CNN correspondent sounds the alarm on climate change: ‘The fate of life on earth is at stake’
CNN Chief Climate Correspondent Bill Weir frets that American democracy isn't equipped to handle the ‘climate crisis.’
CNN climate correspondent Bill Weir claimed the fate of the planet and American democracy was at risk if congressional action is not taken to combat climate change.
On Tuesday, Weir was asked by anchor Jim Sciutto what the Biden administration can do within its scope to tackle the issue, noting Democrats could lose control of the House and the Senate in November.
Weir said Biden is currently speaking with lawyers to determine how far he can "stretch" his executive powers to take action, and said that part of the plea by staffers protesting against Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., was to get Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., to change his mind on legislation.
"This is hung up on an old-fashioned filibuster, sort of recent, made-up American rules, where the fate of life on earth is at stake and doesn’t seem to match," Weir added.
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FILE - In this Aug. 25, 2021, file photo the French Fire burns hillsides along Highway 155 in Sequoia National Forest, Calif. In a season of daunting wildfires and flooding, the Biden administration is taking an initial step to assess how climate change could harm financial markets, planning to launch a 75-day comment period Tuesday, Aug. 31. (Noah Berger/AP)
The CNN correspondent continue by claiming the issue of climate change should touch every cabinet of the government "holistically" and "realistically."
Weir also told Sciutto that he recently spoke with a prestigious high school debate team; according to him, the team wondered whether U.S. democracy even had the capabilities to "stomach" a "climate crisis."
"What kind of governments can?" Weir asked. "And I think the proof that we see around us is that the American form of democracy, the 2022 version certainly cannot."
U.S. Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) talks with Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) in the Senate subway at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, U.S., December 15, 2021. (REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz)
Sciutto then suggested that climate change action has stalled because there is very little "compromise" and "sacrifice" in modern American politics, to which Weir agreed.
On Monday, more than a dozen staffers protested and subsequently took over the office of Schumer, demanding action and legitimate policy to fight climate change. Many of them were quickly arrested by Capitol Police.
"Around 11:15 a.m., U.S. Capitol Police officers responded to a demonstration that was inside room 322 in the Hart Senate Office Building. Six demonstrators were arrested for DC Code §22-3302 Unlawful Entry for failing to leave the office after they were told to leave. The six people who were arrested are all House staffers," the police said in a public statement.
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Several House Democrat staffers protest climate change in Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer's office. (Fox News)
In recent months, far-left activists have glued themselves to famous paintings, disrupted new pipeline construction, scaled buildings, blocked rush-hour traffic, lit themselves on fire, threatened to disrupt the Congressional Baseball Game and slashed tires of random sport utility vehicles (SUV) in cities around the world.
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The activists have argued that world governments have failed citizens by not acting aggressively enough to enact policies curbing climate change.
Fox News’ Thomas Catenacci contributed to this report.