CNBC anchor Joe Kernen is apparently furious that President Obama made a speech about addressing the greatest long-term threat humanity likely faces — climate change.
Kernen and former Shell executive John Hofmeister were praising the Saudis for the innovative ways they are extracting oil when Kernen broke into a rant about the president:
KERNEN: John, you know, better just set your alarm clock for three years from now. You’re not going to get a speech about natural gas and energy independence. You got a climate change speech. That’s what you got and a big one.
HOFMEISTER: That’s what I call foolishness. We’re not dealing with the real problems. Let’s face climate change over time.
KERNEN: That’s easy for you to say. You don’t have a house on the coast that will get swept in to — New York is going to be under 32 feet of water, Hofmeister, you better get with the program. [laughter]
He went on to call those who believe in climate change “enviro-socialists” and a “cult.” Apparently he isn’t convinced by the alarmists — including 97 percent of climate scientists — who warn that manmade carbon pollution is leading to an irreversible crisis of such magnitude that the question isn’t if the city of Miami will drown, but when.
Coincidentally, the hottest temperature ever recorded in the United States — 129 degrees — occurred on Wednesday.
Climate change denial by the business community has effectively paralyzed the government’s ability to do anything to avert it, reports The New Yorker‘s Jane Mayer:
Fossil fuel magnates Charles and David Koch have, through Americans for Prosperity, a conservative group they back, succeeded in persuading many members of Congress to sign a little-known pledge in which they have promised to vote against legislation relating to climate change unless it is accompanied by an equivalent amount of tax cuts.
This beautifully illuminates a point Bill McKibben — the eminent climate change activist and founder of 350.org — made in a stirring sermon at New York City’s Riverside Church in late April.
“But we don’t act, and for a particular reason, one that will be clear to those who read the Gospels. Our richest people don’t want to, because it would reduce their wealth somewhat,” he said.
Ironically, a new study says the president’s climate plan would create jobs — just not for carbon polluters like the Kochs.
