“Human sacrifice”: Tucker Carlson says abortion is to blame for freak hurricanes

Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson said Monday that he believes climate change is caused by abortions, not burning fossil fuels.

Speaking on a podcast with former Trump campaign strategist and Trump ally Stephen Bannon, who has just been released from prison, Carlson denied the scientific consensus that the use of fossil fuels is behind global warming and that this in turn fuels hurricanes like those, that recently hit the American Southeast. Taking a religious tone, Carlson attributed steadily rising temperatures to the perceived moral failure of American women.

“It’s probably abortion, actually,” Carlson said, later describing the practice as “human sacrifice.” After admitting that he will be “attacked” for his opinion, Carlson added “I really believe that.”

While hurricanes are a natural phenomenon, they have become more frequent and more intense over the years. Scientists have provided strong evidence that the dynamic behind this is an increase in greenhouse gases from human industry that trap heat, boil the oceans to extreme levels that cause greater evaporation. Additionally increase in CO2 allows more vapor to form in the air. This leaves these tropical storms — and of course, it has nothing to do with health care or reproductive rights.

Carlson’s comments are part of a broader trend of spreading misinformation about both climate change and the pair of recent hurricanes, Helene and Milton, that affected millions of Americans. A recent report by the London-based think tank Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD) found that when these hurricanes hit in October, social media accounts linked to Russian state-linked media were spreading misinformation promoting right-wing themes. They inaccurately claimed that emergency relief agencies such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) were incompetent or actively trying to harm ordinary Americans. Many hurricane victims were told that FEMA would only pay them up to $750 or that accepting relief money could have their land seized. Trump himself spread some of this misinformation, especially regarding the relief effort.

On one occasion, Russian state-owned news agency RIA Novosti shared an AI-generated image of Florida’s Disney World allegedly destroyed by Hurricane Milton, which quickly went viral on Elon Musk’s social media platform X. Some of the conspiracy theories claimed that the hurricanes had been created by Jews to help Vice President Kamala Harris win the upcoming election.

“This type of content is particularly prominent on X (formerly Twitter), in line with other recent moderation errors identified by ISD,” the authors write. Their views are echoed by other researchers who specialize in climate change. Speaking to Salon in April, climate scientist Dr. Michael E. Mann of the University of Pennsylvania that “Twitter has become a cesspool for the promotion of misinformation and disinformation; Elon Musk is not an honest actor. By some measures, he has engaged in criminal behavior, and I think it is pretty clear that he needs to be reined in and we’re going to need much tougher regulatory policies.”