Sean Hannity's Hurricane Harvey “expert” is a climate denier
Published
UPDATE (8/30/17): Sean Hannity has hosted Joe Bastardi every day on his radio show from August 24 to August 29 and twice on the August 25 and August 28 episodes of his television show. [Premiere Radio Networks, The Sean Hannity Show, 8/25, 8/28, 8/29; Fox News Channel, Hannity, 8/25, 8/28]
On the August 24 broadcast of his radio show, Sean Hannity hosted Joe Bastardi, a weather forecaster with a long history of climate denial, to discuss Hurricane Harvey and to dismiss climate change's impact on extreme weather. Bastardi said, “We have to counter this agenda that it's because of a magic CO2 dust fairy that's throwing stuff in the air that's making it all happen.”
Bastardi has made frequent appearances on Fox News and Fox News Business in which he spread misinformation about climate change. During a 2009 appearance on The Sean Hannity Show, he said winter snowstorms demonstrate that global warming is a myth.
Climate scientists have identified a number of links between climate change and hurricane intensity. As the San Antonio News-Express reported today, “Global warming is making the oceans hotter, fueling the intensity and flooding potential of storms like Harvey, climate scientists said as the hurricane approached.”
From the August 24 edition of Premiere Radio Network's The Sean Hannity Show: