Energy

Weather Channel Tweets Warning Of Biblical ‘Exodus’ Migrations From Global Warming

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The Weather Channel website kicked off the week with a long Twitter thread warning of the “climate migration crisis” happening around the world as a result of global warming-fueled extreme weather.

The tweet storm is meant to promote the Weather Channel’s series called “Exodus: The Climate Migration Crisis” — no doubt alluding to the Biblical tale of Moses leading the Hebrews out of Egypt. The tweet storm comes as wildfires rage across the western U.S. and intense, near-record heat scorches much of Europe, though links between those events, especially wildfires, and global warming are tenuous.

The IBM-owned website featured a story Monday about Massachusetts coastal residents whose homes were damaged or destroyed by massive flooding in the wake of nor’easters last winter.

[Thread] Water comes slowly at first. Skies open up in the afternoon now. People start avoiding certain streets at high tide. The nuisances pile up. Houses get raised, then raised again. Insurance people are talking about “repetitive loss properties.” Homeowners are worrying.

— The Weather Channel (@weatherchannel) August 6, 2018

A recent World Bank study looking only at Latin America and parts of Africa and Asia sees up to 142 million people migrating within their own countries because of climate change impacts in the coming decades.

— The Weather Channel (@weatherchannel) August 6, 2018

These disruptions are happening, and the way they’re playing out in different places is a complicated knot of local factors, with weather, infrastructure, politics, violence and more playing a part.

— The Weather Channel (@weatherchannel) August 6, 2018

The Weather Channel highlighted two other “exodus” features about drought in Jordan and flooding in Ellicott City, Maryland. The website also used the tweetstorm to attack global warming skeptics who question the catastrophic projections thrown about environmental activists and some scientists.

Look, if you’re reading this and you reject the fact that climate change is happening, these pieces probably aren’t going to convince you, because you haven’t been convinced by anything else. But climate disruptions cause human disruptions.

— The Weather Channel (@weatherchannel) August 6, 2018

This isn’t the first Weather Channel effort to connect global warming to everyday weather events. Earlier this year, the Channel delayed a climate PR campaign until there were no more winter storms.

Once settled on, the Weather Channel’s website had a banner reading, “THERE IS NO CLIMATE CHANGE DEBATE” for an entire day to highlight “climate” stories from all 50 states.

The Weather Channel also retooled the front page of its website in June 2017 when President Donald Trump announced the U.S. would withdraw from the Paris climate accord. The site featured “The United States of Climate Change” series.

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