Pete Buttigieg explains difference between seasons and climate change to Republicans, again

Pete Buttigieg has found himself in the exasperating position of having to explain to Republicans the difference between seasons and climate change over and over again.

The US Secretary of Transportation has done well to avoid tearing his hair out while repeatedly explaining that climate change is different from the changing of the seasons.

It started on 20 September when the openly gay Democrat mentioned climate change at a House Transportation and Infrastructure committee hearing.

Buttigieg told the committee: “Climate change is real and we’ve got to do something about it.”

To this, Republican congressman Doug LaMalfa replied: “Yeah, this one’s called autumn.”

Hammering his attempted joke home, LaMalfia repeated: “This climate change right now is called autumn, so yeah.”

Buttigieg calmly replied: “Yes, that’s the seasons changing, which, respectively, is not the same thing as the climate changing.”

That wasn’t the end of it, though.

Last week, Buttigieg poked fun at another Republican representative about climate change when Illinois Rep Mary Miller made a similar mistake while speaking on the House floor.

“The farmers in my district recognize climate change as summer, winter, spring, and fall,” she told the floor.

“We would like the USDA [U.S. Department of Agriculture] to focus on policies that actually help producers and rural communities.”

Sharing a clip of Miller’s mix-up to X (formerly known as Twitter), Buttigieg jokingly asked: “Are we really doing this?”

Are we really doing this? https://t.co/zATAJp7s6v

— Secretary Pete Buttigieg (@SecretaryPete) September 27, 2023

Before anyone else goes to Buttigieg for further clarity, a recent fact-check by USA Today described climate change as a long-term shift in weather and atmospheric conditions detected by “a wide array of measurements and observations over decades or hundreds of years” which “show a long-term warming trend caused by humans.”

Additionally, the USDA, mentioned by Rep Miller in her short speech last week, is rightfully concerned about climate change and the effect it will have on farmers. 

According to the USDA’s Fourth National Climate Assessment, “climate change presents numerous challenges to sustaining and enhancing crop productivity, livestock health, and the economic vitality of rural communities.”

The assessment warns that crops are expected to decline across the US “as a consequence of increases in temperatures and possibly changes in water availability, soil erosion, and disease and pest outbreaks.”

So if Miller is calling for policies that will “help producers and rural communities”, working to fight climate change appears to be a direct solution – though she and her fellow representatives might need a refresher first.

Is Buttigieg available?