s also running for the United States Senate. Congresswoman, it sounds as though your area is going to be okay. It’s going to miss most of the wrath of this storm. Is that right?
CONGRESSWOMAN BARBARA LEE (D-CA): At this point, yes, but let me just say, Jim, we know these kind of climate events are devastating and they’re unprecedented. You look at, in my area is prone, of course, to wildfires, as you know. We have earthquakes — we have floods — we have these unprecedented tropical storms.
Right now, we have to make sure all of us in California make sure that people are safe and that lives are saved, and I have to applaud our governor for declaring a state of emergency, and our mayors — Mayor Bass, the supervisors, our city council people, the first responders — FEMA is embedded in many of the teams that are making sure that people are safe and that lives are saved. And so this is the time we have to pull together and make sure all of California focuses on the dangers before us and make that people are not impacted and that they follow the guidelines that have been put forth.
ACOSTA: Yeah, California, no question about it, has been dealing with a lot of climate change, weather-related disasters in recent years, and it just seems to be getting worse and worse.
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