CNN anchor and host of Don Lemon Tonight Don Lemon really, really wanted NOAA’s hurricane director Jamie Rohme to link Hurricane Ian to climate change —but Rohme wasn’t having it.
“Can you tell us what this is and what effect the climate change has on this phenomenon?” Lemon asked.
“Well, we can come back and talk about climate change at a later time,” Rohme said. “I want to focus on the here-and-now. We think the rapid intensification is probably almost done, there could be a little bit more intensification as it still is over the warm waters of the eastern Gulf of Mexico, but I don’t think we’re gonna get any more rapid intensification. If you look here, you can actually see, pretty interesting for your viewers, you can actually see a second eyewall forming around the inner eyewall, and that’s basically the second eyewall has overtaken the original eyewall and that should arrest development.”
Lemon tried to pivot back to climate change.
“So listen, I just, I’m just trying to get the, you said you want to talk about climate change,” Lemon said. “But what effect does climate change to have on this phenomenon that is happening now? Because it seems these storms are intensifying. That’s the question.”
“I don’t think you can link climate change to any one event,” Rohme responded. “On the whole, on the cumulative, climate change may be making storms worse, but to link it to any one event, I would caution against that.”
“Okay, well, listen, I grew up there and these storms are intensifying,” Lemon fired back. “Something is causing them to intensify.”
Watch the exchange below:
This is amazing. Don Lemon tries to blame Hurricane Ian on climate change. NOAA's hurricane director shuts him down. pic.twitter.com/svTjHtE8hl
— Alex Pfeiffer (@__Pfeiffer) September 28, 2022