CNN’s climate reporter Bill Weir said Friday that “life on Earth” could possibly be affected if former President Donald Trump is elected for a second term this November.
After Vice President Kamala Harris was nominated as her party’s presidential candidate, she faced backlash for flip-flopping on left-wing policies, specifically those related to fracking. On “CNN News Central,” Weir argued against Trump, showing video clips of the former president’s criticisms of environmentalism over the years and his supposed questioning of science.
“Going back through presidential election history, it’s hard to find a more consequential and divisive choice right now. Imagine if Abraham Lincoln had lost in the 1860s or if Reagan had ignored the generals about the Soviet Union. The American experiment might have ended, but life on earth may not have noticed,” Weir said.
“Science knows. Science really knows. But Project 2025 and the president himself have vowed to roll back any climate progress on day one. Here’s some of the promises: Tailpipe emissions, all of the pollution limits on power plants and methanes, pulling the United States out of the Paris Accords — probably for the final time, just pulling out of negotiations as well, signaling to the world that the U.S. is not going to play in this,” Weir added. “Meanwhile, China, Europe, other countries, that clean energy revolution is happening at a staggering rate, but it’s also happening in the United States. Most of the inflation reduction money is being spent in Republican districts, 75%. Texas leads the nation in clean energy installation just because it makes the most economic sense these days. Exactly.”
Weir continued to state that despite Harris “not talking” about the issue the “way climate voters would love to see her put it on the forefront,” he believes her campaign “promises and literature” are more friendly towards the push for environmental policies.
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“So a Harris win is not going to refreeze Greenland, or it’s not going to de-escalate these rapidly intensifying hurricanes,” Weir noted. “But it would obviously continue this momentum. And there’s so much, hundreds of billions of dollars in private investment that are following the Inflation Reduction Act money right now. Bill Gates told me that what he really worries about is a signal to the rest of the world.”
“Because if you’re deciding on whether to build a power plant now, it’s a 30-year decision. And if the U.S. seems squirrely and they can’t make up their mind, they’re going to go build it somewhere else. That’s what he’s thinking about from a pragmatic business standpoint,” Weir said.
While Harris has tried to convey a moderate stance on issues like fracking and climate change, a radical climate protest group called Climate Defiance endorsed the vice president after a September meeting, stating they chose to support her because she “is the leader we can pressure and move.”
A recent report from Bloomberg News claims environmental activists have already begun to draft a wishlist of policies to be implemented if Harris were to win the election, which reportedly included measures like invoking emergency powers to effectively ban crude oil exports.
Featured Image Credit: Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America
