New York Times columnist and author of the not very subtly titled book The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming, David Wallace-Wells, joined MSNBC’s Alex Wagner on her Friday show to react to some of Donald Trump’s cabinet selections. In the midst of his gloomy climate assessments, Wallace-Wells would claim Trump’s victory has shown that China has surpassed the U.S. “in its imperial place in the world.”

While some of Trump’s cabinet picks have gotten lots of scrutiny from the media, some, like EPA Administrator and Secretary of the Interior nominees Lee Zeldin and Doug Burgum have gotten less attention. Wagner sought to change that, “This week we learned that Trump’s going to be appointing Doug—or is aiming to appoint Doug Burgum, Secretary of the Interior, and the chairman of a newly formed National Energy Council. The focus of which is to increase oil and gas production in the United States. And he's appointing Lee Zeldin, a climate change skeptic, to head the EPA. I'm sure you have thoughts on both of these. Which do you think is most damaging to the climate movement?”

 

 

Wallace Wells claimed, “I think the EPA position is the bigger deal,” before turning back to Trump and the international picture:

But I think in the global picture, especially as we deal with COP, it is important to note what we're seeing right now is the abandonment of pretense to American leadership on climate the world over. Now, people looking around the world have looked at America with some skepticism for years now, we are, you know, the biggest producer of oil and gas in the world, we’re the biggest exporter of it, too. But the re-election of Donald Trump has really sent a clear signal to people worried about climate everywhere around the globe that this fight is not going to be won with American leadership. 

Yes, we export oil and gas so other countries don’t have to turn to Russia for them. Why does MSNBC want to help Putin?

Still, Wallace-Wells added, “And it is quite striking to me as someone who’s been following this stuff for so long, you know, if you said to me five or ten years ago that the clearest sign that China might have passed America in its imperial place in the world would be on climate, I would not have believed you, but I think that is where we are now.”

Since 2000, American carbon dioxide emissions have steadily decreased 20 percent regardless of the president and his energy policies. At the same time, Chinese emissions have gone 245 percent in the opposite direction.

Here is a transcript for the November 15 show:

MSNBC Alex Wagner Tonight

11/16/2024

9:55 PM ET

ALEX WAGNER: This week we learned that Trump’s going to be appointing Doug—or is aiming to appoint Doug Burgum, Secretary of the Interior, and the chairman of a newly formed National Energy Council. The focus of which is to increase oil and gas production in the United States. And he's appointing Lee Zeldin, a climate change skeptic, to head the EPA. I'm sure you have thoughts on both of these. Which do you think is most damaging to the climate movement?

DAVID WALLACE-WELLS: I think the EPA position is the bigger deal, but I think in the global picture, especially as we deal with COP, it is important to note what we're seeing right now is the abandonment of pretense to American leadership on climate the world over. Now, people looking around the world have looked at America with some skepticism for years now, we are, you know, the biggest producer of oil and gas in the world, we’re the biggest exporter of it, too. But the re-election of Donald Trump has really sent a clear signal to people worried about climate everywhere around the globe that this fight is not going to be won with American leadership. 

And it is quite striking to me as someone who’s been following this stuff for so long, you know, if you said to me five or ten years ago that the clearest sign that China might have passed America in its imperial place in the world would be on climate, I would not have believed you, but I think that is where we are now.