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The Paris Accord: What is it? And What Does it All Mean?

2017-06-02 · explainer · Hank · 5:53 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Science & nature (also: US politics & society) · mode: News analysis · tags: timely hook

As the US pulls out of the Paris Agreement, Hank explains how fossil fuels drive climate change and how the voluntary, unenforced agreement divided emission goals among countries, argues it was a gigantic, successful step worth its costs, and says he is ashamed of the US withdrawal.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — The US is pulling out of the Paris Agreement; most people don't know what it is

  • ★★★ Hank reports that the United States is pulling out of the Paris climate agreement. — 00:00:01 · United States
  • ★ Hank says viewers quite likely have a strong opinion on the Paris Agreement and even more likely don't really know what it is. (playful, hedged) — 00:00:07

00:00:13 — Timeline: how fossil fuels formed, their benefits since 1882, and how CO2 traps heat and changes the climate

  • ★★ Hank explains that 350 million years ago plants turned atmospheric CO2 into oxygen and carbohydrates; buried, heated and squashed, they became energy-dense hydrocarbons, fossil fuels. — 00:00:17
  • ★★ Hank dates his timeline from 1882, when Thomas Edison built the first centralized coal-fired power plant, though coal was used long before. — 00:00:38
  • ★★ Hank says for the next 100 years fossil fuels brought tremendous growth and quality of life, mainly in Europe and America, where most were burned; then the benefits spread. — 00:00:49 · Europe, United States
  • ★★★ Hank explains that CO2 locked in fossil fuels is being re-released; it lets visible light through but traps infrared, adding energy to atmosphere and oceans and changing the climate. — 00:01:03 · climate change
    • check: billions of years — doubtful
  • ★★ Hank says fossil fuels let us do cool and beautiful things, but we also rely on a stable climate for massive farming and coastal infrastructure, meaning the cities people live in. — 00:01:26

00:01:42 — How the Paris Agreement works: the 2-degree goal, why everyone must agree, divided goals, aid money, no penalties

  • ★★★ Hank says in 2015, 270 countries met in Paris with the goal of keeping average warming below 2 degrees Celsius, since otherwise it would be really bad for everyone. — 00:01:42
    • a number in question (doubtful): "270" — check against the recording
  • ★★★ Hank says no one country can handle climate change: even the biggest contributors, the US and China, together make up less than half the emissions; everyone must agree. — 00:01:54 · United States, China, climate change
  • ★★★ Hank says poor countries that emitted basically no greenhouse gases will be hurt most by rich countries' CO2, because of food and water insecurity and less medicine and infrastructure. (hedged) — 00:02:05
  • ★★ Hank says it is hard to tell poor countries not to grow with the dirty fuels rich countries used, and instead to buy solar panels with money they don't have. (playful) — 00:02:19
  • ★★ Hank says any country that keeps burning as usual gains an industrial advantage, so everyone agrees everyone must agree or the agreement is useless. — 00:02:31
  • ★★★ Hank explains that with scientists' advice countries set how fast emissions must stop to meet the two-degree goal, then divided responsibility by development, population and emissions; every country had an unenforced goal. — 00:02:40
  • ★★ Hank says some countries that benefited from a century of carbon emissions added billions of dollars to help others grow with less reliance on fossil fuels. — 00:03:02
  • ★★ Hank says each country chose its own path to its goal: energy efficiency, subsidizing renewables, regulating business, education, or ending fossil fuel subsidies. — 00:03:15
  • ★★ Hank says nothing happens if countries miss their targets: there are no penalties. — 00:03:30
  • ★★★ Hank says remarkably a treaty that only encourages emission cuts with unenforceable promises is a gigantic step that has already seen significant success. — 00:03:39

00:03:49 — Costs and uncertainties, and why acting now globally is worth it

  • ★★ Hank says the agreement is an investment with costs, and we don't know exactly what the price will be or how much better off we will be. (unsure) — 00:03:49
  • ★★★ Hank says we do know we are better off incentivizing these changes now, globally. — 00:04:05
  • ★★★ Hank says more than 600 million people live in areas threatened by sea level rise. — 00:04:09
  • ★★★ Hank says climate refugees, lost crops and lost infrastructure could destabilize the world economy and bring a very bad era, a view the US Department of Defense shares. (hedged) — 00:04:13 · United States

00:04:28 — US progress toward its goals, political will, what the withdrawal means, Hank's shame

  • ★★★ Hank says thanks to efficiency, changing habits and a shift from coal to gas and renewables, the US was until recently on target to cut emissions 26% from 2005 by 2025, already down around 14%. — 00:04:28 · United States
  • ★★★ Hank says that if Congress's majority party and the President deny human-caused climate change and keep investing in Edison-era energy systems, US progress will stall. — 00:04:48 · United States Congress, Donald Trump, climate change
  • ★★ Hank says other countries are pledging to move forward without the US, and several US states with the largest economies plan to abide by the agreement. — 00:05:02 · United States
  • ★★★ Hank says without the US, which emits 18% of the world's greenhouse gases with 4% of its population, the agreement is considerably weakened. — 00:05:12 · United States
  • ★★ Hank asks why other countries would hold up their side if the country that benefited most from the CO2 now in the atmosphere shirks its responsibility. — 00:05:22
  • ★★ Hank is tired of politicians pretending we don't all share this big, beautiful but quite small planet. — 00:05:30
  • ★★★ Hank was proud his country led in establishing the Paris Agreement and is ashamed of its step back from uniting humanity against this global challenge. — 00:05:38 · United States

In the description and comments

  • ★★★ In the description Hank says nostalgia drives the push to leave: the focus on coal, uneconomical and employing few Americans, reflects fondness for a world that probably never existed. (hedged) — video description · United States
  • ★★ In the description Hank grants that fossil fuels have been great for Americans and for the world. — video description
  • ★★ Hank says the people who worked and fought to use fossil fuels to make lives better did good things, but we need new paths and to retire old ones. — video description
  • ★★★ Hank names a second driver of leaving the agreement, a push for countries to care only about their own interests, and calls climate change the best example that this doesn't work, which scares skeptics of globalism. — video description · climate change
  • ★★ Hank says purely economically motivated opponents are powerful but few; to defend a worldview people make leaps such as claiming every scientist lies about how CO2 absorption works. — video description
  • ★ Hank recommends Twitter threads by Vi Hart and Adam Conover on these topics, which he really enjoyed. — video description

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: climate change · fossil fuel · Paris Agreement · United States

Also: People: Donald Trump · Thomas Edison

Organizations: United States Congress · United States Department of Defense

Concepts: carbon dioxide · energy transition · greenhouse gas · natural gas · refugee · Sea level rise · solar power

Places: China · Europe · Paris

Only in the description or credits: Adam Conover · globalism · nostalgia · Vi Hart

Also centred on fossil fuel: Invalid Arguments: Climate Change · The Biggest Climate Bill of Your Life - But What does it DO!?

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