Speaker 1: Hay drilled listeners. Some of you may know that I
Speaker 1: co host another climate related podcast. It's called hot Take.
Speaker 1: I co host it with Mary Annie Segler, and we
Speaker 1: talk about climate coverage, how the climate story is unfolding,
Speaker 1: where there are gaps in the coverage, where there are
Speaker 1: interesting new trends, all of that kind of stuff. This
Speaker 1: week we looked at the New York Times story on
Speaker 1: the new narrative the GOP has come up with, which
Speaker 1: is roughly, Oh, you think quarantine is bad, just wait
Speaker 1: till the Democrats get to climate policy. We get into
Speaker 1: how that narrative came, about why it's working in some cases,
Speaker 1: and what can be done to wrestle the story back.
Speaker 1: This is a quick, little bonus episode that hot Take
Speaker 1: is doing in between seasons, and it was sent out
Speaker 1: to our newsletter subscribers earlier this month. If you're interested
Speaker 1: in this kind of analysis of climate coverage, check out
Speaker 1: hot Take the podcast and hot Take the newsletter. There
Speaker 1: will be links in the show notes in the meantime.
Speaker 1: Hope you enjoy this conversation. Welcome to hot Take, the
Speaker 1: podcast where we tackle the climate crisis and the climate conversation.
Speaker 1: I'm Amy Westerbelt.
Speaker 2: And I'm Mary Annie's Teigler. This is one of our
Speaker 2: between season bonus episodes. As you know, we just wrapped
Speaker 2: up season one and so in between we're just going
Speaker 2: to be dropping little bonus episodes and we're going to
Speaker 2: keep them short.
Speaker 1: This is what we're calling a coffee break episode. And yes,
Speaker 1: we're literally drinking coffee right now. We're gonna take just
Speaker 1: a few minutes to dig into a story that we
Speaker 1: think is important. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Any what kind of coffee are you drinking?
Speaker 1: I have like a really over the top coffee set
Speaker 1: up at my house because oh really, I drink a
Speaker 1: lot of coffee and I live in the middle of nowhere,
Speaker 1: so it's not like I can like get good coffee elsewhere. Ah.
Speaker 2: So you were prepared for coffee during a pandemic.
Speaker 1: I see, I was. I was. Yeah, I have like
Speaker 1: a full on, like barista operation in.
Speaker 2: My Okay, okay, okay, So.
Speaker 1: I'm drinking an Americano that I made myself.
Speaker 2: You I want to ask you that again. Okay. So
Speaker 2: I'm sitting over here with my little chemmicks. There's like
Speaker 2: a six chemmics. Great, it's great, it's great, But you know,
Speaker 2: I have the sixth cup one. It's just me. It's
Speaker 2: just a great and does it get.
Speaker 1: How do you keep it warm? This is always my
Speaker 1: like dilemma with the chemics, like the first.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, See. The thing is, it's not about the
Speaker 2: temperature of the coffee. It's about the dimensions of your imagination.
Speaker 1: So anyway, I'm.
Speaker 2: Drinking room temperature coffee right now, and I feel fine
Speaker 2: about my choices because we can't all have a barista
Speaker 2: situation in our house.
Speaker 1: It's insane. It's truly insane. I should like post. I'm
Speaker 1: going to post a picture of it to the newsletter
Speaker 1: so you guys can really appreciate.
Speaker 2: The reason, so you can hate amy with me my coffee. Yeah, okay, fine.
Speaker 3: Anyway, so we're drinking coffee, and we're going to talk
Speaker 3: about this article that came out in the New York
Speaker 3: Times last week on May seventh's by Lisa Frietman.
Speaker 2: The title is the GOP Coronavirus. Message is that economic
Speaker 2: crisis is a green New Deal preview. So we thought
Speaker 2: that this was important enough to merit a conversation.
Speaker 1: So yeah, right, let's get into it. Let's do it.
Speaker 2: Okay, cool, So I guess I'll just start by reading
Speaker 2: a couple of passages from this article that really struck me.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Okay, So, over the past two months, Republican lawmakers, the
Speaker 2: Trump campaign, and conservative outlets have hammered the themes that
Speaker 2: Democrats are more interested in climate change than reviving the economy,
Speaker 2: that mister Biden and environmental groups are seeking to exploit
Speaker 2: the pandemic to push a radical green agenda, and that
Speaker 2: the economic fallout of COVID nineteen is a preview of
Speaker 2: life under ambitious climate change policies. They have also labeled
Speaker 2: virtually every climate change effort is part of the Green
Speaker 2: New Deal, an ambitious plan champion by Representative at Alexandria
Speaker 2: Ocasio Cortez of New York and Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont,
Speaker 2: both Democratic Socialists. Whether they are part of the proposal
Speaker 2: or not, still, Republicans said they saw political opportunity as
Speaker 2: progressives work to persuade mister Biden to accept more ambitious
Speaker 2: climate change policies. I think the Democrats have to be careful,
Speaker 2: said John Fihery, a Republican strategist. The number one issue
Speaker 2: coming out of this pandemic is going to be the
Speaker 2: economy and people don't have a whole lot of patience
Speaker 2: for climate stuff if you don't have a job, and
Speaker 2: that's how you know the excerpt is done. Yeah, okay,
Speaker 2: so I found this story not the story. I don't
Speaker 2: mean like to we're not critiquing the reporter or the
Speaker 2: writing or the storytelling of this, but the actual story
Speaker 2: that's being told here is so frustrating to me because
Speaker 2: I think this is the result of what happens when
Speaker 2: you know, the pandemic takes hold and everybody's like, now
Speaker 2: is not the time to talk about climate because if
Speaker 2: you leave the narrative on the floor and let other
Speaker 2: people shape it, guess what this is where you wind up.
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly exactly. I mean I think that you know,
Speaker 1: it's it's It's also just it's infuriating to me how
Speaker 1: good the Republicans are at messaging and how bad the
Speaker 1: Democrats are, Like you saw the Republican It's like, in
Speaker 1: the lead up to going into negotiating the COVID nineteen
Speaker 1: stimulus packages, Mitch McConnell was already accusing Democrats of quote
Speaker 1: unquote pushing a green New Deal, as were all these
Speaker 1: like right wing think tanks that were taking out ads
Speaker 1: on social media. I mean, this was like in February
Speaker 1: March they were doing this yes and like, and it
Speaker 1: was like none of the I mean the idea. First
Speaker 1: of all, Nancy Pelosi doesn't even support the Green New
Speaker 1: Deal and.
Speaker 2: Joe Biden has only loosely embraced it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and so it was totally just you know, to me,
Speaker 1: I was like, oh, this must be like preemptive cover
Speaker 1: for fossil fuel companies actually pushing for things in the
Speaker 1: stimulus package, which of course it was, and they were.
Speaker 1: And now after you know, two months of fossil fuel
Speaker 1: company's total pandemic Christmas, including publicly traded oil and gas
Speaker 1: and coal companies getting small business Administration loans through the
Speaker 1: COVID package, somehow, somehow that worked out. Now they're saying, oh,
Speaker 1: you know, hey, if you don't like this quarantine, just
Speaker 1: wait until the Democrats get a hold of you and
Speaker 1: push their radical climate agenda. As though any Democrat ever
Speaker 1: or any climate activist ever has said that the solution
Speaker 1: to climate change is radical self sacrifice. And you know
Speaker 1: what I mean, it's like, if anything, people have argued
Speaker 1: against that, And meanwhile, like, who is benefiting from the
Speaker 1: most quote unquote socialist policies the fucking fossil fuel industry. Like, okay,
Speaker 1: if you don't want there to be government support of
Speaker 1: any kind or else, that's being socialist. Let's stop giving
Speaker 1: billions of dollars to the oil and gas industry and
Speaker 1: let them operate by the market forces they claim to
Speaker 1: love so much. Right, all right, that's it for this
Speaker 1: coffee break. We hope you enjoyed it. If you spot
Speaker 1: a story that you want us to discuss, or take
Speaker 1: a look at, tweet at us at real hot take.
Speaker 2: Okay, Amy, you know coffee has a rough time in
Speaker 2: my house. It gets mugged every morning.
Speaker 1: That's hilarious. I did not know where that was going