Rush Limbaugh tells environmental reporter to kill himself

Andrew Revkin, The New York Times' lead environmental reporter, is taking heat. And this time, it's not global warming.

Controversial conservative talker Rush Limbaugh, a longtime critic of the global warming concept, told the reporter to kill himself during his show Tuesday.

Limbaugh dubbed the reporter an "environmentalist wacko."

"This guy from The New York Times, if he really thinks that humanity is destroying the planet, humanity is destroying the climate, that human beings in their natural existence are going to cause the extinction of life on Earth -- Andrew Revkin," Limbaugh quipped. "Mr. Revkin, why don't you just go kill yourself and help the planet by dying?"

Of environmentalists in general, the conservative heavyweight declared they're really just would-be suicide bombers.

"I think these militant environmentalists, these wackos, have so much in common with the jihad guys," Limbaugh said. "Let me explain this. What do the jihad guys do? The jihad guys go to families under their control and they convince these families to strap explosives on who? Not them. On their kids.

"Grab your 3-year-old, grab your 4-year-old, grab your 6-year-old, and we're gonna strap explosives on there, and then we're going to send you on a bus, or we're going to send you to a shopping center, and we're gonna tell you when to pull the trigger, and you're gonna blow up, and you're gonna blow up everybody around you, and you're gonna head up to wherever you're going, 73 virgins are gonna be there," Limbaugh added.

Politico noted that Paul Krugman, the Times' Pulitzer-prize winning economic columnist, blogged: "Always good to remember what we’re dealing with."

Limbaugh figures large in conservative politics, with some conservatives acknowledging that he's among the most influential members of the Republican Party.

A full transcript of Limbaugh's remarks appear at MediaMatters.org. Audio from Limbaugh's Oct. 20 radio program follows.