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‘Madam Secretary:’ Climate Change Is ‘Existential Threat of Our Time’

Climate change has not been a new topic for CBS’s Madam Secretary, but it has provided some unintentionally hilarious results.

The latest take sadly is not as amusing as it buries natural gas in the State Department’s crusade to save the planet from the “existential threat” of global warming.

The April 29 episode “Thin Ice” revolves around a potential international disagreement over territory in the Arctic.

In the meantime, however, the department must also prepare for an upcoming World Expo where they plan to promote American ideas for renewable energy.

Unfortunately for the staff, Congress has cut their budget so their funding for the expo is being provided by “Big Oil and Gas,” represented by the quintessential greedy and ignorant oil tycoon (is there any other kind?) Chip Harding (Kevin O’Rourke.)

He is, of course, pushing for natural gas and wants to get a piece of the action in the Arctic.

Harding: But your pitch has a fundamental problem.

Kat: The nuclear power section?

Harding: It’s taking up a lot of real estate here, and you’ve neglected good old natural gas.

Blake: Well, nuclear power produces carbon-free electricity, while natural gas does not.

Kat: And most climate scientists see nuclear as the key transition technology until renewables become more efficient.

Harding: The bridge to renewables is not nuclear, my dear. It’s gas. It’s cheap, has half the emissions of coal, and most importantly, it won’t melt down and make the neighborhood children glow in the dark.

Blake: Uh, due respect, Mr. Harding, no child or anyone has ever glowed in the dark from any…

Harding: Ma’am.

Elizabeth: Mr. Harding. So good to see you again. I’m on my way to Montreal, but I couldn’t leave without stopping in to say hi.

Harding: I’m happy to hear that the Arctic is a top priority of the Dalton administration. It’s a brave new world. Everybody wants a piece, myself included.

Elizabeth: Well, I am eager to negotiate a contract that will be fair to all of us. And I wanted to thank you again for your generous pledge to our World Expo pavilion. Wow. Yeah.

Harding: It is being held in my home state of Texas.

Elizabeth: Wouldn’t want to fumble the ball on the home field, right?

Harding: Not at all, which is why I’m so concerned there’s no section on natural gas. If we’re talking future energy, we need to tell folks that gas is cheap, has half the emissions of coal, and most importantly, folks won’t glow in the dark.

To the show’s credit, they acknowledge that alternative energy sources are not quite up to standards as Elizabeth’s assistant Blake (Erich Bergen) remarks, “You need, like 12 billion solar roofs just to match the projected growth in energy consumption by 2050.”

Still, the show relies on the usual talking points such as “16 of the 17 of the hottest years on record have occurred since 2000,” despite actual evidence being recorded only since 1880 and clear cherry-picking.

And they refuse to consider natural gas, despite the things Harding says being true even to hardcore climate change alarmists.

After the State Department helps an environmentalist group get out of jail and the leader publicly denounces companies that “suppress the truth” about global warming and wish to “poison the planet,” Harding calls up Madam Secretary Elizabeth (Téa Leoni) and demands the administration publicly support drilling in the Arctic Circle, threatening to pull back his funding.

Read more at Newsbusters

Comments (2)

  • Avatar

    Spurwing Plover

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    When it comes to CBS its nothing but liberal leftists propeganda but then all the other major network nit-wits are about the same a good reason to have a VHS,DVD player and watch something else

  • Avatar

    4TimesAYear

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    “Nukular” again? I thought we were done with that after GWBush.

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