Bizarre Tucker Carlson Guest Rambles About ‘Climate Vaccines,’ ‘Phony Climate War’

Remember when Tucker Carlson claimed local weather activists wish to shrink America’s youngsters? Well, buckle up: The Fox News host aired one other nonsense climate segment on his show on Monday evening, throughout which his visitor mused that the Left might have “climate vaccines” and Carlson—surprisingly—pitched an concept that now we have endorsed on this very web site. Because I’m a saint, I watched all of it so that you don’t must. Let’s get began!

The phase begins with an outdated trope: non-public jet use by liberal politicians. This time, it was Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg’s flip into the new seat. For his opening monologue, Carlson launched into an prolonged riff evaluating Buttigieg’s (comparatively tame) concentrate on carbon emissions in transportation to a faith during which, in Carlson’s thoughts, Buttigieg is a central, priest-like figurehead. “Our climate, who art in heaven,” is one in every of Carlson’s jokes right here. Doesn’t fairly work, Tuck—assume you need to ship that one again to the author’s room.

The gotcha right here, in fact, is that Buttigieg, like principally each different high-powered particular person and politician, makes use of non-public jets for a few of his journey. “Reverend Pete is the Jimmy Swaggart of climate clergy,” Carlson says, evaluating him to the favored and disgraced Eighties televangelist. He goes on to call and disgrace different “climate activists” for flying non-public, together with Jeff Bezos and Taylor Swift. Not certain if Swift has ever truly performed any local weather advocacy past merely present as a Democratic voter, but it surely’s true: Taylor had a problematically giant carbon footprint from her non-public jet use this 12 months.

“The real crime here is against the climate,” Carlson says. “None of these planes that Pete Buttigieg were jetting around in were solar powered. Not a single one ran on a windmill, or recycled French Fry oil.” (I’d like to see a windmill on a airplane, however I digress.)

Carlson then does one thing stunning: He truly shares actual statistics on the emissions from non-public jets and the way carbon-intensive non-public flights are. Hearing precise information on Tucker Carlson is form of like seeing a canine driving a automotive, however as damaging as non-public jet use is, I one way or the other don’t assume Carlson is definitely fearful about this challenge.

He then does one thing even extra stunning and seems to advocate for abolishing non-public jets altogether—an concept we’ve written about favorably on this web site earlier than. “Anyone who claims to be serious about fighting climate change,” he says, “should demand, tomorrow morning, a federal law against private air travel.” I agree! But this seems like a lure.

All that precise information and almost enlightened rhetoric, sadly, was simply to drive house his actual level, which was that “the climate movement is about creating a permanent caste system” permitting wealthy and highly effective individuals to proceed to emit CO2, which, in Carlson’s estimation, isn’t really an issue. So near getting it, Tucker, and but to date.

That was all a bit of too simple to comply with, however don’t fear: Carlson then launched visitor Joe Bastardi, creator of books with titles like The Weaponization of Weather within the Phony Climate War and a history of bad scientific takes. Bastardi is a meteorologist by coaching, though he’s lengthy been a device of the right-wing for-profit climate machine, working first for denial-lite service AccuWeather earlier than beginning his personal non-public climate forecasting firm. He’s additionally a Fox News climate-denier common: In September, the community had him on to rant about climate change and Democrats throughout Hurricane Ian.

I’ll publish a transcript of Bastardi’s feedback right here, as a result of they’re not simple to paraphrase:

Carlson: I’m undecided you purchase the entire program that they’re laying out right here, however let’s say for a second that you simply did—that you simply actually thought carbon emissions have been inflicting local weather change, and it was not simply one of many many cycles this Earth has seen over the previous 20 million years. Let’s say you consider that. Why wouldn’t you be mad at Pete Buttigieg and everybody else who flies non-public?

Bastardi: Well, I don’t know. I’ve been giving this numerous thought at present, as a result of I needed to drive from Iowa City all the best way to Pittsburgh, and after I glided by South Bend, oddly sufficient it hit me. There are three prospects right here, in my view, simply taking a look at this, okay.

First is, they’ve all bought local weather vaccines. We don’t learn about them, however in contrast to the covid vaccine, they really work, so no matter they do, they’re immune from it. So that’s a risk. That’s an extended shot.

The second, Tucker, is, that if unhealthy climate stops air journey, and it stops automotive journey, in the event you could cause extra unhealthy climate, proper, then guess what? Everybody can’t drive. For occasion, subsequent week, and the week after? Watch how a lot unhealthy climate comes into the United States. It’s going to be the coldest, snowiest interval across the Christmas time since 2000. So we’re gonna see planes, and trains, and all these different issues shut down. So in the event you simply dump all this CO2 within the environment, your assumption is, hey, CO2 causes unhealthy climate, if I might trigger extra unhealthy climate, then guess what? Other individuals gained’t be capable to fly, and we’ll have much less CO2 emissions.

I do know that Bastardi is making jokes right here, about vaccines and individuals who nonetheless fly however discuss the necessity to lower our CO2 emissions, with a aspect of some climate management conspiracies. The jokes are unhealthy and tough to comply with, and I assure some Fox News viewers will take him actually.

Then he will get to his actual level, which is scarcely extra coherent than his jokes:

Bastardi: Or the third risk, precisely what you stated: it’s a phony local weather battle, it’s fraudulent. When we talked again in July, we talked about the way it’s going to get chilly earlier this 12 months throughout the United States, that has nothing to do with CO2, what it has to do is the pure cycles of the climate, and what occurs is these individuals are taking benefit of people that fall prey to this, and that is what they’re doing. There’s no logic or purpose for it besides they’re making an attempt to determine a caste system that destroys the best experiment of freedom and individuality, which is that this nation.

Carlson agreed. “If you really believed that carbon was a pollutant, you’d be planting pine, and spruce, and hemlock, and evergreens across the United States,” he stated. “But they’re cutting them down to make way for highways and dollar stores.” (I’m undecided which level within the Biden administration’s local weather plan says to “cut down trees for dollar stores,” however okay.)

I don’t write about these things to make everybody really feel like they’ve misplaced grip on actuality, though I’m comfortable to have you ever be part of me in feeling like your mind is melting out of your ears. Carlson is an extremely influential determine in Republican politics and a juggernaut of conservative cable information. Wild, nonsensical shit with zero foundation in science or actuality is an efficient have a look at how the Republican social gathering is pitching local weather science to its base. And there are seeds of drained rhetoric within the slop served up right here: the concept local weather laws are Communist, the acquainted Republican obsession with timber being a fix-all local weather answer, the comparative lack of concentrate on precise science—a hands-off “we don’t know what CO2 is actually doing, but regulations are bad” form of method. (Even Bastardi’s jokes about climate management are near some Q-Anon conspiracies members of Congress have espoused.)

And let’s not ignore how other forms of right-wing propaganda are being woven into these local weather segments. Bastardi’s vaccine joke, which he repeated later on Twitter, was no accident; it’s clear he’s testing out the ways in which he can capitalize on covid misinformation fervor. One of the chyrons that flashed through the phase was “‘DETRANSITIONED’ NAVY SEAL TALKS TO TUCKER,” and his mocking tone as he talked about Buttigieg’s journey for “LGBTQ+ advocacy” was one other dogwhistle. It’s a reminder that the particular pursuits invested in slowing down local weather motion have their fingers in numerous different political points, too.