Comedian Jimmy Kimmel used a portion of his TV show Monday to discuss why smart people like climate scientists believe so-called man-made global warming is a threat, while people like Sarah Palin supposedly dismiss its importance.
The late night talk show host etched out about eight minutes of his show, “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” to lambaste Palin for being a global warming skeptic, as well as explain why climate scientists are like normal people, except “smarter.”
The criticisms led up to a two-minute video introducing an assortment of climatologists and scientists from across the spectrum. All of these people made short elevator pitches explaining why global warming is real, caused by human action, and supposedly terrifying beyond all comprehension.
Kimmel kicked off the segment with a short video of a Palin interview in which the former Republican presidential candidate said: “If 97 percent of all scientists believe that man is making changes in the weather, then who am I to question that.”
“Exactly! Who are you to question that?” said the former co-host of “The Man Show,” a raunchy late-1990s talk show that lampooned stereotypical American men.
Kimmel went on to ponder why global warming has become unnecessarily political. Conservatives resist policies to address climate change, he said, while liberals generally believe something must be done to address rising sea levels and warming temperatures.
He added: “It’s not a matter of political opinion, it’s a matter of scientific opinion — in this case, a matter of overwhelming scientific opinion.”
After declaring “scientific opinion” is more important than the opinions formed by so-called normal people, Kimmel introduced a video of five climate scientists suggesting the consequences of human action on the climate are “catastrophic,” “dire,” and “apocalyptic.”
“And here’s the thing,” Aradhna Tripati, a paleoclimatologist, said, “we’re not f*cking with you.” The other scientists chimed in as well, assuring Kimmel’s audience that they are not trying to fool them.
Of course, there other examples of people, normal people as it were, using over-the-top rhetoric to explain their frustrations with global warming skeptics.
Bill Nye “The Science Guy,” a former mechanical engineer turned kiddie talk show host, for instance, was asked in mid-April whether he believes global warming skeptics should be thrown in jail, and considered criminals.
Nye replied at the time: “Well, we’ll see what happens. ”
“Was it appropriate to jail the guys from ENRON?” he went on to ask. ”Was it appropriate to jail people from the cigarette industry who insisted that this addictive product was not addictive and so on? For me as a taxpayer and voter — the introduction of this extreme doubt about climate change is affecting my quality of life as a public citizen.”
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