Seth Meyers has some thoughts on Donald Trump and climate change

Seth Meyers looks at Donald Trump and climate change

(Image credit: Late Night)

last updated 22 December 2016

Anyone hoping that Donald Trump would moderate his opposition to fighting climate change once in office is bound to be disappointed, based on his Cabinet picks, Seth Meyers said on Wednesday's Late Night. If 2016 turns out to be the hottest year in known history, as expected, that will make 16 out of the last 17 years the hottest ever recorded. You add in Trump's surprise victory and the Cubs winning the World Series, "I'm pretty sure that's three out of the four horsemen of the Apocalypse right there," Meyers said. "If Dirty Grandpa wins Best Picture at the Oscars, we done for."

After Trump won, daughter "Ivanka's interest in climate change gave people a glimmer of hope, but of course, Trump's team moved quickly to snuff out that glimmer by reassuring everyone that Trump still thinks climate change is totally made up," Meyers said. Then Trump scoured the country "to find the worst possible choice" to lead the EPA, landing on Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, and tapped former Texas Gov. Rick Perry as energy secretary. Perry has argued that climate scientists are pushing climate change for grant money. "You think climate scientists are getting rich off this stuff?" Meyers asked. "Have you seen how they dress?"

Add Trump's Cabinet picks to his obsessive "hatred of windmills," and you should probably brace for an anti-environment White House, he said. But "maybe the worst thing about the Trump administration's climate agenda is that they'll have a compliant Republican Congress ready and willing to kowtow to the oil and gas lobby." After noting a controversy involving House Republicans, Brietbart, and The Weather Channel, he wrapped up: "So the climate situation may well be dire under a Trump administration, which is why we need to keep bringing attention to it — it's literally life or death." And if that sounds gloomy, Meyers lightened things up with an odd recurring joke about a penguin. Watch below. Peter Weber

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.