Responding to weatherman's report about North American heat waves, Doocy declared “it's not global warming”

Special Programs Climate & Energy

Written by Matt Singer

Published

On Fox & Friends First, Steve Doocy responded to a report by meteorologist Joe Bastardi about hot North American summers by suggesting, “It's just a great big cycle, it's not global warming.” As Media Matters for America has documented, there is widespread consensus among scientists that global warming exists, and that humans are contributing to the problem.


On the August 1 edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends First, co-host Steve Doocy responded to a report by Fox News senior AccuWeather meteorologist Joe Bastardi about hot North American summers by suggesting, “It's just a great big cycle, it's not global warming.” Doocy also claimed that “10, 15 years from now, people are going to go, 'Man, is it cold.' ” Bastardi then reminded Doocy that “there is evidence -- we do not want to dismiss completely the fact -- that the things that are being said are a new player on the field,” and asserted that “there are over 30 different variables that could affect climate change, and carbon dioxide may be one of them.” Although Bastardi claimed that “we wanna educate the American public”, neither Doocy nor Bastardi acknowledged -- as Media Matters for America has documented (here, here, and here) -- that there is widespread consensus among scientists that global warming exists and that humans are contributing to the problem.

Earlier, during a report on newly formed Tropical Storm Chris, Bastardi stated that "[w]e almost have to root it on hitting these islands [in the Caribbean] in here to weaken that particular storm system." Doocy replied: “Look at Cuba.”

From the August 1 edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends First:

BASTARDI: First of all, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention Chris, which is our newest tropical storm.

DOOCY: There it is.

BASTARDI: We can see it rolling there, and we are very concerned that Chris is gonna try to make a path, affect Florida maybe over the weekend and then into the Gulf of Mexico after that. We almost have to root it on hitting these islands in here to weaken that particular storm system.

DOOCY: Look at Cuba.

BASTARDI: Yeah, that's right.

[...]

BASTARDI: And what we wanna do here, is we don't wanna be Chicken Littles, screaming the sky is falling, but we wanna educate the American public as to what happened in that time of climatic hardship, because we're back there again in this overall cycle.

DOOCY: It's just a great big cycle, it's not global warming, and so --

BASTARDI: Well --

DOOCY: What you're saying, Joe --

BASTARDI: Now --

DOOCY: Is 10, 15 years from now, people are going to go, “Man, is it cold.”

BASTARDI: Righ -- well, people reverse what they're saying, but there is -- there is evidence -- we do not want to dismiss completely the fact -- that the things that are being said are a new player on the field. But you know, Dooce, there are over 30 different variables that could affect climate change, and carbon dioxide may be one of them.