An NBC News reporter has been scolded on air by an MSNBC host after suggesting climate change is like an alien invasion that’s visible to everyone.
Jacob Ward made the bizarre comparison following the released of the UN climate change report that said a number of “transformative changes” are needed in order to save the planet from climate change and other threats.
He told MSNBC‘s Stephanie Ruhle during an interview: “You know, it really is devastating, Stephanie. I mean, this is how dark the times are in the view of researchers… people are sort of getting ready for the horrors that this report is talking about. So it is dark times.”
Ruhle then said “there’s not even a consensus around climate change,” which is when Ward made the strange comparison.
He said: “I know, I know. I mean, that’s the thing, right? You look at it and you think this should be our great unifying moment, right?”
“This is the moment when space aliens land with ray guns and are threatening all of us and we all band together like you see in the movies. This is it. And yet, that’s not somehow happening.”
The eyebrow-raising comparison was clearly too much for Ruhle who said: “But it’s not. For your average American at home, there are not space aliens coming out and saying, ‘We’re going to take you over.’”
She added: “This is an intangible. So how do we help them understand? Because it’s not fair to put it that way.”
Ward was quick to admit his rhetoric was not grounded but did suggest there was a need for alarm.
He said: “I feel that it’s the kind of thing where we should be able to band together, we should be able to access something really basic in our programming that just says, ‘Existential threat, humanity, band together,’ and we’re not doing that for some reason.”
