The Paris Accord: What is it? And What Does it All Mean?
Channel: vlogbrothers
Date: 2017-06-02

At the heart of the desire to get America out of the Paris Agreement seems to be three things: 

1. Nostalgia. The focus on coal, an energy source that is becoming uneconomical even in developing countries, and that employs very few people in America can't have anything to do with anything except an imagined fondness for a world that probably never existed. These people are right that fossil fuels have been great for Americans and also for the world. I think the people who worked and fought to use fossil fuels to make people's lives better did good things. I also think we need new paths and to retire old ones.

2. A push to have countries care only about their own interests. Climate change is the best example that this doesn't work. And that's very scary for people who are skeptical of globalism. It may seem to them awfully convenient that the people who want a more global society happened to find this disaster that can only be solved by a more global society. 

Of course there are some that are purely economically motivated, but while those people are powerful, there aren't many of them. But these are the things that really resonate with large numbers of people. And when you're trying to defend  your worldview, you'll make some magnificent mental leaps to do it...like that every scientist ever is lying about how CO2 absorption works. 

There are a couple Twitter threads that I really enjoyed on these topics. here they are. 

Vi Hart: https://twitter.com/vihartvihart/status/870413832732250112

Adam Conover: https://twitter.com/adamconover/status/870025080041910272


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