Adam Ruins Everything Reminds Us Why Trump Withdrawing From the Paris Agreement Hurts Climate Change Efforts

This particular clip comes from the episode “Adam Goes Green” from December of last year, but the Paris climate change agreement has come into the political conversation again. Donald Trump, who’s written off climate change as a hoax and actively harmed conversation efforts, is preparing to withdraw the United States from the Paris agreement.

Elon Musk, who is on his economic and manufacturing advisory council, said he was “cautiously optimistic,” but it looks like now he’ll have to make good on his promise to leave the council if the U.S. does withdraw.

Here, Adam Conover is joined by NYU Professor of Environment Studies and Philosophy Dr. Dale Jamieson, who explains the agreement and its significance. “Each country agreed to be accountable for its emissions every five years, that’s a big deal. It proves that international cooperation on climate change is possible,” he says, but it’s just a first step as emission limits are non-binding.

To take the U.S. out of the agreement then, undoes the progress that we are trying to make to take care of our planet. It says to the people in the United States that climate change is not something they should care about individually or collectively. We already need to be doing more to combat climate change, so why are we moving backwards?

Adam Ruins Everything‘s second season premieres July 11 and 10 p.m. ET/PT, and they definitely have a lot to ruin.

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Charline Jao

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