Elizabeth Kolbert

The U.S.

is the biggest emitter on a historical basis.

It's the second biggest emitter on sort of an annual basis, right behind China.

And when you have the world's biggest economy and one of its biggest emitters just throwing up its hands, it's really hard to keep the momentum going.

And I think you're really going to see that at this COP, that other countries are going to say, if the U.S.

isn't going to do anything, you know, why should we?

And the problem that we're facing, and the thing that I think is really important for people to understand about climate change, is as long as we're continuing to add carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, this problem is going to get worse.

The climate is going to continue to warm, and it's going to get more and more unstable, and we're going to get more and more of these big weather-related disasters.

They are coming to this COP expecting the world to live up to many commitments that it has made in past COPs to help finance things like transition to cleaner energy, adaptation to the climate change that is no longer avoidable.

And that's going to be a big fight.

But once again, without the U.S.

in the room, without the U.S.

sort of cooperating, I think it's going to be very difficult to reach agreements on a lot of those issues.

The Catholic Church was made for this moment. I think 2,000 years ago, the Catholic Church basically anticipated TikTok, Instagram, X. You don't have those little Swiss guard outfits and think they're not being photographed. Oil painting is not enough.

The Catholic Church was made for this moment. I think 2,000 years ago, the Catholic Church basically anticipated TikTok, Instagram, X. You don't have those little Swiss guard outfits and think they're not being photographed. Oil painting is not enough.

The Catholic Church was made for this moment. I think 2,000 years ago, the Catholic Church basically anticipated TikTok, Instagram, X. You don't have those little Swiss guard outfits and think they're not being photographed. Oil painting is not enough.

This is the New Yorker Radio Hour, a co-production of WNYC Studios and The New Yorker.

This is the New Yorker Radio Hour, a co-production of WNYC Studios and The New Yorker.

This is the New Yorker Radio Hour, a co-production of WNYC Studios and The New Yorker.

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