During a recent appearance on MSNBC, 2024 Republican presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy pushed back on MSNBC host Andrea Mitchell’s claim that climate change has resulted in the deaths of two million people in the last fifty years.
Ramaswamy argued the evidence shows technology powered by fossil fuels has reduced the amount of climate-related deaths by 98%.
He also criticized Mitchell’s anecdotal evidence that because some Floridians have claimed to have never seen a hurricane as bad as Hurricane Idalia, it meant climate change is a potent threat.
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Mitchell began the topic by bringing up Ramaswamy's recent comment at the GOP debate about climate change being a "hoax."
"Let's talk about the hurricane that is now approaching. You've called climate change and that agenda a hoax. You said more people are dying from bad climate change policies than there are of actual climate change," she said. "But according to a U.N. agency, extreme weather events compounded by climate change caused the death of 2 million people between 1970 and 2021."
Mitchell then asked Ramaswamy if he can provide evident that "more than 2 million people died from converting to clean energy?"
Ramaswamy countered her by saying fossil fuels have led to many people surviving climate-related natural disasters.
"I can offer clear evidence that the number of climate disaster related deaths is down by 98% over the last century. The number of people who died of hurricanes, tornadoes, heatwaves and other weather-related events in 1920 – for every 100 that died then, two die today."
He continued, "And the reason why is more plentiful, abundant access to fossil fuels and technology powered by fossil fuels. I can also tell you today it is a hard fact. None of these things are disputed. Eight times as many people die of cold temperatures than die of warm ones. The right answer to all temperature related deaths is more plentiful abundant access to fossil fuels."
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After mentioning the necessity of carbon dioxide for plants on the planet and reiterating that his points on climate represent the "hard facts" of the issue, Mitchell used Floridans talking about how bad Hurricane Idalia looks.
"There's a hard fact of the hurricane that is now approaching. The mayor through three generations – St. Petersburg resident – says he's never seen anything like this, the ocean warming. But let me move on to some-," Mitchell said before Ramaswamy prevented her from changing subjects.
"Andrea, may I respectfully offer a response to that? And I mean this with due respect. If someone on the other side or an uneducated person from Arkansas who didn't go to college and offered one weather event as an end of one anecdote to help support a theory of global climate change, you'd laugh them off the stage as a rube for saying they don't follow data," he said.
"The same shoe has to fit the other foot. Follow the actual data," he added.
Mitchell responded, "I'm not talking about one person's opinion. We talk to professors, academics, industry people…"
Ramaswamy cut in again, saying, "You literally just quoted one person's opinion. With due respect, that's exactly what you just quoted. And I think that that's what's driving this kind of false narrative as opposed to the facts that I'm citing."
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