Bennett's Sense of Irony: It's snowing in December

Special Programs Climate & Energy

Written by Ryan Chiachiere

Published


Discussing then-upcoming screenings of former Vice President Al Gore's documentary film, An Inconvenient Truth, on the December 15 edition of CNN's The Situation Room, conservative radio host William Bennett mockingly claimed that “half the people in the country” will “have to fight through snowstorms to watch this global warming thing.”

Of course, the mere fact of snow in December in the United States is not indicative of whether or not the earth is warming. As the National Climactic Data Center noted in its preliminary 2006 report, "[f]ollowing the warmest year on record for the globe in 2005, the annual global temperature for 2006 is expected to be sixth warmest since recordkeeping began in 1880." That report also noted that “the 2006 annual average temperature for the contiguous United States (based on preliminary data) will likely be 2°F (1.1°C) above the 20th Century mean, which would make 2006 the third warmest year on record.”

From the 4 p.m. ET hour of the December 15 edition of CNN's The Situation Room:

BLITZER: All right. I want to move on and talk about --

BENNETT: Sure.

BLITZER: -- Al Gore a little bit, your former boss. He's got all these screenings now for An Inconvenient Truth, his movie, his film on global warming. A lot of people are suspicious that -- you know what? He still has that itch. He wants to be president of the United States. Is this simply a venue for him to throw his hat back in the ring?

BRAZILE: Well, for now, he's said that he's not interested, but he hasn't closed the door. But I think what Al Gore is trying to do now is to keep his commitment to the activists, to -- you know -- to educate people, to activate them. He's holding over 1,800 house parties tomorrow night across the country, 7 p.m. I know Bill Bennett will probably tune in and watch it.

[...]

BENNETT: Because I think it's an easier win for a Republican. But, by the way, when they got it tuned into the Al Gore channel tomorrow night, if they flip by accident, and they get Obama, people aren't going to go back.

But, by the way, half the people in the country, in the northern tier, are going to have to fight through snowstorms to watch this global warming thing.