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In typical John Oliver rapidly-switching-between-serious-and-satirical style, Last Week Tonight’s latest episode discussed the Green New Deal. And by ‘discussed,’ what we really mean is: He considered riding a sled pulled by 400 hamsters, made Trump jokes, and explained why carbon taxing may be an important tool in the climate fight.
In the nearly 20-minute piece, Oliver covered a lot of ground. He first described the Green New Deal and the frenzy of media coverage from both sides that has followed.
“However bumpy its rollout was, to its eternal credit, the Green New Deal has succeeded in getting people talking,” Oliver said. “But that won’t mean anything unless that talk turns to actions, and putting a price on carbon could be one of them.”
He then dove into carbon pricing. Using science icon Bill Nye the Science Guy to explain the concept, Oliver tried to make the idea of introducing a new tax a little more feasible and innocuous.
“[A carbon tax] will not be enough on its own by a long shot,” Oliver said in one of his moments of gravity. “We’re going to need a lot of different policies working in tandem, and we have to take action right now!”
And then, with an angry flourish, Bill Nye took a torch to a model of Earth.
This story was originally published by Grist with the headline Watch John Oliver explain the Green New Deal like only he can on May 13, 2019.
