- The video discusses the challenges facing the environment and the need for more impactful solutions.
- It mentions the Green New Deal, a proposal that has garnered a lot of attention and debate.
- The Green New Deal is a non-binding resolution with aggressive goals to combat climate change.
- The plan does not provide detailed specifics on how to achieve these goals, but aims to start a conversation.
- The video highlights the importance of addressing climate change from multiple angles and mentions carbon pricing as a potential solution.

- Bill Nye explains the logic behind carbon pricing
- Carbon pricing creates incentives to emit less carbon and develop low-carbon technology
- Different ways to put a price on carbon include cap and trade and carbon tax
- Canada's carbon tax includes rebates to offset increased costs for low-income households
- The fight over carbon pricing has been difficult, but there are signs of progress
- The Green New Deal has sparked conversation about climate change
- Putting a price on carbon is one potential action, but more policies are needed
- Urgency is emphasized by the potential consequences of rising emissions
- Bill Nye concludes with a strong message about the need to take action now.

With the Green New Deal sparking a national conversation about all the ways to combat climate change, John Oliver looks at a few potential solutions.

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That's why we can both see the curve of the horizon and fall off the edge of the planet.

Specifically, we want to talk about the challenges facing the environment.

And often, when this subject comes up on TV, the solution is presented as a bunch of fun recycling ideas like this.

So we're having an Earth Day birthday party.

It's a little weird to see a grown adult be that excited by some garden hoses tied together with zip ties, although, I do actually have to admit, it's pretty fucking awesome!

I mean, I had this old garden hose lying around

Now it's a basket I use for all those picnics I attend.

I love it, and I wish to be buried with my hose basket.

Unfortunately, though, fun, crafty tips like those clearly aren't doing enough to save our planet.

These days, we're inundated with new, terrifying headlines on a regular basis, including a landmark report from the United Nations panel on climate change just last fall that contained some devastating conclusions.

The scientists found that if greenhouse gas emissions continue at the current rate, we could start seeing worsening of food shortages and wildfires, and a mass die-off of coral reefs as soon as 2040.

only be 37, Ariana Grande will only be 46, and Lou Dobbs will only have been dead for 30 years.

So, to have any hope of avoiding those consequences, the report found that unprecedented efforts are going to be required.

And to that end, there's 1 recent proposal that gets discussed a lot.

Here are a few of the times that it was mentioned just in the past week.

If you knew nothing else about the Green New Deal, you now know that everyone's talking about it, and it was booed at a Trump rally, therefore, it is A, famous, and B, probably good.

And again, all those clips were from this week, which is actually pretty amazing, considering the fact that the Senate voted the Green New Deal down 6 weeks ago.

How often do we talk about legislation after Congress

do we talk about legislation after Congress votes it down?

How often do we talk about legislation before Congress votes it down?

We talk about legislation about as much as we talked about suits before we knew who Meghan Markle was.

the water cooler and say, -"Hey, Fred, you catch suits the other

That Harvey Specter as portrayed by Gabriel Mux sure is a piece of work, On suits.

On the TV program Suits, that's captured my imagination.

And the Green New Deal has been famously polarizing.

On 1 hand, all these senators running for president co-sponsored it.

On the other hand, Republicans have been foaming at the mouth to criticize it for all the crazy provisions that they insist it contains.

The so-called Green New Deal proposes the elimination of air travel.

Eliminating cars, airplanes, flatulent cows, and, for good measure, tearing down all of our buildings.

You got to eliminate cows, which means they're coming after our hamburgers, Congressman.

This is what Stalin dreamt about, but never achieved.

You're confusing Stalin with the Hamburglar.

1 said the state is an instrument in the hands of the ruling class, while the other said, -"Robble, robble." You know, similar vibes, subtle differences.

So, given that the Green New Deal is still very much on people's minds, we thought it might be worth taking a look at it tonight to see what it is, what it isn't, and most importantly, where we should maybe go from here.

And the first thing to understand is that the Green New Deal doesn't even mention the word cows or airplanes.

In fact, while it's sometimes discussed like it's filled with specific programs to fight climate change, it isn't.

It is a non-binding resolution that very briefly sets out some extremely aggressive goals, including achieving net 0 greenhouse gas emissions, meeting 100 percent of the country's power demand through clean, renewable, and 0 emission energy sources, and creating millions of good, high-wage jobs in the United States.

The whole Green New Deal is just 14 pages long.

That is 7 pages shorter than the menu for the Cheesecake Factory.

-♪♪♪ A menu which, by the way, should have exactly 1 item on it, pie.

That's right, I said it, pie is the only good dessert.

It's got fruit, it's got bread, it's got goo.

But it's important to note, the Green New Deal contains no detailed specifics on how it will achieve any of its goals, which sounds like a criticism, but it is really not.

The plan's backers, led by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, said repeatedly, right from the outset, that the Green New Deal was merely meant to kickstart a conversation, set some aggressive targets so that we could then figure out how to hit them.

Our first step is to define the problem and define the scope of the solution.

And so we're here to say that small, incremental policy solutions are not enough.

At a certain point, your problems get so big that you have no choice but to do something drastic.

Sometimes you make a young man's mistake, like falling in love with the beautiful wife of a mafioso.

He puts a price on your head, She swears she'll leave him for you, but you can't do that.

You can't make her live the life of a fugitive, so you fake your own death in a flaffle cart collision and sail to America to start things fresh.

You tell everyone there that you were a comedian in England, and despite your ridiculous cartoon accent and no 1 in England having ever heard of you.

Eking out a living, reading off stats and jokes once a week on premium cable, but not a night goes by that you don't dream of the white Sardinian sands and the soft lips of Isabella.

-♪ ♪ -♪♪ -♪♪ It's just an example.

It's just an example off the top of my head.

So, the Green New Deal was meant to be a conversation starter, but unless you like bad faith conversations about farting cows, that conversation has not gone well so far, and much of that was clearly inevitable.

There were people who were never going to support this plan, but there were also some self-inflicted wounds.

The reason you hear hamburgers come up so much is that AOC's office mistakenly sent an early draft of an FAQ to reporters containing language like, we set a goal to get to net 0 rather than 0 emissions in 10 years because we aren't sure that we'll be able to fully get rid of farting cows and airplanes that fast, which is clearly supposed to be a joke, but it wasn't a great time to attempt 1.

And even AOC admits the rollout of the Green New Deal was the biggest mistake she's made in Congress.

And she is right about that, because it gave an opening for these idiots to pretend the Green New Deal was all about hamburger stealing, when it is not.

Although, for the record, there are real environmental issues surrounding cattle farming.

Among them, that cows do emit a lot of methane, which is a greenhouse gas.

Although even there, there's a slight misconception about which end of the cow is most responsible.

First, I want to correct a misnomer that cows don't fart.

Most cow methane comes from them belching, not farting.

And if you only remember 1 fact from tonight's show, please do not let it be that 1.

But while the rollout of this conversation has been bumpy, it is great that the Green New Deal has started 1.

So let's talk about what a plan to combat climate change could look like.

And the first thing to understand here is, no 1 solution is going to be nearly enough here.

We need to tackle this from multiple angles, and there are lots of ideas out there, including building a better power grid, improving battery storage, developing low-carbon jet fuel, electrifying industrial processes, building cities more densely, phasing out HFCs, developing lab-grown meat, building better nuclear plants, upgrading our thermostats, increasing mass transit ridership, and scaling up carbon capture technology.

And I could talk about all of those, but it would take me all night, and I know that you want to watch the rerun of Game of Thrones so that you can see what garbage from craft services they've hidden as an Easter egg this week.

Those Pringles aren't supposed to be there.

They don't have that type of Pringles in Westeros.

So instead of discussing all of those, let's instead focus on 1 policy that you're likely to hear about as this conversation continues, and that's carbon pricing.

The current situation with carbon is critical.

Carbon emissions are by far the largest source of greenhouse gases.

the air with carbon dioxide, which is a little bit weird when you think about it.

Because we've universally agreed that polluting is bad, and yet it's free to do it.

When you drive above the speed limit, you pay a fine.

When you steal 400 hamsters from PetSmart, tie them to a sled, and race through the streets on a hamster sleigh, you pay a fine.

Now, carbon pricing is a little complicated, so to break down the logic behind it, I've enlisted the help of a guy who's made a career out of explaining complex ideas with fun, visual stunts.

I'm going to explain the complicated logic behind carbon pricing.

When something costs more, people buy less of it.

I mean, honestly, I was expecting something a bit more fun and visual than that, Bill.

Could you maybe explain the long-term impact of carbon pricing, but with a cool stunt?

When we release carbon, say, by burning coal or driving an SUV, all of us pay for that in the form of things like fires, floods, and crop failures.

Putting a fee on carbon creates incentives to emit less carbon.

And more importantly, it also incentivizes the development of low-carbon technology, which is huge because that's vital to reducing emissions globally.

And because for some reason, John, you're a 42-year-old man who needs his attention sustained with tricks, here's some fucking Mentos and a bottle of Diet Coke.

The Coke went high, the Mentos made it fizzy.

About incentivizing new technology is really important, especially because our current low-carbon technology strategy is essentially hope that this guy stops calling people pedophiles long enough to invent an affordable electric car.

And right now, the pedophile to car balance is way off.

♪ -So in theory, putting a price on carbon makes complete sense.

And you should know that there is absolutely nothing extreme about this idea.

Economists across the political spectrum support it, and more than 40 governments worldwide have done it, including the U.K., where carbon pricing has contributed to CO2 emissions falling to their lowest level since 1890.

The lowest level since before Mary Poppins danced with chimney sweeps and introduced the bank's children to cocaine.

You thought the spoonful of sugar was actually sugar?

She gave those children cocaine, and she changed their lives forever.

There are different ways to put a price on carbon.

1 is cap and trade, where you cap the total amount of emissions the company's allowed to release, and you let them trade emissions permits among themselves.

Or there's the more straightforward carbon tax, which just adds a surcharge to activities that emit carbon.

The problem there is mostly the word tax, which has become a dirty word in politics.

Just look what happened in Canada, which rolled out a new carbon tax that went into effect just last month.

Although it was not easy for them to do that.

Justin Trudeau desperately tried not to use the word tax, instead calling it a price on pollution.

And when he slipped up once, just look how people reacted.

What we're also guaranteeing is, that this, tax, this, pricing...

Listen to the level of excitement over that verbal slip-up.

If you're a politician, you just can't say the words the word tax, in the same way that if you're an actor, you can't say the word Macbeth, and if you're president of the United States, you can't say the word origins.

I hope they now go and take a look at the oranges, the oranges of the, investigation, the beginnings of that investigation.

It's funny, because his brain is turning into pudding.

Anyway, anyway, the point is, Trudeau simply saying the word tax was described as Trudeau trips on his own words.

So, on what level, you can kind of understand his reluctance to use that term, because it exposed him to fear-mongering about what his policy would mean for regular people, which sometimes took the form of catchy slam poetry from his political opponents.

Farms and families will feel the pinch when the carbon tax man pulls the cinch.

Tax the tractor, combine, plow, tax the chicken, egg, and cow.

I don't care where you stand on this issue, no 1 wants to hear a rhyme about carbon taxes from anybody, let alone some guy who looks like he got his entire wardrobe at Express John Oliver.

But he is speaking to a real concern there.

How do you put a price on carbon and make things more expensive without harming the people who can least afford it?

And what Canada's doing to address this is actually pretty simple.

Very basically, they're taking the money they collect and giving it back to their citizens.

They're doing this by pooling the money gathered by increased fees on things like gas and heat, dividing it up and sending it back to taxpayers as a rebate.

In fact, they've designed it so that the rebates in Canada are anticipated to exceed the increased costs for about 70 percent of households with lowest income households seeing the most benefits from the policy, which is great.

But even with that being true, the fight over a carbon tax was and still is very difficult in Canada.

It's no wonder that some politicians in this country are wary of even attempting a debate about carbon pricing.

In fact, the last national attempt that got any real traction here was 10 years ago, when Congress tried passing a cap and trade bill.

And the debate around it got so toxic, West Virginia Democrat Joe Manchin was comfortable expressing his displeasure like this.

I approve this act because I'll always defend West Virginia.

I sued EPA, and I'll take dead aim at the cap-and-trade bill.

Now, that may seem idiotic to you, because it is, but...

But in fairness, that is actually the only way to stop a bill from becoming a law.

Look, look, look, I know that this can all seem hopeless, especially under the current administration, but there are actually some small signs that the tide may be turning here.

The very fact that we're still talking about the Green New Deal is really encouraging.

Plus, the percentage of conservative Republicans who say they are very or somewhat worried by global warming has more than doubled in the last 5 years.

Even Mitch McConnell finally acknowledged the role of humans in climate change for the first time a few weeks ago.

And yes, that is a bit like him giving a speech titled, Alf is actually just a big puppet.

It's embarrassing it's taken you this long to accept it.

And look, however bumpy its rollout was, to its eternal credit, the Green New Deal has succeeded in getting people talking.

But that won't mean anything unless that talk now turns to actions.

And putting a price on carbon could potentially be 1 of them, although, let me reiterate, it will not be enough on its own by a long shot.

We're gonna need a lot of different policies working in tandem, and we have to take action right now.

But you don't have to just take that from me.

Instead, I'm happy to say that Bill Nye has actually agreed to help drive the urgency home at this point by actually doing 1 of his enjoyable, light-hearted demonstrations.

So, Bill, please, please, Do you have a fun experiment for us?

By the end of this century, if emissions keep rising, the average temperature on Earth could go up another 4 to 8 degrees.

What I'm saying is the planet's on fucking fire.

There are a lot of things we could do to put it out.

I didn't mind explaining photosynthesis to you when you were 12, but you're adults now, and this is an actual crisis.


Speaker 0: -♪ ♪ -♪ -♪ Earth. -♪ Which, for the record, is not flat. Earth is, of course, cylindrical. That's why we can both see the curve of the horizon and fall off the edge of the planet. It's just science, everyone.

That's a science fact. Specifically, we want to talk about the challenges facing the environment. And often, when this subject comes up on TV, the solution is presented as a bunch of fun recycling ideas like this.

Speaker 1: So we're having an Earth Day birthday party. So check this 1 out. Your old garden hoses. Do you love these little baskets?

Speaker 2: Oh, that's cute.

Speaker 1: So easy to make and no special tools. It's just a hose and zip ties.

Speaker 3: And that's it.

Speaker 2: Oh, my God. These are...

Speaker 0: Oh, my gosh. It's a little weird to see a grown adult be that excited by some garden hoses tied together with zip ties, although, I do actually have to admit, it's pretty fucking awesome!

Speaker 4: I mean, I had this old garden hose lying around

Speaker 0: my living room for ages. I had no idea what to do with it. Now it's a basket I use for all those picnics I attend. I love it, and I wish to be buried with my hose basket. Unfortunately, though, fun, crafty tips like those clearly aren't doing enough to save our planet.

These days, we're inundated with new, terrifying headlines on a regular basis, including a landmark report from the United Nations panel on climate change just last fall that contained some devastating conclusions.

Speaker 5: The scientists found that if greenhouse gas emissions continue at the current rate, we could start seeing worsening of food shortages and wildfires, and a mass die-off of coral reefs as soon as 2040. 2040? That's just 21 years from now. By that point, Finn Wolfhard will

Speaker 0: only be 37, Ariana Grande will only be 46, and Lou Dobbs will only have been dead for 30 years. So, to have any hope of avoiding those consequences, the report found that unprecedented efforts are going to be required. And to that end, there's 1 recent proposal that gets discussed a lot. Here are a few of the times that it was mentioned just in the past week.

Speaker 5: She backs the Green New Deal.

Speaker 6: The Green New Deal makes no sense.

Speaker 2: How do you achieve the Green New Deal?

Speaker 7: Factor in the new Green Deal.

Speaker 5: Green New Deal. The Green New Deal. The Green New Deal.

Speaker 2: The Green New Deal. The Green New Deal. The Green New Deal. The Green New Deal.

Speaker 7: The Green New Deal. The Green New Deal. The Green New Deal.

Speaker 2: AUDIENCE GROANS

Speaker 0: If you knew nothing else about the Green New Deal, you now know that everyone's talking about it, and it was booed at a Trump rally, therefore, it is A, famous, and B, probably good. And... And again, all those clips were from this week, which is actually pretty amazing, considering the fact that the Senate voted the Green New Deal down 6 weeks ago. And think about that. How often do we talk about legislation after Congress

Speaker 2: votes it down? How often

Speaker 0: do we talk about legislation after Congress votes it down? How often do we talk about legislation before Congress votes it down? We talk about legislation about as much as we talked about suits before we knew who Meghan Markle was. You weren't talking about suits. You didn't go to

Speaker 4: the water cooler and say, -"Hey, Fred, you catch suits the other

Speaker 0: night?" -$5,000. That Harvey Specter as portrayed by Gabriel Mux sure is a piece of work, On suits. On the TV program Suits, that's captured my imagination. -$5,000. -$5,000.

And the Green New Deal has been famously polarizing. On 1 hand, all these senators running for president co-sponsored it. On the other hand, Republicans have been foaming at the mouth to criticize it for all the crazy provisions that they insist it contains.

Speaker 7: The so-called Green New Deal proposes the elimination of air travel. Eliminating cars, airplanes, flatulent cows, and, for good measure, tearing down all of our buildings. You can't stop cows from flatulating. You got to eliminate cows, which means they're coming after our hamburgers, Congressman.

Speaker 0: They want to take away your hamburgers. This is what Stalin dreamt about, but never achieved. What are you talking about? That's not Stalin's dream. That is the Hamburglar's dream.

Speaker 4: You're confusing Stalin with the Hamburglar.

Speaker 0: Which is actually understandable. 1 said the state is an instrument in the hands of the ruling class, while the other said, -"Robble, robble." You know, similar vibes, subtle differences. So, given that the Green New Deal is still very much on people's minds, we thought it might be worth taking a look at it tonight to see what it is, what it isn't, and most importantly, where we should maybe go from here. And the first thing to understand is that the Green New Deal doesn't even mention the word cows or airplanes. In fact, while it's sometimes discussed like it's filled with specific programs to fight climate change, it isn't.

It is a non-binding resolution that very briefly sets out some extremely aggressive goals, including achieving net 0 greenhouse gas emissions, meeting 100 percent of the country's power demand through clean, renewable, and 0 emission energy sources, and creating millions of good, high-wage jobs in the United States. The whole Green New Deal is just 14 pages long. That is 7 pages shorter than the menu for the Cheesecake Factory. -♪♪♪ A menu which, by the way, should have exactly 1 item on it, pie. That's right, I said it, pie is the only good dessert.

It's got fruit, it's got bread, it's got goo.

Speaker 4: It is a true triple threat. Fuck you, Cates! Pie forever! I do not yield any ground!

Speaker 0: But it's important to note, the Green New Deal contains no detailed specifics on how it will achieve any of its goals, which sounds like a criticism, but it is really not. The plan's backers, led by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, said repeatedly, right from the outset, that the Green New Deal was merely meant to kickstart a conversation, set some aggressive targets so that we could then figure out how to hit them.

Speaker 8: Our first step is to define the problem and define the scope of the solution. And so we're here to say that small, incremental policy solutions are not enough.

Speaker 0: Right. At a certain point, your problems get so big that you have no choice but to do something drastic. Sometimes you just get in too deep. Sometimes you make a young man's mistake, like falling in love with the beautiful wife of a mafioso. He puts a price on your head, She swears she'll leave him for you, but you can't do that.

You can't make her live the life of a fugitive, so you fake your own death in a flaffle cart collision and sail to America to start things fresh. You tell everyone there that you were a comedian in England, and despite your ridiculous cartoon accent and no 1 in England having ever heard of you. No 1 really questions it. And it's kind of a life, I suppose. Eking out a living, reading off stats and jokes once a week on premium cable, but not a night goes by that you don't dream of the white Sardinian sands and the soft lips of Isabella.

-♪ ♪ -♪♪ -♪♪ It's just an example. It's just an example off the top of my head. So, the Green New Deal was meant to be a conversation starter, but unless you like bad faith conversations about farting cows, that conversation has not gone well so far, and much of that was clearly inevitable. There were people who were never going to support this plan, but there were also some self-inflicted wounds. The reason you hear hamburgers come up so much is that AOC's office mistakenly sent an early draft of an FAQ to reporters containing language like, we set a goal to get to net 0 rather than 0 emissions in 10 years because we aren't sure that we'll be able to fully get rid of farting cows and airplanes that fast, which is clearly supposed to be a joke, but it wasn't a great time to attempt 1.

And even AOC admits the rollout of the Green New Deal was the biggest mistake she's made in Congress. And she is right about that, because it gave an opening for these idiots to pretend the Green New Deal was all about hamburger stealing, when it is not. Although, for the record, there are real environmental issues surrounding cattle farming. Among them, that cows do emit a lot of methane, which is a greenhouse gas. Although even there, there's a slight misconception about which end of the cow is most responsible.

Speaker 8: First, I want to correct a misnomer that cows don't fart. They actually belch.

Speaker 0: That's true. That's true. Most cow methane comes from them belching, not farting. And if you only remember 1 fact from tonight's show, please do not let it be that 1. Please.

But just forget that now. But while the rollout of this conversation has been bumpy, it is great that the Green New Deal has started 1. So let's talk about what a plan to combat climate change could look like. And the first thing to understand here is, no 1 solution is going to be nearly enough here. We need to tackle this from multiple angles, and there are lots of ideas out there, including building a better power grid, improving battery storage, developing low-carbon jet fuel, electrifying industrial processes, building cities more densely, phasing out HFCs, developing lab-grown meat, building better nuclear plants, upgrading our thermostats, increasing mass transit ridership, and scaling up carbon capture technology.

And I could talk about all of those, but it would take me all night, and I know that you want to watch the rerun of Game of Thrones so that you can see what garbage from craft services they've hidden as an Easter egg this week.

Speaker 4: Oh, there, there, it's right there. It's right there. Those Pringle can... Those... Those Pringles aren't supposed to be there.

They don't have that type of Pringles in Westeros. That's ridiculous!

Speaker 0: So... So instead of discussing all of those, let's instead focus on 1 policy that you're likely to hear about as this conversation continues, and that's carbon pricing. The current situation with carbon is critical. Carbon emissions are by far the largest source of greenhouse gases. Yet right now, it's basically free

Speaker 2: to pollute

Speaker 0: the air with carbon dioxide, which is a little bit weird when you think about it. Because we've universally agreed that polluting is bad, and yet it's free to do it. When you litter, you pay a fine. When you drive above the speed limit, you pay a fine. When you steal 400 hamsters from PetSmart, tie them to a sled, and race through the streets on a hamster sleigh, you pay a fine.

Is that fine worth it? Yes, of course it is. But you do pay it. Now, carbon pricing is a little complicated, so to break down the logic behind it, I've enlisted the help of a guy who's made a career out of explaining complex ideas with fun, visual stunts.

Speaker 6: Hi, John. Bill Nye, the science guy here. I'm going to explain the complicated logic behind carbon pricing. But first, Safety glasses on. When something costs more, people buy less of it.

Safety glasses off. That's it.

Speaker 0: -♪ ♪ -Wait, that's it? Oh. I mean, honestly, I was expecting something a bit more fun and visual than that, Bill. Could you maybe explain the long-term impact of carbon pricing, but with a cool stunt? You know, to jazz up what you're saying.

Go on.

Speaker 6: Okay, safety glasses on. When we release carbon, say, by burning coal or driving an SUV, all of us pay for that in the form of things like fires, floods, and crop failures. Putting a fee on carbon creates incentives to emit less carbon. And more importantly, it also incentivizes the development of low-carbon technology, which is huge because that's vital to reducing emissions globally. And because for some reason, John, you're a 42-year-old man who needs his attention sustained with tricks, here's some fucking Mentos and a bottle of Diet Coke.

Speaker 0: -... -... -...

Speaker 6: Happy now?

Speaker 0: -...

Speaker 4: Yes, I am happy! I am happy! The Coke went high, the Mentos made it fizzy. I love it! I love it, Bill!

I love it! I love it! I love it!

Speaker 0: -$90 a cup. But, but his point... About incentivizing new technology is really important, especially because our current low-carbon technology strategy is essentially hope that this guy stops calling people pedophiles long enough to invent an affordable electric car. And right now, the pedophile to car balance is way off. -♪ Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

♪ -So in theory, putting a price on carbon makes complete sense. And you should know that there is absolutely nothing extreme about this idea. Economists across the political spectrum support it, and more than 40 governments worldwide have done it, including the U.K., where carbon pricing has contributed to CO2 emissions falling to their lowest level since 1890. That's right. The lowest level since before Mary Poppins danced with chimney sweeps and introduced the bank's children to cocaine.

Yes, cocaine. You thought the spoonful of sugar was actually sugar? Come on! How do you explain the dancing penguins? She gave those children cocaine, and she changed their lives forever.

Speaker 4: Now, now, there are...

Speaker 0: There are different ways. There are different ways to put a price on carbon. 1 is cap and trade, where you cap the total amount of emissions the company's allowed to release, and you let them trade emissions permits among themselves. Or there's the more straightforward carbon tax, which just adds a surcharge to activities that emit carbon. The problem there is mostly the word tax, which has become a dirty word in politics.

Just look what happened in Canada, which rolled out a new carbon tax that went into effect just last month. Although it was not easy for them to do that. Justin Trudeau desperately tried not to use the word tax, instead calling it a price on pollution. And when he slipped up once, just look how people reacted.

Speaker 9: What we're also guaranteeing is, that this, tax, this, pricing... Price of uncarbon will be...

Speaker 2: -...will be... -...will be... -...will be... -...will be... ...Will be...

...Will be... ...Will be... ...Will be... ...Will be... ...Will be...

Speaker 0: Listen to the level of excitement over that verbal slip-up. If you're a politician, you just can't say the words the word tax, in the same way that if you're an actor, you can't say the word Macbeth, and if you're president of the United States, you can't say the word origins.

Speaker 6: I hope they now go and take a look at the oranges, the oranges of the, investigation, the beginnings of that investigation.

Speaker 0: It's funny, because his brain is turning into pudding. Anyway, anyway, the point is, Trudeau simply saying the word tax was described as Trudeau trips on his own words. So, on what level, you can kind of understand his reluctance to use that term, because it exposed him to fear-mongering about what his policy would mean for regular people, which sometimes took the form of catchy slam poetry from his political opponents.

Speaker 3: We can't afford this onerous fee. 11 cents more for a liter of fuel. Taxing me and my kids' school. Farms and families will feel the pinch when the carbon tax man pulls the cinch. Tax the tractor, combine, plow, tax the chicken, egg, and cow.

Carbon tax man, enough's enough. Don't tax Canadians and all their stuff. Yeah!

Speaker 2: Yeah! Fire. -♪ Fire! -♪ Look,

Speaker 0: I don't care where you stand on this issue, no 1 wants to hear a rhyme about carbon taxes from anybody, let alone some guy who looks like he got his entire wardrobe at Express John Oliver. Not a fan. But he is speaking to a real concern there. How do you... Now you see it.

Speaker 4: Now you can't unsee it. He's speaking to a real point there.

Speaker 0: How do you put a price on carbon and make things more expensive without harming the people who can least afford it? And what Canada's doing to address this is actually pretty simple. Very basically, they're taking the money they collect and giving it back to their citizens. They're doing this by pooling the money gathered by increased fees on things like gas and heat, dividing it up and sending it back to taxpayers as a rebate. In fact, they've designed it so that the rebates in Canada are anticipated to exceed the increased costs for about 70 percent of households with lowest income households seeing the most benefits from the policy, which is great.

But even with that being true, the fight over a carbon tax was and still is very difficult in Canada. It's no wonder that some politicians in this country are wary of even attempting a debate about carbon pricing. In fact, the last national attempt that got any real traction here was 10 years ago, when Congress tried passing a cap and trade bill. And the debate around it got so toxic, West Virginia Democrat Joe Manchin was comfortable expressing his displeasure like this.

Speaker 2: I'm Joe Manchin. I approve this act because I'll always defend West Virginia. I sued EPA, and I'll take dead aim at the cap-and-trade bill. Because it's bad for West Virginia.

Speaker 0: Now, that may seem idiotic to you, because it is, but... But in fairness, that is actually the only way to stop a bill from becoming a law.

Speaker 4: Look, that bill had a knife! That bill had a knife! You all saw it! You all saw it!

Speaker 0: It reached for its pocket. Look, look, look, I know that this can all seem hopeless, especially under the current administration, but there are actually some small signs that the tide may be turning here. The very fact that we're still talking about the Green New Deal is really encouraging. Plus, the percentage of conservative Republicans who say they are very or somewhat worried by global warming has more than doubled in the last 5 years. Even Mitch McConnell finally acknowledged the role of humans in climate change for the first time a few weeks ago.

And yes, that is a bit like him giving a speech titled, Alf is actually just a big puppet. I mean, yeah, Mitch. We all fucking know that, Mitch. It's embarrassing it's taken you this long to accept it. But better late than never, I guess.

And look, however bumpy its rollout was, to its eternal credit, the Green New Deal has succeeded in getting people talking. But that won't mean anything unless that talk now turns to actions. And putting a price on carbon could potentially be 1 of them, although, let me reiterate, it will not be enough on its own by a long shot. We're gonna need a lot of different policies working in tandem, and we have to take action right now. But you don't have to just take that from me.

Instead, I'm happy to say that Bill Nye has actually agreed to help drive the urgency home at this point by actually doing 1 of his enjoyable, light-hearted demonstrations. So, Bill, please, please, Do you have a fun experiment for us?

Speaker 6: Here, I've got an experiment for you. Safety glasses on. By the end of this century, if emissions keep rising, the average temperature on Earth could go up another 4 to 8 degrees. What I'm saying is the planet's on fucking fire. There are a lot of things we could do to put it out.

Are any of them free? No, of course not. Nothing's free, you idiots. Grow the fuck up. You're not children anymore.

I didn't mind explaining photosynthesis to you when you were 12, but you're adults now, and this is an actual crisis. Got it? Safety glasses off, motherfuckers. Pfft!

Speaker 0: -♪ ♪ -♪♪

Speaker 4: I think we've all broken Bill Nye. And I, for 1AM absolutely

Speaker 0: on board with his new gritty reboot. CHEERING

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Green New Deal: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)