CNN anchor Don Lemon seemingly tried to blame the “intensifying” of Hurricane Ian on climate change Tuesday, but received pushback from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s acting director.
“Can you tell us what this is and what effect climate change has on this phenomenon?” Lemon asked Jamie Rhone, the NOAA’s Hurricane Center acting director.
“Well, we can come back and talk about climate change at a later time, I want to focus on the here and now,” Rhone immediately responded. “We think the rapid intensification is probably almost done. There could be a little bit more intensification as it’s still over the warm waters of the eastern Gulf of Mexico but I don’t think we’re going to get any more rapid intensification.”
This is amazing. Don Lemon tries to blame Hurricane Ian on climate change. NOAA’s hurricane director shuts him down. pic.twitter.com/svTjHtE8hl
— Alex Pfeiffer (@__Pfeiffer) September 28, 2022
Rhone’s forecast was ultimately slightly off. Hurricane Ian has indeed rapidly intensified past Cat. 3, and is now on the brink of breaching into a Cat. 5 storm, as of Wednesday morning.
“Listen, I’m just trying to get the — you said you wanted to talk about climate change, but what effect does climate change have on this phenomenon that is happening now, because it seems these storms are intensifying, that’s the question,” Lemon continued. (RELATED: From Protests To Assassinations, International Chaos Reaches Fever Pitch)
“I don’t think you can link climate change to any one event on the whole, cumulative, climate change may be making storms worse, but to link it to any one event, I would caution against that,” Rhone replied.