A few minutes before Miss North Dakota was crowned Miss America, she answered a supremely complex question about climate change in only 20 seconds, slamming the president’s decision to pull out of the Paris agreement as she spoke.
Judge Maria Menounos reportedly asked Cara Mund to answer the following question: “One hundred ninety-five countries signed the Paris agreement, in which each country sets nonbinding goals to reduce man-made climate change. The U.S. is withdrawing from the agreement, citing negligible environmental effects and negative economic impact. Good decision? Bad decision? Which is it and why?”
“I do believe it’s a bad decision,” Mund replied. “Once we reject that, we take ourselves out of the negotiation table. And that’s something that we really need to keep in mind. There is evidence that climate change is existing, so whether you believe it or not, we need to be at that table. And I think it’s just a bad decision on behalf of the United States.”
Mund, 23, is a Brown University graduate with dreams to be the first woman governor of North Dakota; she’s also the first Miss America winner from the state in the pageant’s history. The Washington Post reports she’ll earn a six-figure salary for the next year before heading to Notre Dame for law school, where she can apply her $50,000 scholarship winnings from the pageant.
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