 So, do you have a climate change prevention plan for me? Yes, sir, I do. Amazing. And who are you supposed to be again? I'm a personification of the various governments of the world and the corporate lobby groups that control them. You know, the people who run the world. Oh, lucky you. And who am I supposed to be? You're the one I'm pitching the climate change prevention plan to and the one who has to approve it. Fantastic. And who do I represent in the real world? Nobody. In real life, the people I personify don't have to answer to anyone. Oh, not having to answer to anyone is tight. Yes, sir, it is. But why are you making this pitch to me then if you don't have to answer to anyone? Doesn't really make sense. Well, this is actually a parody of a pitch meeting between a screenwriter and a movie studio executive. You know how when someone writes a movie script, they have to pitch it to a movie studio to get approval? Uh-huh, it's like that. But instead of pitching a movie idea, I'm pitching international climate change policy. Wait, so who are we then? I'm the screenwriter. You're the movie studio executive. I thought you were the government and corporate powers and I was nobody. Yes, sir. I've got to say I find this very confusing. Oh, I thought this would make a good device for talking about international climate policy. That doesn't sound like a good device at all. Maybe not. Well, I guess we'll see. So what's up with this climate change prevention plan? Well, it's called the Paris Agreement and it's an international agreement that's been signed by every single country on Earth. Wow, signed by every single country. So what's the goal of the Paris Agreement? Well, the goal of the Paris Agreement is to make sure global warming stays well below two degrees Celsius and below 1.5 degrees, if possible. And is it important to stay below two degrees of warming? Yeah, kind of. Why is that? Well, if we go above two degrees, there's a good chance that feedback loops will make global warming spiral to even higher temperatures and cause severe droughts, severe food shortages, and possibly the collapse of human civilization. Oh, my God. Yeah, so that's why the Paris Agreement aims to keep us below two degrees. I'm very glad to hear that. How does it plan to achieve this? Through nationally determined contributions. And what's their deal? These are the plans and pledges that each country makes to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, you know, setting goals for reduction and how they plan to achieve them. Think of it as their Paris Agreement promises. Well, that does sound good. And I guess with the extreme danger humanity is in, there must be some really tough, intense requirements for how much and how quickly countries are required to reduce their emissions. Actually, not at all. Oh, what? No, there are no specific requirements for how much countries are required to reduce their emissions. But haven't climate scientists warned that if we want to stay below two degrees of warming, then humanity needs to cut our emissions by at least 25% by the year 2030? Yes, sir, indeed they have. So why doesn't this Paris Agreement have any requirements for how much countries should reduce their emissions? I don't know. Fair enough. So another thing about the Paris Agreement is that it acknowledges that global warming is an urgent and dangerous crisis. Oh, good. So world leaders understand this is of life or death importance? Probably. Then I'm sure they set really high goals for reducing carbon emissions. Oh, no, I wouldn't say that. Uh-oh. Yeah, actually, if you take the sum total of all the Paris Agreement promises made by every country, they're not enough to keep us under two degrees of warming. Oh, I don't like the sound of that. Are you sure this is true? Absolutely. All the climate scientists agree that the Paris Agreement promises are woefully inadequate. Yeah, here's a graph of the greenhouse gas emissions the world will have if we all follow the Paris Agreement promises. And here's how much the world needs to reduce emissions to stay below two degrees. As you can see, sir, there is quite a large difference between what is needed and what has been promised. Wow, very inadequate. It sure is. I'm kind of thinking that having no requirements for emission targets was maybe a bad idea. It probably was. Whoops. Whoopsie. Well, if I'm being honest, I find this all quite frightening. Understandable, sir. But you may take comfort in the fact that the Paris Agreement is designed to make countries improve their efforts over time. Oh, really? Every five years, countries have to set new goals for reducing their greenhouse gas emissions. And each time they set a new goal, it has to be a lower level of emissions than it was the last time. Ah, so their promises get better every time. Exactly. And when you say that countries have to do this, I guess this means there's some sort of standard or penalty for not complying? Oh, no. No, no, no, no. No, no, no, no, no, no. OK, so what do you mean by have to? I mean it's entirely self-determined and totally voluntary. So they don't really have to at all. They do not. Wow. Do you ever think maybe since they don't really have to, then they just won't? Well, sir, every country in the world signed the agreement, and the eyes of the world are upon them to do the right thing. So there's political pressure, and there's also peer pressure from other countries. Oh, I've got to say, I don't think this pledge and review process will work. Has this kind of thing been done in other international agreements? It has. Oh, great. And has it worked? Not usually, no. Wow, wow, wow, wow. Wow. I think it'll work this time, though. Oh, and why is that? Because. Well, OK then. So based on the Paris Agreement promises that countries have made, how much global warming is this likely to cause? Well, sir, estimates vary, but the United Nations Environment Program predicts that by the end of the century, it will be 2.7 degrees warmer at the very least, but likely more than three degrees. More than three degrees? That seems incredibly dangerous. It is, but not quite as dangerous as what's actually happening. What do you mean? I mean that most countries are not living up to their Paris Agreement promises. I'm sorry. What? Yeah, those promises that countries made about how much they'd reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, they're breaking them. Wait, you mean the promises that are totally inadequate to keep global warming at a safe level? They're breaking those promises? Like a carton of eggs, sir. So they're not even living up to the standard that they already set too low? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, I'm feeling more afraid now. Seems like we're headed for some apocalyptic Mad Max world. Yeah, but Mad Max is a great movie, and don't you just love the cool badass clothes they all wear? That's true. So many good fashion options. Oh, apocalyptic fashion is tight. Yeah. OK, so since we're not living up to our Paris promises, how much global warming are we likely to have by the end of the century? With our current policies, we're looking at about 3.7 degrees by the end of the century. Oh my god, what even is that in Fahrenheit? I don't know. It's 6.66 Fahrenheit. Ooh, 6.66. I like that number. Ooh, I don't think you should. Yeah, I hear it's a great number. If you say so. So the Paris Agreement is legally binding, right? Kind of. So with all these countries breaking their Paris Agreement promises, they must be facing some sort of penalty or punishment? No, nothing like that. Not even like a fine they have to pay or economic sanctions? Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope. Then in what way is this treaty legally binding? Unclear. And if there's no penalty or punishment for breaking their promises, then how can this agreement get countries to stop breaking them? Also unclear. And how is peer pressure between countries supposed to work if most countries are at such a woefully low standard? I don't know. Please stop asking me questions. You know, this is starting to sound less like an international treaty and more like a bunch of worthless words. You just described an international treaty. It all seems to rely on the goodwill of world leaders, you know, politicians. And since when can they be relied on to act for the greater good? Sir, I'm going to need you to get all the way off my back about this. Oh, OK. Let me get off of that thing, I guess. The Paris Agreement is what it is. It may not be perfect, but at least it gives people the illusion that we're trying. Yeah, yeah, it does do that. But how about keeping global warming below two degrees? How about we cross our fingers and hope for the best? That works. So by the way, about that two degrees thing? Uh-huh. Well, full disclosure, climate scientists have warned that staying just below two degrees of global warming might still be too high. Oh, no. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They say we should keep things below 1.5 degrees of warming. Oh, dang it. And if we don't? Well, sea levels will rise multiple feet. Major cities will disappear under water. We'll have a refugee crisis several times bigger than any in history. Hurricanes would get more deadly, as would other natural disasters. Fresh water would become scarce. Growing food becomes harder, leading to food scarcity, as well as the water scarcity. And there's also a risk that will trigger self-reinforcing feedback loops like Arctic permafrost melting, which releases huge amounts of greenhouse gas. And these feedback loops could make global warming spiral up like four or five degrees. And the strain of that could literally be enough to cause human civilization to collapse. And then, you know, fighting for scarce resources may lead to nuclear war. Did you hear me? Oh, I heard you. I'm just feeling frightened. Fair enough. Well, can you please do something to make this situation less frightening? Now, why not? Because money. Oh, money. I love money. I also love money. Well, if this is a money thing, why didn't you say so? Money makes everything OK. Maybe. I mean, I still feel frightened. But at least there's money to comfort me. Oh, money is very comforting. And I have a lot of it. So do I. But still, even for rich people like us, won't it be extremely difficult to survive in a world of drought, hunger, natural disaster, displacement of entire populations, and the potential collapse of civilization? Actually, it'll be super easy, barely an inconvenience. Oh, really? Yeah, because with all our money, we can buy luxury doomsday bunkers, huge stocks of food no matter the price, and hire our own private security force. Fantastic. And what about the other people? Other people? You know, the people without money? Oh, those people. Yeah, I've heard of them. Yeah, those people. Shouldn't we think about how to help them? Well, we can think about it. To keep global warming down, what would it take? What kind of changes are we talking about? Well, to have decent odds of staying below 1.5 degrees of warming, we have to cut our greenhouse gas emissions by 55% by the year 2030. OK. And to stay below 2 degrees of warming, we have to cut them about 25%, also by 2030. OK, and realistically, what level of emission reduction will we likely have by then? Well, if we keep our Paris promises about 1%. Only 1%. But since we're not keeping our promises, emissions are likely to increase. Wow, how is it that we are failing this badly? Well, sir, we're only making slow progress in transforming things like energy and transportation. But isn't slow progress still some progress? Yeah, but we also have economic growth, population growth, the growth of meat consumption. So that slow progress gets canceled out. Gotcha. So anyways, that's the Paris agreement. Do you like it? Well, to be perfectly honest, it seems the more I learn about it and the more I think about it, the worse it gets. Yeah, the whole thing falls apart if you think about it. So please don't do that. I'm trying not to. Try harder. But I still feel a little worried that it's just far too weak to save us from impending doom. Yeah, I wouldn't worry about that. Oh, OK, then I won't. Besides, we have to remember that if the action we take against climate change is too strong, that will put innocent money at stake. Oh, no, that would be a disaster. Hello. So this video was different from what I usually do. It's inspired by a series called Pitch Meeting over on the YouTube channel ScreenRant. That series is really funny, and so is the guy who does it, Ryan George. In the video description, I put links to his channel and also the Pitch Meeting playlist. I also put links to the sources for everything I said in this video, in case you want to fact check anything. I also put a link to some resources if you want to learn more or take action on climate change and try to make a difference. And by the way, I think it's OK for me to pretend to be Ryan George since he already pretended to be me in one of his videos. I'm a cat. Speaking of Ryan George, I'd love if we could get him to watch this video and maybe even retweet it. So if you can, hop on Twitter and share it with him at the Ryan George. And while you're there, you can follow me at One Lucky Black Cat. OK, bye. See you next time. Muah.