Heidi Cullen, Senior Research Scientist at Climate Central, appeared on Colbert's show last night to promote her new book, "The Weather Of The Future: Heat Waves, Extreme Storms, and Other Scenes from a Climate-Changed Planet."
Colbert asked Cullen to "refrighten" him about climate change.
Cullen, in response, cited the floods in Pakistan and the heat wave in Russia, which destroyed 30 percent of the country's wheat yield.
In her book, the author says the goal is to "put into perspective what climate change will actually look like." The book describes a weather model up until the year 2050.
Colbert asked for a worst-case of what may happen.
"A place like Bangladesh," Cullen replied, "25 percent of the country could be inundated due to sea-level rise alone, so 15 million people in Bangladesh could be what's called 'climate refugees'."
When asked what actions would help combat climate change, Cullen said, "Everything that we do today, in terms of adapting to the fact that our climate is changing, pays off in the long-run. One estimate is that for every one dollar we invest in infrastructure upgrades pays us back four dollars in the long run."
"For every dollar that I invest in green energy futures, I get four dollars back?" Colbert replied, "That sounds like a pyramid scheme."
Our 2024 Coverage Needs You
Already contributed? Log in to hide these messages.