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Brad Pitt warns 'there is no future' in comedy sketch about global warming

'Things are going to be getting warmer in this area here and this area here,' celebrity 'weatherman' says

Ian Johnston
Environment Correspondent
Thursday 08 June 2017 11:43 BST
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Brad Pitt as weather man on comedy central

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Brad Pitt has warned “there is no future” in a rather bleak comedy sketch about Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw the US from the Paris Agreement on climate change.

The A-list Hollywood star made a surprise appearance on the Jim Jefferies Show on the Comedy Central channel in the US.

“The world is still grappling with Donald Trump withdrawing from the Paris Climate accord, and to address it one more time, here's our weatherman,” comedian Jefferies said.

Wearing an orange-brown suit and a large patterned brown tie, Pitt summed up the situation.

“Thank you Jim. So, things are going to be getting warmer in this area here and this area here,” he said, waving airily at different parts of a map of the world coloured in red and orange and dotted with blazing sun symbols.

Jefferies then asked: “Do you have any future forecast for us?”

To which Pitt replied simply: “There is no future.”

Such a certain forecast is at odds with the science of climate change.

According to the best predictions, humanity could face anything from a relatively mild 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming to an extremely dangerous five degrees when the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere doubles compared to pre-industrial levels of 280 parts per million. It is now more than 400 parts per million.

Under the Paris Agreement, signatories agreed to try to keep warming to as close to 1.5 degrees as possible by cutting emissions of greenhouse gases, much of which are produced by burning fossil fuels.

Mr Trump has pledged to revitalise the coal industry and appears set to allow drilling for oil off the US Atlantic coast for the first time.

A recent report by the Global Challenges Foundation warned that in "high-end scenarios" of global warming the "scale of destruction is beyond our capacity to model with a high likelihood of human civilization coming to an end".

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