Talking to Conservatives about Climate Change

The New Yorker Radio Hour

WNYC Studios and The New Yorker

News, David, Books, Arts, Storytelling, Wnyc, New, Remnick, News Commentary, Yorker, Politics

4.2 • 5.5K Ratings

🗓️ 18 August 2023

⏱️ 31 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Even in a summer of record-breaking heat and disasters, Republican Presidential candidates have ignored or mocked climate change. But some conservative legislators in Congress recognize that action is necessary. David Remnick talks with a leader of the Conservative Climate Caucus about her party’s stance on climate change, her belief that fossil fuels cannot be rapidly phased out, and the problems she sees with the Inflation Reduction Act. Then, the authoritative climate reporter Elizabeth Kolbert talks with Ben Jealous, who was recently named executive director of the Sierra Club, about his strategy for building support in Republican-led states.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is The New Yorker Radio Hour, a co-production of WNYC Studios and The New Yorker.
0:10.2	Welcome to The New Yorker Radio Hour, I'm David Rebneck.
0:13.4	With the record-breaking heat of this summer, record after record after record, we didn't
0:18.3	need any more evidence of the appalling consequences of climate change.
0:23.2	But now we have the tragedy on the island of Maui in Hawaii, a rainy state that rarely
0:28.9	had wildfires until recently.
0:32.4	So the question on a lot of minds is this, will this hottest summer in recorded history
0:37.4	be a wake-up call and opportunity to put aside some of the partisan fighting and begin
0:43.0	at last to face the reality as frightening as it is, or are we just going to keep sleepwalking
0:50.1	to further self-immolation?
0:52.7	I'm joined now by a leader of the Conservative Climate Caucus, a group of about 80 Republicans
0:57.8	in Congress.
0:59.6	Iowa Representative Marionette Miller-Meks was elected in 2020.
1:03.8	She's an Army veteran, a physician, and she formally ran the Iowa Department of Public
1:09.0	Health.
1:10.4	Miller-Meks serves as vice chair of the Conservative Climate Caucus.
1:16.4	Now the leading presidential candidates in the Republican Party tented downplay the
1:21.7	climate crisis if they refer to it all, certainly on the national level.
1:26.2	The campaign trail Donald Trump has said climate change might affect us in 300 years.
1:32.7	He used to say that it was part of a Chinese hoax.
1:36.1	Ron DeSantis has said, we're politicizing the weather.
1:39.4	How do you feel about that?
	...

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