Eager to help sell the Biden administration’s radical climate change agenda, on Friday, CBS This Morning aired a fawning interview with former Secretary of State turned climate envoy John Kerry that invited him to warn of the supposed coming environmental apocalypse and urged “more aggressive” government regulation of fossil fuel emissions.
“Today the U.S. officially rejoins the Paris Climate Accord. America is currently the second largest emitter, behind China, of greenhouse gases that are warming the planet,” co-host Tony Dokoupil heralded as he introduced the segment. The morning show anchor then lamented: “In 2017, former President Trump announced he was pulling out of the landmark deal signed by more than 190 nations, which was designed to help cut global carbon emissions.”
Correspondent Ben Tracy began by blaming recent “wild winter weather” on climate change and fretted that “someday we may just call this normal.” Turning to Kerry, he worried: “Some people get hung up on the term ‘global warming’ and say, ‘Well, I thought everything’s supposed to get warmer.’” Kerry assured him: “It is directly related to the warming, even though your instinct is to say, wait a minute, this is the new ice age, but it’s not. It is coming from the global warming, and it threatens all the normal weather patterns.”
Tracy continued engaging in fearmongering in order to tee up Kerry’s talking points:
The planet is warming in large part because of the greenhouse gas emissions we pump into the sky from our power plants, our cars, trains, and planes, and even from raising and growing our food. That warming makes storms stronger, droughts dryer, and oceans higher. That means certain places on Earth where people live will become unlivable.
The reporter conveniently never asked Kerry about owning a private jet. Instead, Tracy wondered: “How much time do we still have left to avert climate catastrophe?” Kerry sounded the alarm, claiming humans only “have nine years left” to avert disaster.
“And that’s where Paris comes in. The climate accord named after the city of lights where it was agreed to back in 2015,” Tracy declared. However, he told viewers that it would no longer be enough: “But the pledges from nearly every country on Earth to cut their planet-warming emissions will no longer cut it.” In another softball to Kerry, he hoped the Biden administration would be “more aggressive” in dictating job-killing environmental regulations: “How much more aggressive do we now need to be to really solve this problem?”
Despite being on to tout the U.S. rejoining the Paris Climate Accords, Kerry seemed to argue it was a futile gesture: “Even if we did everything that we said we were going to do when we signed up in Paris, we would see a rise in the Earth’s temperature to somewhere around 3.7 degrees or more, which is catastrophic.”
Tracy commiserated with Kerry having “watched his signature accomplishment be erased by former President Trump” in 2017, though joyously touted how fossil fuel industry jobs have been lost since:
The Trump administration rolled back more than 100 environmental regulations. But guess what? Renewable energy, all those wind turbines and solar panels, are now much cheaper and are providing record amounts of energy in the U.S., putting some coal plants out of business. And it’s not just Tesla making luxury cars that run on batteries. General Motors just announced it will go mostly electric by 2035. Kerry says that’s great, but we need to transition to clean energy much faster. And yes, that will both create and cost jobs. The new climate envoy says there’s been too little action and too much hot air.
A soundbite followed of Kerry lecturing: “There is no room for BS anymore, there’s no faking it on this one.”
Wrapping up the glowing report, Tracy enthused: “So the next thing is for the Biden administration to announce a much more ambitious emissions target....The overall goal is to get to net zero emissions by 2050.” He admitted it was “not going to be easy,” prompting co-host Anthony Mason to note that “the clock is ticking.”
The hypocrisy of a wealthy jet-setter like Kerry scolding anyone else about carbon emissions should have been the first thing he was asked by any legitimate journalist. Instead, that was completely ignored in favor of CBS pushing the Democratic Party agenda.
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Here is a full transcript of the February 19 segment:
8:03 AM ET
TONY DOKOUPIL: Today the U.S. officially rejoins the Paris Climate Accord. America is currently the second largest emitter, behind China, of greenhouse gases that are warming the planet. We’re the biggest all-time, so cumulatively, but right now second. In 2017, former President Trump announced he was pulling out of the landmark deal signed by more than 190 nations, which was designed to help cut global carbon emissions. For our continuing series Eye on Earth, Ben Tracy spoke exclusively with former Secretary of State John Kerry, who is now the Biden administration’s climate envoy.
[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Renewing the Climate Fight; John Kerry on U.S. Rejoining Paris Accord & Ambitious New Goals]
BEN TRACY: The wild winter weather this week has been called historic and unprecedented. But someday we may just call this normal.
JOHN KERRY: And obviously we want to prevent this from becoming the new normal to the degree that we can.
TRACY: Some people get hung up on the term “global warming” and say, “Well, I thought everything’s supposed to get warmer.” I heard one scientist say this is really “global weirding.” Is that a better way to think of this?
KERRY: I think it’s a very appropriate way to think of it. It is directly related to the warming, even though your instinct is to say, wait a minute, this is the new ice age, but it’s not. It is coming from the global warming, and it threatens all the normal weather patterns.
TRACY: The planet is warming in large part because of the greenhouse gas emissions we pump into the sky from our power plants, our cars, trains, and planes, and even from raising and growing our food. That warming makes storms stronger, droughts dryer, and oceans higher. That means certain places on Earth where people live will become unlivable.
How much time do we still have left to avert climate catastrophe?
KERRY: Well, the scientists told us three years ago we had 12 years to avert the worst consequences of the climate crisis. We are now three years gone, so we have nine years left.
TRACY: And that’s where Paris comes in. The climate accord named after the city of lights where it was agreed to back in 2015. But the pledges from nearly every country on Earth to cut their planet-warming emissions will no longer cut it.
How much more aggressive do we now need to be to really solve this problem?
KERRY: Even if we did everything that we said we were going to do when we signed up in Paris, we would see a rise in the Earth’s temperature to somewhere around 3.7 degrees or more, which is catastrophic.
TRACY: Then-Secretary of State Kerry signed the Paris accord in 2016. That’s his granddaughter Isabelle on his lap. About a year later, he watched his signature accomplishment be erased by former President Trump.
DONALD TRUMP: I was elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris.
TRACY: The Trump administration rolled back more than 100 environmental regulations. But guess what? Renewable energy, all those wind turbines and solar panels, are now much cheaper and are providing record amounts of energy in the U.S., putting some coal plants out of business. And it’s not just Tesla making luxury cars that run on batteries. General Motors just announced it will go mostly electric by 2035. Kerry says that’s great, but we need to transition to clean energy much faster. And yes, that will both create and cost jobs. The new climate envoy says there’s been too little action and too much hot air.
KERRY: There is no room for BS anymore, there’s no faking it on this one.
TRACY: So the next thing is for the Biden administration to announce a much more ambitious emissions target. They say they’re going to do that by Earth Day in April. And then later this year in Scotland, all the countries that signed the Paris agreement, they’ll get back together and formalize their new targets. The overall goal is to get to net zero emissions by 2050. But Anthony, that is not going to be easy.
ANTHONY MASON: No, the clock is ticking, Ben. Thank you very much.
