Those who think single-degree climate changes on Earth don’t matter should think again. Above, Anthony Leiserowitz, director of the Yale Project on Climate Change Communication, offers a striking analogy, making the case in less than three minutes.

Leiserowitz, who specializes in the psychology of risk perception, knows better than anyone if people are willing to change their behavior to make a difference. In this clip, Bill and Leiserowitz discuss the intersection of climate change and American cultural attitudes.

“[A] pervasive sense up to now has been that climate change is distant — distant in time, and distant in space,” Leiserowitz tells Bill. “And what we’re now beginning to see is that it’s not so distant. I have a nine-year-old son — he’s going to be my age in the year 2050. I don’t want him to live in the world that we’re currently hurtling towards.”

Watch the full segment.