On Tuesday, CNN twice promoted questionable claims that global warming is threatening to cause some island nations to flood out of existence as anchors Kate Bolduan and Rosemary Church hyped the foreign minister of Tuvalu recording a speech standing in knee-deep water.
Early in the morning, Church informed viewers that former President Barack Obama would be speaking at the COP26 summit, and then recalled the stunt out of Tuvalu: “Participants will also hear from Tuvalu’s foreign minister this week. He recorded his statement behind a podium in knee-deep seawater in an effort to highlight the impact of rising sea levels on Pacific nations like his own.”
A bit later, Church brought aboard Mark Maslin of University College London, and posed:
And in just few hours, former U.S. President Barack Obama will deliver remarks about the threat posed by climate change. And so, too, will the foreign minister of Tuvalu who will highlight the impact of rising water levels by standing in the waters. So how important will their contributions to this be, do you think?
After Maslin fretted that some are trying to undermine the conference, Church admitted that key countries like China and Russia are not participating as she also claimed that there is a climate “emergency.”
Later in the morning on At This Hour, Bolduan also picked up the issue of Pacific nations possibly flooding:
A powerful warning at the international climate conference this morning coming from the foreign minister of the South Pacific nation of Tuvalu, a low-lying island located midway between Hawaii and Australia. The foreign minister standing knee deep in sea water on what used to be dry land to show how urgent the crisis is.
She then brought aboard the network’s chief climate correspondent, Bill Weir, and promoted his coverage of the climate summit. Weir claimed that there has been a “conga line” of extreme weather events that are “unnatural,” suggesting that human activity is to blame.
It was not mentioned that multiple reports suggest that Tuvalu is not losing land mass to rising levels, and may even have gotten larger. Additionally, many predications made at past climate conferences have clearly not come to fruition decades later.
This environmental propaganda was sponsored in part by Humana. Their contact information is linked.
Transcripts follow:
CNN Newsroom
November 9, 2021
3:44 a.m. Eastern
ROSEMARY CHURCH: The crucial COP26 climate summit in Glasgow is now entering its second and final week, and negotiations on key issues are expected as countries are being urged to make ambitious commitments. In the coming hours, former U.S. President Barack Obama is set to deliver remarks on the threat of climate change. Participants will also hear from Tuvalu’s foreign minister this week. He recorded his statement behind a podium in knee-deep seawater in an effort to highlight the impact of rising sea levels on Pacific nations like his own.
(…)
And in just few hours, former U.S. President Barack Obama will deliver remarks about the threat posed by climate change. And so, too, will the foreign minister of Tuvalu who will highlight the impact of rising water levels by standing in the waters. So how important will their contributions to this be, do you think?
(Mark Maslin of University College London worries some are trying to undermine the talks)
Yeah, that’s an important point, isn’t it? Because some world leaders do appear to grasp the emergency our planet faces right now. But many don’t, including the world’s biggest carbon polluter, China. Also Russia and Saudi Arabia. Their leaders not even bothering to attend COP26. How much does the lack of participation worry you? And what might it signal?
(…)
CNN’s At This Hour
November 9, 2021
11:47 a.m.
KATE BOLDUAN (before commercial break): Coming up still for us, foreign minister giving a speech knee-deep in water: what his message is to the world today.
(…)
11:51 a.m.
BOLDUAN: A powerful warning at the international climate conference this morning coming from the foreign minister of the South Pacific nation of Tuvalu, a low-lying island located midway between Hawaii and Australia. The foreign minister standing knee deep in sea water on what used to be dry land to show how urgent the crisis is.
SIMON KOFE, TUVALU FOREIGN MINISTER: We cannot wait for speeches when the sea is rising around us all the time. Climate mobility must come to the forefront. We must take bold alternative action today to secure tomorrow.
BOLDUAN: Joining me now, CNN chief climate correspondent Bill Weir just back from the COP26 climate summit. So, Bill, you just spent six days at the summit in Glasgow, you’ve been covering climate for years, and I have to say, you wrote the most eloquent and biting reporter’s notebook of your takeaways this time that we’ll be posting on CNN.com very soon. I want to read for everyone your closing grab:
“It’s impossible to come to Glasgow and not pinball between hope and cynical despair. At times it feels like a global gamblers anonymous convention held in a casino. But then you see the sustainable light in the eye of an earnest soul as they describe all the things that are worth saving.” Tell me more what you learned now that you’re back.
BILL WEIR: Well, you know, it’s so messy, Kate, you know. It’s sort of a crystallization of human nature in so many ways. Yeah, there are so many activists outside frustrated that they can’t get into the hearings — frustrated that it’s just a parade of more promises that we really have been hearing from leaders of the last five American presidents. You know, back in Rio, George H.W. Bush first signed on to the idea that this is an issue and, you know, countries together have to figure it out.
That’s when Michael Keaton was still Batman, you know, and the only thing that’s happened to global climate cooking pollution is it’s gone up, so the fear is that COP26 is not going to be any different from COPs one through 25 even though it’s so in our faces that we have this conga line of billion-dollar disasters that are just obviously unnatural disasters.