CBS Nate Burleson. Source Youtube, fair use, low resolution image to identify the subject.

CBS: Climate Change CAUSED the Tonga Volcanic Eruption

Guest essay by Eric Worrall

Judge for yourself – on the following video, CBS anchor Nate Burleson appears to claim volcanoes are “happening, and becoming more frequent” because of climate change.

Burleson strenuously denies claiming climate change causes volcanoes.

h/t Newsbusters

To be fair, maybe it was just a clumsy CBS studio edit, splicing current news with a segment which had been recorded earlier. But it made me laugh.

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Alan Kovski
January 23, 2022 12:32 pm

It is worth noting that not only did Nate Burleson clearly link volcanoes to climate change, but CBS This Morning co-host Tony Dokoupil responded, “Yes, yeah, and if you’re on the West Coast, the clock is ticking on the big one. People are worried.” So Dokoupil not only endorsed the link to climate change but linked it to … earthquakes? In California when people refer to “the big one” they are referring to a San Andreas Fault rupture that could be disastrous.

January 23, 2022 12:35 pm

I don’t think this would be the first time media muppets have suggested volcanoes are being caused by climate change.

January 23, 2022 1:19 pm

To be fair, MSM media bends over backwards to connect any and every weather event to “CAGW/Global Warming/Climate Change” and, therefore Man’s CO2 via fossil fuel.
Maybe he just couldn’t resist?
PS I’m not excusing him for being an idiot. He seemed a bit to eager to, somehow, make a connection to “Climate Change”.

Michael
January 23, 2022 1:47 pm

I don’t know about you all, but I get most of my climate science from a former NFL wide receiver.

tygrus
January 23, 2022 2:53 pm

The 2nd half of the CBS segment (Burleson) did sound like it was scripted/recorded to follow a different story, like recent weather events. If it was the fault of ignorant/clumsy editing then the people off-screen are to blame.
It makes it very hard for the general public to be correctly educated or know when to disbelieve their eyes & ears when presented with misleading content/presentation.

John C
January 23, 2022 2:53 pm

The votes are in. Alarmist climate scientists have voted 95% that climate change causes volcanoes. The science is, therefore, settled. Discussion over or plan on being banned from social media.

DaveW
January 23, 2022 4:21 pm

These kinds of claims are common after major geological events. Here’s a typically unbalanced and disingenuous article from The Graniaud: “How Climate Change Triggers, Earthquakes, Tsunamis and Volcanos:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/oct/16/climate-change-triggers-earthquakes-tsunamis-volcanoes

I predict that if a large asteroid makes a really close pass, then they will be claiming climate change as a causative factor too. ~”It is a well known fact that a warming atmosphere increases in size and makes Earth a larger target and an asteroid impact more likely.”

Alan the Brit
Reply to  DaveW
January 24, 2022 12:59 am

Is that the large asteroid that is really an alien space ship because they are supposed to be keeping an eye “or three” on we Earthlings because of our rapidly unprecedented changing climate, through their intergalactic telescopes all due to a minor increase in CO2 in the atmosphere???

Rich T.
January 23, 2022 4:34 pm

Latest eruption went to 98,000 ft. Put maybe 400 mt SO2 in the upper atmosphere. Now comes the real “climate change”. How much cooling will this eruption cause?. Lower sunspot activity, lower solar wind. Higher cosmic rays now bombarding earth. Been known to kick volcanic activity higher. The talking heads wouldn’t know real climate change if it hit them like the Monty Python “Fish Slapping Skit” in reality.

John
January 23, 2022 4:52 pm

just proves my observation

US TV is run by the Black minority

unfortunately he is of the minority uneducated

seen him on early TV in Australia

if he is the best of America

well there is no hope for America – Biden and him make a good combination

Marcus
January 23, 2022 4:57 pm

Well, don’t forget this beauty…

“CNN anchor questions whether global warming to blame for asteroid”
https://www.foxnews.com/science/cnn-anchor-questions-whether-global-warming-to-blame-for-asteroid

RoHa
January 23, 2022 7:06 pm

If everyone got vaccinated we wouldn’t have climate change and volcanoes erupting all over the place.

January 23, 2022 9:08 pm

Well Guam is about to tip over ya’ know… because Climate Change. Volcanos gotta be in there somewhere.

January 23, 2022 10:58 pm

I look forward to the climate scientivists explaining how Nate Burleson is mistaken and volcanos are not caused by CO2

Could be a long wait

shoehorn
January 24, 2022 1:27 am

Donovan explains climate attribution ambivalence:

January 24, 2022 4:15 am

“Climate Change CAUSED the Tonga Volcanic Eruption”
Seriously? No kidding!…

Andrew Lale
January 24, 2022 5:23 am

Nope, he definitely said it. The trouble with having everything on video is, you can lie your arse off but everyone can see that you’re lying.

observa
January 24, 2022 6:05 am

Tongan Climate Change Commissioner: Hey chief CBS are worried about the volcano so what can we do about it?
Chief: Round up the usual virgins as I’ve got Greece on the blower offering plenty to fix their climate extremism and issue a media release to CBS it’s all sorted.
Snowfall blankets much of Greece (msn.com)

D. J. Hawkins
January 24, 2022 8:59 am

There was no jump cut during the segment that I could see. Therefore, it is perfectly reasonable to assume that Nate was making his comment in the context of the current topic of discussion. I’m speculating his real intent was to simply shout “squirrel!” and inject some climate change blather, but I’d rather see him squirm.

edward
January 24, 2022 12:12 pm

This volcano exists along a subduction zone between the Pacific and Australian Plates … pretty much the long and the short of it.

January 24, 2022 5:51 pm

this seems to be what happens when a confused mind tries to express itself – its slipping & sliding logic leaves everyone on all sides scratching their heads – the fact that he’s a reporter and an anchor for a major network – should cause a lot of head scratching too

Giorgio
January 25, 2022 2:48 am

Precautionary principle: can you demonstrate that climate change did NOT trigger the eruption? No?
So you should act as if it did. After all, the sky MIGHT indeed fall down, you chickens.

DonS
January 25, 2022 9:06 pm

Seriously! The tsunami generated by the volcano was 50ft high? Were do people get this garbage from!? According to the official accounts this tsunami was between 80 and 120cm in total height. For the metric illiterate in the USA that is about 3ft in height! For comparison, the tsunami that hit Japan in 2011 was about 30ft in height.

A 50ft tsunami would have obliterated most of the islands in the south Pacific, done massive damage to New Zealand, Australia, the Philippines, Japan, Hawaii and South America. I can understand how the average Joe and Joanne in the US might not be across the mysteries of the metric system but for a major news organization like CBS to allow this crap to go to air is totally unacceptable. Nobody has picked up on this and demanded they fix the BIG mistake. They must have got the 50ft number from somewhere, the same center for BSology that they get their climate information from no doubt.

RMT
January 25, 2022 10:45 pm

It was cow farts, soccer mom’s driving their kids, and Pedro’s gardening business with all of those gas machines, that caused the volcano to blow.
Does anyone really believe this crap?