(upbeat music)
- [Dulce] Good news everyone.
The election felt like it was the end of the world
but it wasn't.
(dramatic music) - Bad news,
the actual end of the world is coming up.
- [Reporter 1] The life-threatening
and devastating flooding emergency.
- [Reporter 2] A crippling drive.
- [Reporter 3] Some people driving through flames to escape.
- [Dulce] Climate change is getting worse.
And even though the election
was a small victory for the planet,
Biden is still going to need to deal with Republicans
who don't think fixing it is worth the price tag.
- The Paris Accord, I took us out,
because we were gonna have to spend trillions of dollars.
- The American economy, it will die
if we get rid of oil and gas.
- But where are they gonna get all the money from.
- One of the people supporting this says
we can just print money, Congressman.
- [Dulce] I'm not taking economic advice
from someone who looks like he spends
most of his money on eightballs.
But I'll admit, after the way 2020 has gone,
I myself have wondered if the world is even worth saving.
So I want to know what costs more,
doing something like the Paris Agreement or Green New Deal,
or this kind of plan, which is, wait for it,
nothing.
Na-da.
Luckily we found an expert in doing nothing,
Professor Marshall Burke.
- And in a sense, we study the cost of doing nothing,
Although doing nothing here really means doing a lot.
- I do nothing all the time and it doesn't cost me a penny.
- So we have studied this.
The Paris Climate Agreement said we want to limit warming
to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
But let's say we do.
Let's say we do nothing at all.
The best estimate suggests we're gonna get
about three degrees Celsius, five or six degrees Fahrenheit
of warming over the next century.
Hotter temperatures reduce agricultural productivity.
Hotter temperatures make us less productive at work.
And this could cost us tens of trillions of dollars
in terms of lost economic output.
- 'Cause if I hear trillions of dollars,
I'm thinking monopoly money and unicorn tears.
So what will doing nothing cost the average person?
- You're right, trillion is hard to understand.
So a hundred billion is a Jeff Bezos.
So a trillion is like 10 Jeff Bezoses.
- Should we just kidnap Jeff Bezos and make him pay for it?
- I don't know if our research speaks
to a kidnapping approach.
- What Marshall's research does speak to
is that if we don't meet the 1.5 degree goal
set by the Paris Accord, it could cost $6 trillion
in the U S alone.
And Miami will be underwater, and not in a fun way.
If we go past that, the world's GDP drops by 20%
and the Pirates of the Caribbean ride
will have direct access to the Caribbean.
On the other hand, what if we actually did something
and pass some of the ambitious proposals
laid out in the Green New Deal?
People talk about like the Green New Deal
like AOC is gonna personally come in your house
and steal your Christmas presents
and then replace it with a lump of coal
and then come back and replace the lump of coal
with a solar panel.
- A lot of the hand-wringing about the Green New Deal
has focused on its potential cost.
Imagine you have a loved one who's been diagnosed
with a serious illness.
So do we say, "Oh, it's gonna cost $10,000 to fix grandpa.
Like let's not bother.
$10,000, wow."
No, we think about the benefits of that too.
We like having grandpa around.
- So we need to think of the earth as a grandpa we like,
is what you're saying.
- Yeah, the metaphor works when you like your grandpa.
And we find that the cost of inaction
are actually a lot larger
than doing something about the problem.
- I knew it. I knew it.
I knew it.
But what do you do if your lazy, deadbeat,
ain't-shit government refuses to see the logic
in these numbers?
You take their asses to court, even on the local level.
And I've talked to one hardened veteran
of the U S judicial system who is doing just that.
- I'm actually suing the State of Florida.
All we want for them is to cut our carbon emissions.
- How old are you?
- (chuckling) I am 21 years old.
- Is it the Doogie Howser situation?
I know you don't get that reference because you're 21.
- Ha-ha, no, not quite.
- Okay, how much you suing them for?
- Absolutely nothing.
- You're suing them for nothing?
What, do you play lotto for the thrill of the game?
Do you go to Vegas just for the weather?
- So, it's kind of like we're suing
on behalf of the environment.
- Could I recommend one thing?`
Sue to get enough money to buy a submarine.
- We want them to spend the money on the environment.
So we know that it's going to cost us as a society,
trillions of dollars.
But if we continue to wait,
it's only going to be more expensive in the future
to pay for those solutions that we need.
For example, the property value of the land that's at risk
from five feet of sea level rise is about $27 billion.
- And for those following along,
that's a quarter Jeff Bezos.
But don't get your hopes up, you know?
'Cause there's a chance that Florida isn't gonna change.
Florida's still gonna be on your couch,
eating on your food while you're at work,
asking to borrow your car.
Why do you need a car, Florida?
You don't have a job.
- Yeah, so to be candid, if there's no change,
if we don't do anything to solve our climate change crisis,
Florida faces extinction.
- [Dulce] On the one hand, if Florida is extinct,
then we would have to deal with Florida anymore.
But then again, Florida is part of Earth.
And even though it's been hard on us this year,
we should still do something to save it instead of nothing
because I still love Earth.
Some people I like live here.
Even some people that I love.
And I wouldn't trade them for all the Bezoses in the world.