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In comments that climate activist Tori Tsui says are “extremely dangerous,” far-right US politician Marjorie Taylor Greene has claimed that global warming is good for the planet.
Speaking on the Right Side Broadcasting Network recently, Greene told host Brian Glenn: “[Plants] need carbon. It’s the life cycle. But [climate activists] want to kill carbon.”
“They say if the Earth warms 1.5 degrees celsius, AOC says, the Earth is going to explode,” she added, referring to Democrat politician Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who strongly advocates for more climate action.
“But do you know when they’ve been tracking this? They’ve been tracking this since the 1800s,” continued Greene, before adding that the Earth has already warmed one degree Celsius. She said that fossil fuels keep people’s houses warm in the winter, which saves lives. “People die in the cold,” she goes on. “This Earth warming, and carbon, is actually healthy for us.”
She later accused climate activists of having an unscientific argument. But Tsui maintains it is Greene who has “no basis, scientific or otherwise, for the comments she’s making.”
Speaking with Plant Based News, Tsui expressed particular concern for low-income communities, which are more at risk from the effects of climate change. (In 2020, one study found that the climate crisis could triple the flooding threat to low-income homes in the US, for example.)
“Those who do not have access to climate education are some of the people she may be targeting, and this has extremely dangerous repercussions for these communities as they will be disproportionately impacted by the climate crisis,” continued Tsui.
‘A grossly politicized battleground’
More than 99 percent of the scientific community agrees that human-caused climate change is heating up the Earth and causing severe weather events.
Unlike Greene, scientists state that global warming is detrimental to the planet. And it is already causing havoc.
In Somalia, severe drought is causing a humanitarian crisis, and it’s feared that 330,000 children could die from starvation. While the country is familiar with droughts, the climate crisis is making them more frequent and severe.
Last month, experts predicted that the number of hurricanes and tropical storms coming from the Atlantic will be above average this year. Again, this is a result of the climate crisis.
In Tsui’s view, Greene is trying to undermine the science for political gain.
“Undermining the climate is a grossly politicized battleground which has been used to push right-wing political agendas,” she explained. “Misinformation serves to create a political stronghold, not support and uplift everyday citizens.”
“Someone’s influence in the public sphere should not be used to peddle misinformation,” she added. “Their proximal power should not validate everything they say, especially when they don’t have the knowledge to talk about scientifically proven crises such as climate change.”
