Since November 1, CNN’s chief climate correspondent Bill Weir has appeared at least 4 times on the network to discuss the climate stakes in the 2024 election. In reporting what’s on the line this election for the planet, Weir also addressed some common false narratives about climate as a political issue -- that it will hurt the U.S. economy to address climate change and that it is not a priority for voters.
Rather than being too costly to address, climate solutions like those being implemented through the Inflation Reduction Act are driving billions of dollars in private investment and overwhelmingly benefitting red states – a fact that too few Americans know about.
On CNN News Central, co-anchor Boris Sanchez asked Weir what the counterargument is to those who argue that “too much action on climate” will hurt the economy:
Well, the counterargument is now that the Inflation Reduction [Act] passed, there are hundreds of billions of private dollars now pouring into new forms of energy. Take a look in Minnesota, Sherco, the biggest coal fired power plant there is slowly being replaced with solar panels due to the Inflation Reduction Act without laying off any of the energy workers there, so the customer base may not even know it. But it's not just in a blue state like Minnesota: 75% of the inflation reduction money is being spent in red states. I think we’ve got some pictures of us in Texas -- the greenest state, despite their politics and industry, because wind, solar and storage is now so cheap, it makes the most economic sense. Even oil majors know the transition is inevitable.
Weir went on to address why climate is likely polling low for voters, saying, “It's a choice not just for wealth, as you say, [but also for] health and happiness -- everything that pollsters don't really connect the dots on when they call somebody and say, ‘Do you put climate at the top of your list?’ Voters wrongly assumed it's a menu item. It's the whole restaurant.”
The impact of a warming planet on, for example, the economy and public health are well established. In the past couple of years, national TV news has increasingly connected the housing insurance crisis and rising car insurance costs to climate change. But TV news networks should strive to discuss climate change more often through a cost-of-inaction framework and consistently show the role of climate change in the rising cost of electricity, and food and even immigration, so that voters understand that climate is not a single issue but a crisis that impacts every aspect of our lives.
