Late-night hosts join forces to combat climate change with jokes and information
On Wednesday, late-night shows came together for Climate Week and agreed to put an emphasis on the perils of climate change. The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel Live, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Late Night With Seth Meyers, The Late Late Show With James Corden, The Daily Show With Trevor Noah, Full Frontal With Samantha Bee and Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen all focused on the impending, but preventable, crisis.
Jimmy Fallon talked with Jane Goodall, who spoke about her Trees for Jane organization, which plants trees and protects forests around the world, while Colbert welcomed Shawn Mendes, who talked about raising awareness for climate change while performing in Brazil right after the country’s government pulled out of a climate change forum.
The U.N. General Assembly is currently meeting at U.N. headquarters in New York, where President Biden spoke on Tuesday, vowing to address the challenges that climate change poses, which, according to Colbert, would be a first.
“Hundreds of world leaders are meeting with climate activists to attempt the one thing to fight climate change that no industrialized nation has done before,” Colbert said, “Anything.”
Trevor Noah, who spoke with climate activist Greta Thunberg, warned climate change deniers who like to start their days with a nice cup of coffee, that that cup of coffee might not be so nice in the near future. Changes in temperatures, along with rainfall and length of seasons would change the quality and taste of coffee beans, making them more bland. But that won’t be much of a problem for Noah.
“What’s crazier for me, is that this is gonna make coffee taste worse, that’s what they said,” Noah said. “That blew my mind, ‘cause I already think coffee tastes like you burned dog hair and put the ashes in a cup of water.”
As a show of solidarity, Seth Meyers and James Corden appeared together to kick off their shows. Meyers went on to call out Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, who chairs the Senate Energy Committee, for being cozy with fossil fuel lobbyists, and profiting from the fossil fuel industry, while at the same time writing climate legislation. It was recently reported that fossil fuel lobbyists, utility executives and West Virginia business leaders have been meeting, calling and emailing Manchin and his staff in an effort to shape the bill.
“He owns stock valued at between $1 million and $5 million in a coal brokerage firm which he founded in 1988. Last year, Manchin made almost half a million in dividends from the stock,” Meyers said. “I mean, how is this acceptable that the guy writing our climate policy personally profits from coal? It's like if instead of hiding his gambling, Pete Rose called his bookie from second base.”
Jimmy Kimmel welcomed back climate scientists who appeared on his show five years ago to warn about the dangers of climate change. As the Earth continues to warm at an alarming rate, with July being the warmest month on record, those same scientists joined the show again with a slightly different message.
“We f***ing told you so,” said one scientist. Another added, “We told you we’d be f***ed by climate change.” Finally, another simply said, “It’s almost like we knew what we were talking about.”
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