Cross posted to the MRC's NewsBusters blog
On Monday afternoon, MSNBC provided global warming alarmist and Penn State University professor Michael Mann his latest forum to blame fossil fuels for extreme weather as fill-in anchor Chris Jansing hosted a discussion of recent wildfires in the West and flooding in Germany.
After correspondent Jake Ward concluded a report by claiming that "the effects of climate change" are "amplifying this natural fire cycle," Jansing introduced Professor Mann as a guest. Alluding to flooding in Germany, she began: "It really hit me as we were seeing these first slug waters come into Germany last week when the environment minister there said simply, 'Climate change has come to Germany.'"
She then asked, "To what extent is climate change to blame for what we're seeing in Western Europe?"
The environmental activist immediately blamed the burning of fossil fuels for recent bad weather, and suggested that such extreme weather was a choice made by those who continue using such fuel:
Yeah, I mean, it's really not that complicated at this point. We would not be seeing these events in the absence of human-caused climate change, the warming of the planet from the burning of fossil fuels and the generation of carbon pollution in the atmosphere. This is catastrophic climate change. It's here. And at this point, it's a matter of how bad we're willing to let it get. You know, you warm up the planet, you're going to get more extreme and more frequent heat waves.
He added:
You're going to get worse droughts as the heat dries out the soils. You put heat and drought together, you get these massive wildfires. At the same time, a warmer atmosphere holds more moisture. So when it does rain, which is the other side of the spectrum, you get more rainfall in shorter periods of time, these huge flooding events. So we see more extreme weather on both sides of the spectrum. And that's what we're now seeing play out in real time on our television screens.
As the conversation moved to the need for better infrastructure to guard communities from climate change, Mann praised the Joe Biden administration's plan for infrastructure spending.
This episode of Ayman Mohyeldin Reports was sponsored in part by Instant. Their contact information is linked.
Transcript follows:
MSNBC's Ayman Mohyeldin Reports
July 19, 2021
3:38 p.m. Eastern
JAKE WARD, NBC HEWS REPORTER: But at this point, we're looking at dozens, by one count more than 80 fires across California, and that is the effects of climate change amplifying this natural fire cycle -- one that scientists say should be part of it -- all of that making an unprecedented fire season in California, Chris.
CHRIS JANSING: Jake Ward, Raf Sanchez, thanks to you both. And joining me to talk about the science behind these extreme weather events is Michael Mann, director of the Earth System Science Center at Penn State University. Appreciate you being here. It really hit me as we were seeing these first slug waters come into Germany last week when the environment minister there said simply, "Climate change has come to Germany." To what extent is climate change to blame for what we're seeing in Western Europe?
PROFESSOR MICHAEL MANN, PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY: Yeah, I mean, it's really not that complicated at this point. We would not be seeing these events in the absence of human-caused climate change, the warming of the planet from the burning of fossil fuels and the generation of carbon pollution in the atmosphere. This is catastrophic climate change. It's here. And at this point, it's a matter of how bad we're willing to let it get. You know, you warm up the planet, you're going to get more extreme and more frequent heat waves.
You're going to get worse droughts as the heat dries out the soils. You put heat and drought together, you get these massive wildfires. At the same time, a warmer atmosphere holds more moisture. So when it does rain, which is the other side of the spectrum, you get more rainfall in shorter periods of time, these huge flooding events. So we see more extreme weather on both sides of the spectrum. And that's what we're now seeing play out in real time on our television screens.
JANSING: You've written that U.S. infrastructure is unprepared for major climate events. And, in fact, I know there are ongoing discussions in Europe over whether they should be making big investments in climate-resilient infrastructure. I think about things like, you know, building codes that are required in places where they see a lot of tornadoes or places where there are a lot of wildfires. But what more needs to be done? And how exactly does that fit into the puzzle of what we need to do to address climate change?
MANN: Yeah, so when it comes to infrastructure, look, we need a lot of spending on clean energy solutions. We've got to transition off the burning of fossil fuels towards clean energy. And we need economic incentives to do that. We need spending on that infrastructure. So part of the infrastructure package has to be helping us transition off fossil fuels. At the same time, we are already seeing devastating climate change impacts. Some of those impacts are now baked in, and we need to be more resilient in the face of these challenges.
And we need funding especially for frontline communities that are most exposed, that have the least, you know, capacity to deal with these disasters. And the current administration -- the Biden administration -- their proposed climate package does try to direct resources, especially towards those frontline communities to help them be more resilient in the face of this new normal that we now live in.