CNN’s Sciutto on climate change: ‘We don’t want to be slowly burned to death’

CNN anchor Jim Sciutto issued a stark warning on Wednesday morning against the effects of climate change, stating during a newscast that “we don’t want to be slowly burned to death.”

“I just want to ask the question for folks at home, folks like us. We got kids. We don’t want to be slowly burned to death on our own planet here,” said Sciutto, who served in the Obama State Department prior to coming to CNN. “Is the human race running — in the simplest terms running out of time to take the measures necessary to rein in this rise in global temperatures?”

{mosads}The question from Sciutto comes following a comprehensive 1,600-page National Climate Assessment released last week that details the damaging effects of global warming on the United States, including on agriculture, infrastructure, human health and the overall economy.

President Trump has pushed back on the report’s findings, stating on Monday he “doesn’t believe it” and asking, “Whatever happened to global warming?” in a tweet last week as a cold blast hit many parts of the country.

“Brutal and Extended Cold Blast could shatter ALL RECORDS – Whatever happened to Global Warming?” the president tweeted to his more than 55 million followers.

On Tuesday, Trump rejected the scientific consensus that human activity is the primary driver behind the warming planet.

“One of the problems that a lot of people like myself, we have very high levels of intelligence but we’re not necessarily such believers,” Trump said during an interview with The Washington Post.

The federal government’s report was unambiguous in its warnings on the threats climate change poses to the Earth and human life.

“Global average temperature has increased by about 1.8 [degrees] from 1901 to 2016, and observational evidence does not support any credible natural explanations for this amount of warming,” the report reads. “Instead, the evidence consistently points to human activities, especially emissions of greenhouse or heat-trapping gases, as the dominant cause.” 

“The warming trend observed over the past century can only be explained by the effects that human activities, especially emissions of greenhouse gases, have had on the climate,” the assessment reads.