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How Global Warming Works · Stuff You Should Know

0:01
Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff you Should Know from House Stuff Works
0:04
Speaker 1: dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark.
0:14
Speaker 1: And there's the Chipper Cheery, Charles W. Chuck Bryant, how Deep.
0:20
Speaker 1: And there's Jerry over there. Say hi, Jerry, you know what?
0:25
Speaker 1: How are you doing? Man? I'm well, sir, how are you?
0:28
Speaker 1: I'm pretty well myself. I'm feeling all right. Feel a
0:30
Speaker 1: little fit, yeah, yeah, yeah. Um. You're a little sweaty
0:35
Speaker 1: as you can tell. But I'm all right. It's gross,
0:39
Speaker 1: it is. I don't smell dowey. Okay, good so, friends, listeners,
0:48
Speaker 1: country man, Uh, you're gonna notice a little something different
0:51
Speaker 1: in this week's feed Tomorrow. This bears a little explanation.
0:56
Speaker 1: We are dropping episodes one and two of my new
1:00
Speaker 1: movie interview show movie Crush Do Do Do. We're dropping
1:04
Speaker 1: those into the Stuff you Should Know feed. Uh, something
1:07
Speaker 1: we've never done here at the network, but we're gonna
1:10
Speaker 1: I guess I'm the lab rat on this one. The
1:13
Speaker 1: guinea pig, the guinea pig. Yeah, I guess either one right.
1:17
Speaker 1: The guinea pig doesn't die, the lab rat dies, Yeah,
1:21
Speaker 1: I guess. So let's go with the guinea pig for sure.
1:24
Speaker 1: That all right. Well either way, we are dropping those
1:26
Speaker 1: into the stuff you should know feed uh, and we
1:28
Speaker 1: wanted to alert you so when you saw all these
1:30
Speaker 1: new things, you didn't rebel against us like everyone hated
1:34
Speaker 1: YouTube when they delivered the World Free album, right right, Yeah,
1:38
Speaker 1: I mean this is like, this is not just it's
1:40
Speaker 1: not a You two album, it's your new show. It's
1:43
Speaker 1: more important than any You two album. Well you know
1:46
Speaker 1: I appreciate that. Uh so, yeah, that's why they're there.
1:48
Speaker 1: An Episode one is uh the Great Janet Varney with
1:52
Speaker 1: we talked about the movie Tron and um, that's the
1:56
Speaker 1: nature of the show as I talked to people about
1:57
Speaker 1: their favorite movie. And episode two is uh tig Nataro
2:03
Speaker 1: talking about the movie Mask and that one is a
2:06
Speaker 1: very special episode and I'll tease it with this. We
2:09
Speaker 1: recorded that interview or conversation rather seconds after she got
2:15
Speaker 1: the call that she was cancer free at the five
2:18
Speaker 1: year mark. Oh wow. So uh she started crying at
2:23
Speaker 1: the beginning, and I didn't know what was going on.
2:25
Speaker 1: I gave her some time. I was freaking out, and
2:28
Speaker 1: it turned out to be good news. But and I
2:31
Speaker 1: explained that all the the onset of the episode, but
2:33
Speaker 1: it turned out to be a very special experience. Man, Chuck,
2:37
Speaker 1: your like Barbara Walters, I didn't get it out of her.
2:40
Speaker 1: It was just weird timing. But anyway, those are in there,
2:44
Speaker 1: and uh, it won't happen every week, but I would
2:47
Speaker 1: love for you to subscribe. Well, yeah, that's the way
2:49
Speaker 1: to get it, right, Yeah, just subscribe anywhere you you
2:52
Speaker 1: listen to podcasts. These are a couple of gifts a
2:54
Speaker 1: little Jim, that's right, and I appreciate your support on it. Yeah,
2:58
Speaker 1: well where to go, man can gratulations. I speak for
3:01
Speaker 1: me and the rest of the world when I say
3:03
Speaker 1: we are looking forward to this, Thanks dude. And you
3:05
Speaker 1: know I'm gonna have you on as a guess. That's
3:07
Speaker 1: gonna be very strange and awesome. Yeah, I think it'll
3:10
Speaker 1: be neat. I'll start crying to do you know what
3:13
Speaker 1: your favorite movie is that you would pick? I got
3:15
Speaker 1: a couple I think I could choose from. Sure, all right,
3:17
Speaker 1: we'll hold on to that then, okay, and we'll just
3:20
Speaker 1: we'll just pick that up later. Okay. Well, congrats again, man,
3:23
Speaker 1: thanks pal. Shall we warm the globe? Yeah? All right,
3:27
Speaker 1: so Chuck, um, I don't know if you've heard about
3:32
Speaker 1: this term recently, but it's been in the news lately. Uh,
3:36
Speaker 1: global warming, Are you familiar? It does ring a bell? Okay, well,
3:42
Speaker 1: just in case you For those people who aren't aware
3:45
Speaker 1: of global warming, global warming is what we're talking about today,
3:49
Speaker 1: And UM, A lot of people confuse it or use
3:52
Speaker 1: it interchangeably with climate change, and it turns out that's
3:55
Speaker 1: not actually fully accurate. Global warming is a symptom of
4:01
Speaker 1: climate change as a whole. Climate change is a whole
4:04
Speaker 1: bunch of differences to the Earth's climate. Will get into
4:08
Speaker 1: what climate is in a second, um, and one of
4:11
Speaker 1: those is global warming. Also things like extreme weather events,
4:15
Speaker 1: increased drought, increased temperatures, um, sea level rises, all these
4:20
Speaker 1: things put together, that's climate change, right, or the results
4:23
Speaker 1: of climate change, and global warming is one of them.
4:26
Speaker 1: So global warming is climate change, but not all climate
4:28
Speaker 1: change is global warming. It just wanted to make sure
4:31
Speaker 1: we got that out of the way to begin with.
4:33
Speaker 1: Like the square rectangle thing, which I can still never
4:35
Speaker 1: keep straight well, and I think the what like every
4:39
Speaker 1: square is not a rectangle but every rectangles square or
4:42
Speaker 1: the reverse of that, whichever it is. I've never heard
4:44
Speaker 1: that before. I even ace geometry the second time I
4:48
Speaker 1: took it. It was clearly class that didn't care about squares. Yeah,
4:53
Speaker 1: I guess not. I mean they always talked about rectangles,
4:56
Speaker 1: but squares were never brought up. Yeah, I think it's
5:01
Speaker 1: you know, I'm not going to take myself ahold there.
5:03
Speaker 1: That's probably so global warming if you want just a
5:07
Speaker 1: kind of a straight up definition is uh. The science
5:10
Speaker 1: community defines it as this, and they should know. It's
5:13
Speaker 1: a significant increase in the climatic temperature over a short,
5:19
Speaker 1: relatively short period of time as a result of activities
5:23
Speaker 1: of humans. And by increase in short, we're talking like
5:29
Speaker 1: one degree celsius in a couple of hundred years. Is
5:33
Speaker 1: global warming, right, Because the effects of climate are so
5:39
Speaker 1: pronounced on such a like with just small incremental changes,
5:45
Speaker 1: that that that that that is climate change, something that
5:48
Speaker 1: if you just look at it on paper, you're like,
5:50
Speaker 1: that's nothing. Who cares about one degree? Actually, the point
5:54
Speaker 1: of global warming is that when you have these these
5:57
Speaker 1: this increase in global temperatures, a whole basket of events
6:01
Speaker 1: starts to take place. That's climate change. Like global warming
6:05
Speaker 1: is related to climate change, right, it can trigger other
6:08
Speaker 1: climate changes. That's right. And Uh, you hear a lot
6:12
Speaker 1: of people talk about you hear a lot of numb
6:14
Speaker 1: skulls talking about weather as if it is climate, like, uh,
6:19
Speaker 1: a very harsh winter might come, and they'll say you
6:23
Speaker 1: have global warming. Right, that's a great numb skull. Uh,
6:28
Speaker 1: it's not the same thing. Whether is is local, it's
6:30
Speaker 1: short term. Climate is long term. Um, it's not even
6:34
Speaker 1: like the weather over a period of a year or
6:37
Speaker 1: even a couple of years. We're talking about predictable, generally
6:41
Speaker 1: predictable average weather conditions in a region over a long,
6:45
Speaker 1: long period of time. So you can safely say in
6:49
Speaker 1: Green Bay, Wisconsin, it is cold in the wintertime. That
6:53
Speaker 1: is the climate of Green Bay and that Midwestern region
6:57
Speaker 1: as a whole. Right, But if it snows in February
7:01
Speaker 1: February of you know, next year, on a Tuesday, then
7:05
Speaker 1: that's just the weather. Yeah. Or if it's snows in
7:09
Speaker 1: Miami once, then that's not a reputation of what climate
7:15
Speaker 1: change means. That is a weird anomaly and those happen. Yeah,
7:20
Speaker 1: And um, this is a this is a grabster and
7:23
Speaker 1: strickling code joint, by the way, So that's why it
7:27
Speaker 1: popped off the page if you noticed. But um, one
7:30
Speaker 1: of the things they wisely pick point out is what
7:33
Speaker 1: you just said that, Yes, some some weather anomaly happens
7:36
Speaker 1: like that, even if it happened three years in a row.
7:39
Speaker 1: I think a lot of scientists would pay attention to
7:41
Speaker 1: why it snowed in Miami three years in a row.
7:44
Speaker 1: But if it went back to normal or something like
7:46
Speaker 1: that like that, that that would not necessarily be climate change.
7:49
Speaker 1: That's just a weird occurrence. Right. Climate change is this
7:53
Speaker 1: this change in predictable changes, and that can take like
7:58
Speaker 1: thousands and ten thousands of years sometimes most times under
8:03
Speaker 1: natural circumstances. And here's where we come to the current
8:06
Speaker 1: use for global warming. Right, global warming can can happen
8:11
Speaker 1: by itself naturally. The Earth um basically as it in
8:16
Speaker 1: its current present state, swings back and forth between glacial
8:19
Speaker 1: periods and interglacial periods, so cool periods and warm periods,
8:23
Speaker 1: And for an ice age to occur, um, the global
8:26
Speaker 1: temperature only needs to drop by about five degrees celsius
8:30
Speaker 1: on average, and all of a sudden we're in an
8:31
Speaker 1: ice age. Right. Yeah, that doesn't mean the entire Earth
8:34
Speaker 1: is a big round cube, round cube. Wow, that's like
8:38
Speaker 1: a square rectangle, but not at all the same. Well,
8:41
Speaker 1: you know when you go to a fancy cocktail bar
8:43
Speaker 1: and they have those awesome round I want to say
8:45
Speaker 1: ice cubes again, ice spheres. Uh, that's not what the
8:50
Speaker 1: Earth looks like necessarily during an ice age. No, no, no,
8:53
Speaker 1: it's just much cooler and like because it's cooler by
8:58
Speaker 1: say five degrees celsius um. Like, a lot of stuff changes.
9:02
Speaker 1: It's the same thing as global warming, but on the
9:04
Speaker 1: opposite end, right, Like you have changes in migration patterns,
9:09
Speaker 1: you have changes in habitat for animals. Some things go
9:12
Speaker 1: extinct during the transition um, sea levels change, A lot
9:16
Speaker 1: of stuff happens, right, So this is part of the
9:18
Speaker 1: normal process of the Earth. But the Earth's kind of
9:22
Speaker 1: got it, like, hey, hey, I've got this under control.
9:24
Speaker 1: I don't need any help from you humans and I
9:28
Speaker 1: when I do do this, this is the Earth talking
9:31
Speaker 1: and first person. When I do change from a glacial
9:33
Speaker 1: period to a warm period, it takes many tens and
9:37
Speaker 1: tens of thousands of years. Right you humans here again,
9:43
Speaker 1: this is still me, the Earth. You humans are really
9:46
Speaker 1: messing with my program here and accelerating the process. And
9:50
Speaker 1: you know what, I'll even give you a clue as
9:53
Speaker 1: to what you're doing that's making it so bad carbon
9:55
Speaker 1: dioxide emissions. Bam, said the Earth and dropped its microphone.
10:00
Speaker 1: I walked away. Yeah, and then it went back and
10:01
Speaker 1: picked up his mic and said, and maybe stop littering. Yeah,
10:05
Speaker 1: and then it dropped the mic again. Yeh Uh. We
10:09
Speaker 1: should talk a minute about a wonderful group called the
10:11
Speaker 1: i p c C, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Yes,
10:16
Speaker 1: a lot of very smart people there. Oh mann, Can
10:19
Speaker 1: I just say it's to me, the i p c
10:22
Speaker 1: C is one of the coolest things humanity has ever
10:25
Speaker 1: come up with, because it's it's the world coming together
10:28
Speaker 1: saying we've got a real problem on our hands. Let's
10:30
Speaker 1: get our smartest people together and create a database here
10:33
Speaker 1: of of good science. Yeah, and those people are specifically
10:38
Speaker 1: about actually more scientists from around the world meeting together
10:45
Speaker 1: in places like Paris, because why not, right. Uh, they
10:49
Speaker 1: did this about ten years ago and came up with
10:51
Speaker 1: a lot of um, well, sort of a lot of
10:54
Speaker 1: distressing observations. Uh, we'll just tick through a few of
10:58
Speaker 1: these um as far as timp trick goes, and um,
11:03
Speaker 1: you know, like we said, like one degree celsias can
11:05
Speaker 1: make a big swing, and what kind of changes we
11:08
Speaker 1: see on the planet. Between nineteen o one and two
11:12
Speaker 1: thousand the Earth warmed point six degrees. Uh so that's
11:18
Speaker 1: if you if you adjust that to nineteen o six
11:21
Speaker 1: to two thousand six, it climbs up to point seven
11:24
Speaker 1: four degrees, So about three quarters of a degree in
11:28
Speaker 1: temperature rise during that one year period, right, And there's
11:32
Speaker 1: a lot. It is a lot. And so a lot
11:34
Speaker 1: of people say, well, you guys just said the Earth
11:37
Speaker 1: tends to do this on its own, maybe that's it. Well, actually, no,
11:40
Speaker 1: there's a lot of science that the I p c
11:43
Speaker 1: C Has been able to come up with that shows
11:46
Speaker 1: pretty clearly that this is human cause stuff that's actually
11:50
Speaker 1: creating this increase in temperature. And again it seems to
11:53
Speaker 1: come back to carbon dioxide. Yeah. Should we took over
11:57
Speaker 1: a few of these other observations, Yeah, for sure. Um
12:01
Speaker 1: let me see, here's a good one. The ocean's temperature
12:05
Speaker 1: has increased to at least depths of almost ten thousand
12:10
Speaker 1: feet down. The oceans temperature has increased. Not a good thing,
12:14
Speaker 1: because that's how um like, what glaciers tend to melt
12:18
Speaker 1: is from underneath, that's right. What else? Uh, Westerly winds
12:23
Speaker 1: have been growing stronger, droughts have become more intense, have
12:26
Speaker 1: lasted longer, covered bigger swaths of land. Uh. What else
12:31
Speaker 1: here Precipitation is increased in the Eastern America's, Northern Europe,
12:36
Speaker 1: parts of Asia, but it's decreased elsewhere. Yeah, And that's
12:41
Speaker 1: I mean, we'll get into this a little bit. A
12:43
Speaker 1: little bit of global warming can mean longer growing and
12:46
Speaker 1: better growing seasons in some parts of the world, but
12:49
Speaker 1: devastating to other parts of the world. I guess I
12:53
Speaker 1: let the cat out of the bag there, but we'll
12:54
Speaker 1: go over that again later. Uh. And how how about
12:57
Speaker 1: this on the warming trend of the last fifty years
13:00
Speaker 1: is about double of the last one hundred years. So
13:04
Speaker 1: what that means is the rate is increasing. The rate
13:06
Speaker 1: of warming is increasing. Yeah, actually so the I think
13:10
Speaker 1: the I p c C has determined that each of
13:13
Speaker 1: the past forty years has been warmer than the average
13:17
Speaker 1: temperature of the twentieth century, and that two thousand and
13:20
Speaker 1: sixteen was the hottest year on record, and the twelve
13:23
Speaker 1: warmest years on record have occurred since. Dude, you should
13:29
Speaker 1: see the the UM we'll get into some of the
13:33
Speaker 1: charts that that you can find. And again, like if
13:36
Speaker 1: you're even remotely interested in this, like just go look
13:39
Speaker 1: up the I P. C. C S stuff, and some
13:42
Speaker 1: of it, like you you have to be a climatologist
13:45
Speaker 1: to understand what in the name of God they're talking about.
13:48
Speaker 1: But other stuff, if especially if you read like executive
13:51
Speaker 1: summaries of studies and reports and stuff like that's meant
13:55
Speaker 1: to for like a non scientists specifically often like policymaker
14:00
Speaker 1: to read and understand, right, so the average person can
14:03
Speaker 1: understand that UM. And they have some really great stuff
14:07
Speaker 1: that's showing like all of the changes that the world
14:10
Speaker 1: is going through thanks to these increases in the global temperature.
14:14
Speaker 1: And again, some of the charts that they have are
14:17
Speaker 1: just stunning when you see them, because it's like going
14:20
Speaker 1: along fine, going along fine, everything's fine, and then oh
14:23
Speaker 1: my god, what the hell just happened? Basically that was
14:28
Speaker 1: the Industrial revolution? It was. But also one of the
14:31
Speaker 1: things that they found recently, especially in the last like
14:33
Speaker 1: three or four years, I believe, is that UM is
14:37
Speaker 1: that I think you're like what you were saying, the
14:40
Speaker 1: increase in global temperatures, but also again, the increasing carbon
14:44
Speaker 1: dioxide UM has really shot up over the last like
14:49
Speaker 1: fifty years, like from from the beginning of the Industrial Revolution.
14:53
Speaker 1: I think they usually start that about seventeen fifty two
14:56
Speaker 1: maybe the latest up to like nineteen fi ft or
15:00
Speaker 1: so in nineteen sixty, like there's a pretty surprising increase,
15:04
Speaker 1: but it is just skyrocketed in the last like fifty
15:08
Speaker 1: or sixty years. So um, they're they're seeing like this.
15:12
Speaker 1: This the science is bearing out the the kind of
15:15
Speaker 1: the general theory of global warming, which we should probably
15:18
Speaker 1: talk about this this theory of global warming, right because
15:21
Speaker 1: like we said, it's not just um human cause a
15:26
Speaker 1: human cause mechanism, Like basically it's an already existing natural,
15:31
Speaker 1: natural mechanism that basically keeps the earth nice and toasty
15:36
Speaker 1: for um life and water keeps us from being Mars.
15:41
Speaker 1: But we have we have started messing with it big
15:43
Speaker 1: time because of our our contributions to this normal cycle. Yeah,
15:48
Speaker 1: so should we talk about the greenhouse effect a little bit? Yeah,
15:51
Speaker 1: the greenhouse effect is literally what keeps us from being Mars. Um.
15:55
Speaker 1: It is a good thing when it occurs naturally because
16:00
Speaker 1: as like you said, it keeps us on, you know,
16:02
Speaker 1: it makes earth habitable and lovely and nice for the
16:05
Speaker 1: last part, so they strickling in the grabster. I'm not
16:10
Speaker 1: sure who came up with the car analogy, but it's
16:12
Speaker 1: a pretty good one. If you go into your car
16:15
Speaker 1: on a hot summer day and you get in, your
16:17
Speaker 1: car's been sitting out the sun for a little while,
16:18
Speaker 1: it's a lot hotter than it is outside. Um, it's
16:22
Speaker 1: kind of a no brainer. But you might not have
16:24
Speaker 1: thought about why that happens. Um, it's not magic. What's
16:27
Speaker 1: happening is the the sun that's coming in through your
16:31
Speaker 1: car windows gets absorbed by the interior of your car,
16:34
Speaker 1: whether it's your seats or the dashboard or basically kind
16:38
Speaker 1: of everything in the car absorbs that heat, and that
16:43
Speaker 1: heat is then eventually emitted back out and radiated out
16:47
Speaker 1: from the seats and things like that. But it's at
16:50
Speaker 1: a different wavelength than that initial sunlight that came in,
16:53
Speaker 1: so some of it might get back out of the window,
16:56
Speaker 1: but most of it stays kind of trapped in that car.
16:59
Speaker 1: So the end result of the net net, as they
17:01
Speaker 1: would say in a corporate meeting, is that there's less
17:05
Speaker 1: energy going out than than coming in. Right, So your
17:09
Speaker 1: car is gonna get hotter. So pretend your car is
17:12
Speaker 1: the planet Earth basically, which would be great, and the
17:15
Speaker 1: windshield is the atmosphere, right. So, um, that's the greenhouse
17:19
Speaker 1: effect in a nutshell as it as it relates to
17:21
Speaker 1: the actual Earth. UM. About seventy of the solar energy
17:28
Speaker 1: that is directed towards Earth right, stays on the planet, right,
17:33
Speaker 1: And instead of being absorbed by car seats and floor
17:37
Speaker 1: mats and stuff like that, it gets absorbed by the
17:40
Speaker 1: ocean or land, or plants or you. Right. And so
17:46
Speaker 1: about thirty percent of that stuff that that didn't make
17:50
Speaker 1: it through it was reflected back by clouds, particles in
17:54
Speaker 1: the atmosphere, a bunch of other stuff. Right. But as
17:57
Speaker 1: you're sitting there getting warm by the sun, you actually
18:00
Speaker 1: have the potential to re emit that heat, and so
18:04
Speaker 1: that stuff starts to go back through the atmosphere out
18:07
Speaker 1: of space. Some of that stuff makes it out into space,
18:10
Speaker 1: but there are other particles that take that that um
18:14
Speaker 1: solar energy, usually in the form of heat, and absorb it.
18:19
Speaker 1: And when they absorb it, they re emit heat and
18:22
Speaker 1: then they direct it back down to Earth and the
18:24
Speaker 1: process continues. And in some of that some cases, some
18:27
Speaker 1: of the stuff that they re emit, they end up
18:29
Speaker 1: reabsorbing themselves, so that there is um more heat that's
18:34
Speaker 1: being trapped and sustained on Earth than is being allowed
18:37
Speaker 1: to escape back into space at any given time. Right
18:41
Speaker 1: and again, um, this this is what this is like
18:45
Speaker 1: a positive feedback cycle that that creates the atmosphere. It
18:49
Speaker 1: also sustains the atmosphere. It also keeps water here on Earth. Um.
18:54
Speaker 1: Because water tends to heat up and rise, but then
18:58
Speaker 1: it will it will cool off in the atmosphere and
19:02
Speaker 1: fall back down as precipitation. And as long as it
19:05
Speaker 1: can fall back down in the atmosphere and nucleate around
19:07
Speaker 1: some of these particles that are trapped in the atmosphere,
19:10
Speaker 1: we've got water here on Earth, that's right. So it's
19:14
Speaker 1: all thanks to the wonderful, glorious greenhouse effect. Yeah, so
19:18
Speaker 1: that that feels like a good place to pause. Let
19:21
Speaker 1: people let that soak in a minute, like a hot
19:24
Speaker 1: sun on a black car seat, like a warm chutney
19:28
Speaker 1: on your forehead. O God, And we'll be back a
19:31
Speaker 1: little bit to talk about the these gases in the
19:34
Speaker 1: atmosphere that we're talking about here. All right, So we're back.
20:05
Speaker 1: I think everyone probably understands the greenhouse effect if you
20:08
Speaker 1: remember your hot car. It's kind of a nice easy
20:11
Speaker 1: way to think about it. So when you were explaining
20:14
Speaker 1: the more like the Earth's version of that with uh
20:19
Speaker 1: getting absorbed hitting things in the atmosphere, we're talking largely
20:23
Speaker 1: about three things carbon dioxide, methane gas, actually four things, uh,
20:31
Speaker 1: nitrous oxide, and water vapor. And there are a lot
20:34
Speaker 1: of others, but as far as like stuff that that
20:37
Speaker 1: really has the biggest impact on on global warming, it's
20:42
Speaker 1: these guys. Yeah, so we'll start with CEO two excess.
20:44
Speaker 1: So when you hear about most often carbon emissions gets
20:48
Speaker 1: all all the glory in the headlines these days. Carbon
20:52
Speaker 1: c O two is colorless. It's gas. It is a
20:55
Speaker 1: byproduct of uh, the combustion of organic stuff. UH, and
21:00
Speaker 1: it makes up a very small part of the Earth's
21:01
Speaker 1: atmosphere point zero four percent. And most of it that's
21:05
Speaker 1: up there was has been there for a long long time.
21:08
Speaker 1: It's from uh volcanic activity. However, UH we are pumping
21:14
Speaker 1: lots and lots of c O two additional c O
21:16
Speaker 1: two UH. And remember there's a delicate balance going on
21:20
Speaker 1: there as it is so like you said, Mother Earth
21:23
Speaker 1: doesn't need us adding to this, and we have been
21:26
Speaker 1: adding c O two like it's Gangbusters. Yeah. So like
21:30
Speaker 1: that that you remember when I was talking about how
21:32
Speaker 1: water water turns into vapor and rises and falls back down.
21:35
Speaker 1: That's the rain cycle. There's also a carbon cycle where
21:39
Speaker 1: carbon molecules just kind of go back and forth between
21:42
Speaker 1: the atmosphere and the earth. And apparently every year two
21:46
Speaker 1: hundred and thirty giga tons of carbon are released into
21:50
Speaker 1: the atmosphere from the Earth, from plants, from rocks, from us,
21:54
Speaker 1: and then about the same amount another two d and
21:57
Speaker 1: thirty giga tons comes back down and it's locked into
22:00
Speaker 1: Earth from the atmosphere. Right, And it's like you said, Chuck,
22:04
Speaker 1: like a pretty pretty nice balanced the Earth that's got this,
22:06
Speaker 1: Please don't mess with it. But when we take carbon
22:10
Speaker 1: and unlock it from these carbon sinks, like you know,
22:13
Speaker 1: we bust up rocks and mining operations, we burn fossil
22:17
Speaker 1: fuels that have carbon locked into them. Um, we cut
22:20
Speaker 1: down trees and burn those things as fuel that releases
22:23
Speaker 1: more carbon and it messes up that delicate um pretty
22:28
Speaker 1: much even exchange between the atmosphere and the earth. Yeah,
22:31
Speaker 1: and that's a big problem because carbon has a knack
22:33
Speaker 1: for absorbing infrared radiation, so that energy that escapes the atmosphere,
22:39
Speaker 1: that that's the form that it comes in. So all
22:42
Speaker 1: this extra CEO two means basically like your card, just
22:46
Speaker 1: an overall increase in temperature, right, And and so not
22:50
Speaker 1: only does it um absorb infrared heat and hang onto it,
22:54
Speaker 1: it um it, there's a lot of it there. We
22:58
Speaker 1: just finally, in the first time in the history of
23:01
Speaker 1: the human race, all of humanity, not since the Industrial Revolution,
23:05
Speaker 1: but ever since humans have been around the Earth reached
23:09
Speaker 1: UM four hundred parts per million, meaning that out of
23:14
Speaker 1: every million molecules that you just snatch out of the
23:17
Speaker 1: air and count, you're gonna come up with four hundred
23:20
Speaker 1: of those as carbon atoms, right, or carbon dioxide molecules.
23:25
Speaker 1: So that's new. That's that's a big deal. And the
23:28
Speaker 1: problem with that is is not just that there's a
23:31
Speaker 1: lot of carbon dioxide in there, but it's like you said,
23:33
Speaker 1: the more carbon dioxide there is, the more radiative heat
23:36
Speaker 1: that comes back down to Earth that doesn't escape into space,
23:39
Speaker 1: and the higher the global temperature gets. Yeah, and just
23:42
Speaker 1: to into perspective, four hundred parts per million now, and
23:48
Speaker 1: that's two thousand seventeen numbers, I guess. I think in
23:51
Speaker 1: two thousand fifteen we hit four hundred and we're up
23:54
Speaker 1: to like four hundred and four now. So that pre
23:57
Speaker 1: Industrial Revolution was about out two d and eight parts
24:01
Speaker 1: per million, So it has swelled by about a hundred
24:04
Speaker 1: and twenty four parts per million since uh, the Industrial Revolution,
24:09
Speaker 1: which is pretty staggering. Yeah, and there's apparently a way
24:12
Speaker 1: that you can tell when you're actually measuring the carbon
24:15
Speaker 1: dioxide molecules themselves where they came from and ones that
24:20
Speaker 1: are introduced into the atmosphere from burning fossil fuels have
24:24
Speaker 1: a specific signature that we can detect, and we have
24:28
Speaker 1: seen that as the global temperature has increased and more
24:32
Speaker 1: and more um carbon dioxide has been introduced into the
24:35
Speaker 1: atmosphere since the Industrial Revolution, so too has the concentration
24:40
Speaker 1: of that specific type of carbon dioxide. So there's a
24:44
Speaker 1: strong correlation between the the fossil fuel burn carbon dioxide
24:49
Speaker 1: that we humans have putting in the air with rising
24:52
Speaker 1: global temperatures. All Right, moving on to nitrous oxide into
24:57
Speaker 1: a which we did a whole podcast on this, right, Yeah,
25:00
Speaker 1: that was a good one. That was a great one. Uh,
25:04
Speaker 1: mainly because of that tank that we had here in
25:06
Speaker 1: the in the studio, I know, like we're method podcasters.
25:10
Speaker 1: That was that definitely enhanced the whole thing. So into
25:13
Speaker 1: oh is another greenhouse gas super important, and we are
25:17
Speaker 1: not releasing like human activity is not releasing nearly as
25:20
Speaker 1: much as we are CEO two. But um n O
25:24
Speaker 1: two or I'm sorry, into oh absorbs a lot more energy,
25:28
Speaker 1: like two hundred and seventy times as much as CEO two.
25:31
Speaker 1: So that makes it, uh something we really need to
25:34
Speaker 1: pay attention to, and we are paying attention to it.
25:37
Speaker 1: It just doesn't get all the headlines. No, it definitely doesn't,
25:39
Speaker 1: just because there's so so much less of it, right
25:42
Speaker 1: and um Whereas it takes like ten tens of thousands
25:46
Speaker 1: of years for you know, the of any given carbon
25:50
Speaker 1: dioxide emission to leave the atmosphere, it takes about a
25:54
Speaker 1: hundred and fourteen years for a full emission of UM
25:57
Speaker 1: nitrous oxide to leave the atmosphere. Yeah, as far as
25:59
Speaker 1: man maid, it's uh. It is also a byproduct of
26:02
Speaker 1: combustion and UM a lot of fertilizer, nitrogen fertilizer that
26:06
Speaker 1: they use on crops as releases the in two oh
26:09
Speaker 1: into the atmosphere as well. See to me, all you
26:11
Speaker 1: have to do is like seed the atmosphere with a
26:14
Speaker 1: bunch of hippies and let them huff all the nitrous
26:16
Speaker 1: oxide right out of it. Problem solved because you've also
26:20
Speaker 1: gotten Riddish concert in the sky. Exactly what else we
26:25
Speaker 1: have methane? Methane is a big one, and this is
26:28
Speaker 1: super overlooked, but I remember hearing about this when people
26:31
Speaker 1: first started realizing, like, oh, that's a really big problem.
26:34
Speaker 1: It's um. It's there's very little amount of it, whereas
26:38
Speaker 1: like there's four hundred and four parts per million of
26:41
Speaker 1: carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. These days we can measure
26:44
Speaker 1: about one point seven parts per million of methane. But
26:49
Speaker 1: it uh absorbs in amidst thermal energy like gang Busters
26:53
Speaker 1: as well, um far more than C O two UM.
26:57
Speaker 1: I think about twenty times more. And is there's a
27:00
Speaker 1: lot of different places where it comes from. Like when
27:03
Speaker 1: we um mind coal, it releases methane. When are ample
27:08
Speaker 1: herds of livestock fart um, they release methane. No joke.
27:14
Speaker 1: That's actually a huge contributor of greenhouse gases. Yeah, we
27:17
Speaker 1: talked about that, like I feel like years ago in
27:18
Speaker 1: another episode. Surely we have another one, Chuck, was do
27:23
Speaker 1: you remember our plasma waste incineration episode? Well, remember one
27:29
Speaker 1: of the things we talked about is that the average
27:31
Speaker 1: landfill gives off methane UM. And that's a huge problem too.
27:36
Speaker 1: So like if you go to a landfill and you
27:38
Speaker 1: see that there's flames around it, they're actually burning that
27:42
Speaker 1: stuff off because the CEO too it releases after it's burned,
27:46
Speaker 1: is actually preferable in that case to the methane just
27:50
Speaker 1: being allowed to escape. It is bad news. Um. And
27:54
Speaker 1: there are scientists who have even posited that maybe, like
27:58
Speaker 1: you know, tens and hundreds of thousand of years ago,
28:01
Speaker 1: that large scale venting a methane into the atmosphere, like
28:04
Speaker 1: if a if a big block of ice cracked open
28:09
Speaker 1: and unlocked a big methane uh bubble from from under
28:14
Speaker 1: the ocean, that could have caused like maybe a mass extinction,
28:18
Speaker 1: like because it was released so quickly into the atmosphere. Yeah,
28:21
Speaker 1: like like we're doing now basically, yeah, on a slower basis.
28:25
Speaker 1: I don't think anyone's saying that's gonna happen, No, no,
28:28
Speaker 1: I don't know. I don't know. I think like that
28:30
Speaker 1: is a concern that as arctis Arctic ice melts, that
28:33
Speaker 1: methane bubbles could be released, which would just be a
28:36
Speaker 1: nightmare on top of a catastrophe. That's right. Um. There's
28:40
Speaker 1: another problem with methane too, that in the atmosphere it
28:43
Speaker 1: frequently converts to CEO two, so it just not only
28:47
Speaker 1: contributes itself, it also contributes to the CEO two emission problem.
28:51
Speaker 1: There's also Chuck another thing um called short lived climate
28:56
Speaker 1: pollutants s l cps. They don't get a lot of
29:00
Speaker 1: press either, but a lot of people think that if
29:02
Speaker 1: we focused on these we could really see some real
29:06
Speaker 1: results in the short term. Supposedly s l cps account
29:10
Speaker 1: for something like thirty of global warming. But they are
29:15
Speaker 1: um particles like black carbon. Methane counts as one of
29:18
Speaker 1: them um hydro chlorofluora carbons um. And they can live
29:27
Speaker 1: in the atmosphere from say like days two tens of
29:30
Speaker 1: years and then they go away. Um. And if we
29:34
Speaker 1: really cut down on some of those emissions, it would
29:38
Speaker 1: we would see the effects of that very quickly. Wow. Yeah,
29:42
Speaker 1: So speaking of effects, I guess we should kind of
29:45
Speaker 1: talk about what this all could mean and does mean
29:48
Speaker 1: and is meaning. Uh. Number one, we can talk a
29:52
Speaker 1: little bit about sea level or sea levels UM. Glaciers
29:57
Speaker 1: and ice shelves are melting all around the world and
30:01
Speaker 1: losing large chunks of ice like this can accelerate this
30:04
Speaker 1: warming because there's less of the Sun's energy. You know,
30:07
Speaker 1: we talked earlier about it being reflected by ice sheets
30:10
Speaker 1: and things like that these reflective surfaces. Less reflective surface
30:14
Speaker 1: means less is getting reflected away. So just at like
30:17
Speaker 1: the very base level, that's gonna be uh an increase
30:21
Speaker 1: in temperature. Yes, Also, depending on where the glacier is UM,
30:26
Speaker 1: it could contribute to UM two sea level increases too,
30:31
Speaker 1: as we'll talk about. Yeah, I mean, we might as
30:34
Speaker 1: well hit that, huh Okay, So if um One of
30:37
Speaker 1: the things that I learned from this that I just
30:39
Speaker 1: absolutely did not know but makes total sense is that
30:43
Speaker 1: the Arctic sea ice, if it melts, it will contribute
30:47
Speaker 1: zero to a sea level increase. Yeah. Interesting, I had
30:51
Speaker 1: no idea, but it makes total sense because it turns
30:53
Speaker 1: out that Arctic sea ice in particular floats on the sea,
30:57
Speaker 1: so it's already in the sea and it's our already
31:00
Speaker 1: contributed to the sea level rise. If anything, If that stuff,
31:04
Speaker 1: if we went through an ice age and all that
31:06
Speaker 1: stuff frozen into basically a frozen land mass, then you'd
31:09
Speaker 1: see a sea level decrease. But the way it is
31:12
Speaker 1: right now, there wouldn't be a sea level rise if
31:14
Speaker 1: it melts completely. Um, there are other places around Earth
31:18
Speaker 1: where the glaciers and ice caps are basically land masses,
31:23
Speaker 1: and if they did melt, then you would see a
31:25
Speaker 1: sea level rise just from that melted water. Right, Yeah,
31:28
Speaker 1: I mean that we're talking about Antarctica there, and the
31:31
Speaker 1: likelihood of Antarctica filling out is not great, which is good, Well,
31:38
Speaker 1: not all of it, but there's certainly parts of it could,
31:41
Speaker 1: yeah for sure. And then same with Greenland too. We
31:44
Speaker 1: have Greenland's a problem because it is much closer to
31:47
Speaker 1: the equator, so temperatures are higher there anyway, It's not
31:52
Speaker 1: like negative thirty seven degrees on average like it is
31:55
Speaker 1: an Antarctica. So I feel like I have to say
31:58
Speaker 1: that so specifically are Yeah, and the other problem too
32:03
Speaker 1: with um, with this this loss of ice, like people
32:06
Speaker 1: might say like no, it's crazy, Like there's I see
32:09
Speaker 1: plenty of glaciers there's still but if every season a
32:12
Speaker 1: little more melts off then is replenished by snowfall in
32:16
Speaker 1: the winter, you have a net loss of ice. And
32:19
Speaker 1: then over time, if you look at it on a
32:21
Speaker 1: scale of a decade or two decades or three decades,
32:24
Speaker 1: that's a substantial amount of lost ice and that is
32:28
Speaker 1: what increases the sea level that leads to sea level rise. Yeah, so,
32:33
Speaker 1: as far as I p c c can is concerned,
32:36
Speaker 1: they estimate that sea levels rose about little over six
32:41
Speaker 1: and a half inches in the twentieth century. Uh. Doesn't
32:46
Speaker 1: sound like much, but it is a lot. Like sea
32:48
Speaker 1: level rise in low lying coastal areas can mean pretty
32:52
Speaker 1: bad flooding at just mirror inches. Uh. They proposed that
32:58
Speaker 1: if things continue to go this way, Uh, they could
33:00
Speaker 1: rise by as much as almost two ft by the year.
33:05
Speaker 1: And brother, if that happens, we're gonna have to redraw
33:08
Speaker 1: the world map. That's true. I was looking, I was like,
33:11
Speaker 1: how how high is Miami Beach. Miami Beach is apparently
33:14
Speaker 1: just under four ft above sea level. New Orleans is
33:18
Speaker 1: um like zero feet. I think it's it's maybe at
33:22
Speaker 1: two ft. Basically, there's a lot of coastal city Singapore, Um,
33:28
Speaker 1: I think Copenhagen, they're all they're all like very um,
33:33
Speaker 1: very close to sea level or just slightly above sea level.
33:38
Speaker 1: And so yeah, two ft rise. I know, the Maldives
33:41
Speaker 1: is frequently mentioned as like being under real threat from
33:44
Speaker 1: sea level rise. But if even if you don't necessarily
33:47
Speaker 1: live in a coastal area that's two ft, you know,
33:51
Speaker 1: just two ft above sea level, consider this. If the
33:54
Speaker 1: sea level rose just six inches, like they were saying,
33:58
Speaker 1: that means that when you have extre dream weather events
34:00
Speaker 1: which go hand in hand with global warming and are
34:03
Speaker 1: part of climate change, where it rains really hard and
34:07
Speaker 1: there's more like more major flooding than before, then it's
34:11
Speaker 1: already working with an extra six inches than any flood
34:14
Speaker 1: that you've been used to before. So the floods are
34:17
Speaker 1: much more extensive. And that's a really good example of
34:19
Speaker 1: how interconnected this this the global climate system is where
34:24
Speaker 1: if one thing gets messed up a little bit, it
34:26
Speaker 1: has all these other widespread effects around the world on
34:29
Speaker 1: on regions too. Yeah, because I think they found that
34:32
Speaker 1: there are not necessarily more frequent uh like tropical storms
34:37
Speaker 1: and hurricanes and things, but there they are becoming much
34:40
Speaker 1: more intense, and that's that's the issue at hand. Yeah,
34:43
Speaker 1: and that one in particular has to do with the
34:45
Speaker 1: surface temperature of the oceans increasing as the temperature of
34:48
Speaker 1: the world increases, because that's where those storms, hurricanes and
34:52
Speaker 1: cyclones get their their energy from, is from the warm
34:56
Speaker 1: surface of the sea. So if it's warm that that's
35:00
Speaker 1: you'll see them like hit land and like loose steam.
35:03
Speaker 1: And then when they go back over the ocean, they'll
35:05
Speaker 1: start to like re gather their strength. That's because they're
35:08
Speaker 1: over warm water again and that's where that's where they
35:11
Speaker 1: get it all from. Yeah. Plus there is I don't
35:13
Speaker 1: think we mentioned this yet about the density of water. No, no,
35:17
Speaker 1: and I don't want to go anywhere near you take
35:19
Speaker 1: this one. Well, very simply, water is most dense at
35:25
Speaker 1: four degrease celsius. So that's it's kind of a homeostasis
35:29
Speaker 1: of of where it needs to be. Anything above or
35:32
Speaker 1: below that temperature and the density is going to decrease.
35:36
Speaker 1: So the overall temperature of the water is going to
35:38
Speaker 1: increase naturally and this is not like human cause, um,
35:42
Speaker 1: but that will also cause the oceans to rise something
35:45
Speaker 1: that's just a natural thing. Right, Well said all right
35:49
Speaker 1: with market right there. I'm glad you mentioned that though,
35:51
Speaker 1: because you don't see that really ever, Like no one
35:54
Speaker 1: ever mentions like, oh yeah, water is just gonna expand
35:57
Speaker 1: as it warms. You know, I've never thought about that
35:59
Speaker 1: one anither cools, I think, right, yeah, or cool. It's
36:03
Speaker 1: a weird weird thing, weird weird material. So let's take
36:08
Speaker 1: another break and we'll get back to explaining why global
36:12
Speaker 1: warming is a real pain, alright, Chuck. So we talked
36:42
Speaker 1: about the ice caps melting, we talked about glaciers melting,
36:45
Speaker 1: we talked about sea level rise. There's also I mean,
36:49
Speaker 1: people are out there saying like that's great, but how
36:52
Speaker 1: does it impact may human That's what I want to
36:56
Speaker 1: know about. Well, there's tons of ways because as as
37:00
Speaker 1: technologically clever as we humans are, we are extraordinarily dependent
37:04
Speaker 1: on the earth. So as these this climate change happens
37:09
Speaker 1: due to global warming, um, we're going to see all
37:12
Speaker 1: sorts of problems. And we already are starting to see problems. Yeah.
37:16
Speaker 1: So we did mention earlier that if you live in
37:19
Speaker 1: a temperate area, if you've got like four kind of
37:21
Speaker 1: lovely seasons, like let's say Atlanta, Georgia, for instance, you
37:24
Speaker 1: may have a longer growing season, you might have a
37:26
Speaker 1: bit more rain. It might be actually good for the
37:29
Speaker 1: crops here in Georgia in some ways, but other parts
37:32
Speaker 1: of the world, less temperate zones are gonna see big
37:36
Speaker 1: temperature increases, way less rain and longer droughts, worst droughts,
37:42
Speaker 1: bigger deserts. Uh, it's it's not going to be so
37:45
Speaker 1: good for those places. No. They apparently have found that
37:48
Speaker 1: every trillion tons of um c O two it contributed
37:54
Speaker 1: to the atmosphere raises the global temperature average by about
37:58
Speaker 1: through three quarters of a degree celsius. And then they
38:01
Speaker 1: went and correlated that that um each one degree celsius
38:06
Speaker 1: increase in temperature equals an evaporative increase of about seven
38:11
Speaker 1: to here on planet Earth in the soil. Right, So
38:14
Speaker 1: as temperatures increase, there's going to be um less water
38:19
Speaker 1: in the soil, which affects crops and leads to things
38:22
Speaker 1: like droughts and even desertification as well. But in Man,
38:27
Speaker 1: every time I throw out one of these terms, I'm like,
38:29
Speaker 1: we did an episode on that, with an episode on
38:31
Speaker 1: that and droughts. Um. Yeah, we've been dancing around this
38:34
Speaker 1: one for a while. We have. I'm glad we finally
38:37
Speaker 1: tackled that. Man. You're doing great. By the way, well,
38:41
Speaker 1: hold on, hold on. So is as the water evaporates
38:44
Speaker 1: from the soiling, goes up and is locked into the atmosphere. Um. Again,
38:48
Speaker 1: it's eventually going to come down, and when it does,
38:52
Speaker 1: you're going to have far more severe flooding and precipitation
38:57
Speaker 1: than you would have normally when it was just going up,
39:00
Speaker 1: been coming down and going up and coming down like
39:01
Speaker 1: on its normal cycle. So that's one way that it
39:05
Speaker 1: can affect you. Because while it's turning to droughts, you
39:07
Speaker 1: got wildfires. And then when the soil gets degraded and
39:11
Speaker 1: there's suddenly a lot of rain, you've got flooding. And
39:14
Speaker 1: people get carried away in their cars because they think
39:16
Speaker 1: they can drive across a flowing river. Uh, that's not
39:21
Speaker 1: funny at all, by the way, I guess not just
39:23
Speaker 1: the way you put it was, um. So one of
39:26
Speaker 1: the other devastating effects, and this one is UM kind
39:30
Speaker 1: of tougher to predict because we've don't haven't really seen
39:33
Speaker 1: what can happen with our living human eyeballs, but ecosystems, UM,
39:38
Speaker 1: and I think we did, did we do own ecosystems
39:41
Speaker 1: as a whole or just have we talked about it
39:44
Speaker 1: forever and everything. I think it's just popped up in
39:46
Speaker 1: so many of them. It seems like that. Yeah, we
39:48
Speaker 1: definitely covered coral reefs and things like that. We're talking
39:50
Speaker 1: about living ecosystems, and we all know they're very delicate,
39:53
Speaker 1: and the delicate balance of the ecosystem is what makes
39:56
Speaker 1: it worse. And we've talked to add nauseum over the
39:59
Speaker 1: past nine years about how little, just little things can
40:04
Speaker 1: happen in the ecosystem that will create this chain reaction.
40:08
Speaker 1: It's all interconnected, and we don't know what might happen
40:12
Speaker 1: in terms of global warming in our living ecosystem. Sure,
40:16
Speaker 1: some animals might adapt, h some might move um, but
40:21
Speaker 1: there would also be you know, massive amounts of extinction. Um.
40:26
Speaker 1: Coral reefs are already dying. We're seeing that with our eyeballs.
40:29
Speaker 1: Forests are dying off and turning to grassland. And it's
40:34
Speaker 1: not just like, oh, well there they go. Uh, now
40:37
Speaker 1: we have grassland instead of a forest. Let's make some
40:39
Speaker 1: hochulis skirts again. It's just it's it's that that domino
40:47
Speaker 1: effect that we're gonna see it's just no one knows
40:50
Speaker 1: what it's going to mean in the end. It's really troubling. Yeah,
40:53
Speaker 1: and I was, um, I was, I was like, well,
40:55
Speaker 1: how are ecosystems interconnected? I know they are, but how
40:59
Speaker 1: so I looked up an example and UM found salmon.
41:02
Speaker 1: So salmon are born in like little streams and they
41:04
Speaker 1: end up like traveling down into bigger streams than eventually
41:07
Speaker 1: rivers and then estuaries, and then they actually go and
41:10
Speaker 1: mature out in the ocean, which I hadn't really thought of,
41:13
Speaker 1: and then when it's time for them to go breed,
41:16
Speaker 1: they swim back upstream, back into the rivers, back in
41:20
Speaker 1: back into the streams themselves. Actually they go back to
41:23
Speaker 1: where they were born to breed and then die. And
41:26
Speaker 1: as they're doing it, they're basically acting as nutrient transport
41:30
Speaker 1: systems between all these different ecosystems each step of the way.
41:34
Speaker 1: It's like a seed being scattered in the wind, Yeah,
41:37
Speaker 1: very much so, but a see that can actually come
41:39
Speaker 1: back home and bring all the nutrients that it gathered,
41:41
Speaker 1: like out in the ocean back into its home ecosystem
41:44
Speaker 1: where it was born. So it's pretty interesting. And I mean,
41:47
Speaker 1: like that's just a great example. Let's just salmon, you know. So, Yeah,
41:50
Speaker 1: the ecosystems are very much connected, so if something happens
41:55
Speaker 1: with one, it's going to have an effect on all
41:57
Speaker 1: the other ones. And like you said, some things will survive,
42:00
Speaker 1: some things won't. But the the the thing that I
42:03
Speaker 1: think most of us here on Earth are agreeing to
42:06
Speaker 1: agree about is we should probably do something to stop
42:11
Speaker 1: those extinctions as best we can, even if we'll probably survive,
42:16
Speaker 1: you know. Yeah, And you know, we're this is a
42:18
Speaker 1: very USA centric show for the most part. Exces's where
42:22
Speaker 1: we're based. We try to think outside that, uh that
42:25
Speaker 1: box as much as we can. And in the case
42:27
Speaker 1: of global warming, it is the poorest nations of the
42:31
Speaker 1: world are the ones that are going to be hit
42:32
Speaker 1: the hardest. They're the ones in uh a lot of
42:35
Speaker 1: times in the in the less temperate zones that are
42:38
Speaker 1: going to be hit with more devastating uh crop loss.
42:42
Speaker 1: But crop loss is going to be a big deal
42:44
Speaker 1: all over the world. That already is um There's something
42:47
Speaker 1: called the Carnegie Institution that estimates about five billion dollars
42:51
Speaker 1: in crop losses per year due to global warming is
42:54
Speaker 1: already going on right now, and farmers are seeing a
42:57
Speaker 1: decrease of about forty million metric ton of wheat, barley, corn,
43:02
Speaker 1: other cereal grains every year. So just one degree fahrenheit
43:07
Speaker 1: an average temper of an increase could result in three
43:11
Speaker 1: uh drop in crop yields. Right, So it's a it's
43:15
Speaker 1: a global issue. Sure, some of the poorest nations might
43:19
Speaker 1: be affected earliest in the worst, but it is going
43:22
Speaker 1: to touch every nation. It definitely will. It doesn't necessarily
43:25
Speaker 1: have to be the poorest nations. UM. It can be
43:27
Speaker 1: the poorest people of rich nations, and it can be
43:30
Speaker 1: people who are very rich who end up living in
43:33
Speaker 1: areas that are hit like UM, Houston saw a lot
43:36
Speaker 1: of increase in water borne illnesses because of the flooding
43:40
Speaker 1: from Hurricane Harvey. UM. That's that's something that they otherwise
43:44
Speaker 1: wouldn't have had to have dealt with. UM. There's there's
43:47
Speaker 1: like that whole crop lost thing and starvation that it
43:51
Speaker 1: leads to. Like, there's a lot of ways people can
43:53
Speaker 1: be affected. And just like salmon like work, we're connected
43:57
Speaker 1: to other people as well, even if they're on the
43:59
Speaker 1: other side out of the world and you know we're
44:01
Speaker 1: not really talking to them or don't really know them personally,
44:05
Speaker 1: we're still connected to them. So if they suffer a
44:07
Speaker 1: crop loss, it will affect us all, and if they
44:10
Speaker 1: die of starvation, it ends up affecting us all. Yeah this, Um,
44:14
Speaker 1: I really like this uh computer model thing? Did you
44:16
Speaker 1: see that? Yes, that was pretty pretty cut and dry,
44:21
Speaker 1: you know. Yes, So the I p c C. They
44:24
Speaker 1: used a computer model and what they did was they
44:27
Speaker 1: tried to simulate climate change. And what they found was
44:32
Speaker 1: the only models, the only models that looked like today's
44:35
Speaker 1: climate that equalled, hey, well, this looks like what's going
44:38
Speaker 1: on today were models that included the human contribution to
44:42
Speaker 1: global warming. When they did not plug in the human contribution,
44:47
Speaker 1: the answer that it spit out was no, that climate
44:50
Speaker 1: doesn't look like what's going on right now. So that
44:53
Speaker 1: is basically proof that humans are contributing to this. Right
45:00
Speaker 1: that combined with you know, the signature of the carbon
45:03
Speaker 1: dioxide from fossil fuel burning, um, all that jazz. Yes,
45:07
Speaker 1: you're like, and we should probably get to this part.
45:10
Speaker 1: Like there's there's a um, there's a tendency among naysayers
45:14
Speaker 1: to be like, you know, there's not even like scientific consensus.
45:19
Speaker 1: They're not a percent certain that it's it's it's us
45:23
Speaker 1: creating this global warming, right, And so science has really
45:27
Speaker 1: kind of taking it upon itself in the last like
45:29
Speaker 1: decade or so to address this and say, yes, that's true.
45:33
Speaker 1: There's basically no such thing as settled science. But there
45:37
Speaker 1: is so been so much like we've made it our
45:40
Speaker 1: business to create and conduct so much research and study
45:46
Speaker 1: all of this so closely over the last like ten
45:49
Speaker 1: fift twenty years that we have basically come up with
45:53
Speaker 1: a scientific consensus that basically, if you take any scientists
45:57
Speaker 1: down the street, there was pretty close to a chance
46:02
Speaker 1: that that person is going to say, yes, climate change
46:05
Speaker 1: is real, Yes global warming is happening, and yes humans
46:08
Speaker 1: are causing it, right, yeah, because they use words differently
46:12
Speaker 1: than we use words. And you sent in this great
46:14
Speaker 1: article certainty versus uncertainty colon understanding scientific terms about climate change.
46:20
Speaker 1: You know, it's smart when there's a colon. Uh. And
46:23
Speaker 1: for the average Joe or Jane walking around the street,
46:27
Speaker 1: if you say the word uncertain, that means, well, you
46:29
Speaker 1: just don't know. Scientists when they use the word uncertain,
46:32
Speaker 1: they mean how well you might know something or not right.
46:36
Speaker 1: So that's a big difference. It sounds like word games,
46:40
Speaker 1: But there is no very rarely is there absolute certainty
46:45
Speaker 1: in science. So their job is to research and research
46:48
Speaker 1: and limit that uncertainty as much as possible. Now, and
46:51
Speaker 1: that uncertainty and their public broadcasting of that uncertainty has
46:55
Speaker 1: been used against him. It's been hijacked and used against
46:58
Speaker 1: them to fight do doing anything about climate change. Right,
47:01
Speaker 1: So so they have started to use especially UM. If
47:05
Speaker 1: you go through like the I p c cs, like
47:07
Speaker 1: policy maker executive summaries, everything that they're stating they will
47:12
Speaker 1: put like how confident they are that what they what
47:15
Speaker 1: they're they're saying is true. They have a structure to
47:17
Speaker 1: that now, right, And so most of the stuff that
47:21
Speaker 1: they're they're UM releasing as in their reports has something
47:27
Speaker 1: like um a nine chance or greater of being correct.
47:31
Speaker 1: So they call it like a very likely outcome or
47:34
Speaker 1: a very high confidence. And I've even seen something called
47:37
Speaker 1: an extremely high confidence which indicates or greater and then
47:42
Speaker 1: the come on which is or greater. Yeah, so they're
47:47
Speaker 1: the there are five points which they have quote very
47:52
Speaker 1: high confidence end quote about or even greater, so at
47:56
Speaker 1: least or greater certainty that the following he introduced warming
48:00
Speaker 1: influences physical and biological systems everywhere. Sea levels are rising,
48:05
Speaker 1: glaciers and perma frost are shrinking, oceans are becoming more acidic,
48:10
Speaker 1: and ranges of plants and animals are shifting. So that's
48:14
Speaker 1: between nine certainty on those things. Yeah, they also say
48:18
Speaker 1: they're they're they're comfortable saying with certainty that the burning
48:23
Speaker 1: of fossil fuels and the clearing of forests release carbon
48:26
Speaker 1: dioxide into the atmosphere. They say, there's no uncertainty about that.
48:30
Speaker 1: They also say that they've learned that carbon dioxide and
48:33
Speaker 1: other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere trap heat through the
48:36
Speaker 1: greenhouse effect. They say, again, there is no uncertainty about this,
48:40
Speaker 1: and that the Earth is warming because these gases are
48:43
Speaker 1: being released faster than they can be absorbed by natural processes.
48:47
Speaker 1: And then they say it's very likely greater than probability
48:50
Speaker 1: that human activities are the main reason for the world's
48:53
Speaker 1: temperature increase in the past fifty years in particular. And
48:58
Speaker 1: so they're they're saying, like, we are scientists, we're the
49:00
Speaker 1: ones who are studying this. No, we're not a hot
49:03
Speaker 1: We can't say with unequivocal certainty that this is the case.
49:09
Speaker 1: But what really, people, what more do you need? Like
49:12
Speaker 1: we have studied this so closely, we are so close
49:15
Speaker 1: to certainty that that like, what's the problem here, Let's
49:19
Speaker 1: just get on board. And there was actually a study
49:22
Speaker 1: um done in two thousand seven by this economist um.
49:27
Speaker 1: It made the news, uh, made the news cycle. His
49:30
Speaker 1: name as Dr Peter Cigaris, and he basically said, if
49:36
Speaker 1: you look at the cost of doing something and the
49:40
Speaker 1: cost of doing nothing, statistically speaking, it makes way more
49:44
Speaker 1: sense to take steps to mitigate climate change and be
49:49
Speaker 1: wrong about the fact that it was us humans than
49:52
Speaker 1: it would to take no steps at all, um and
49:55
Speaker 1: be wrong about actually, no, it actually was us humans.
50:00
Speaker 1: I mean, that's where I get. I don't want to
50:02
Speaker 1: get too much on a soapbox, but I get angry
50:05
Speaker 1: that there are people out there that say, well, you're
50:08
Speaker 1: not there's that ten percent or less chance. So let's
50:11
Speaker 1: just gamble humanity, the future of humankind on that ten
50:16
Speaker 1: percent or less chance, because we don't want to get
50:20
Speaker 1: with the program and get behind green initiatives because there's
50:25
Speaker 1: a chance you're not certain. I just I don't know
50:29
Speaker 1: that short sight, and it's just staggering to me. Well,
50:32
Speaker 1: plus also that it's been proven. Um. I've mentioned that
50:36
Speaker 1: book before, the merchants of doubt that think tanks have
50:39
Speaker 1: been set up to basically influence public thought and point
50:43
Speaker 1: out like scientists aren't certain, sciences are a hund percent certain,
50:47
Speaker 1: and they're not looking out for you or the earth
50:49
Speaker 1: or your family. They're looking out for their business interests.
50:52
Speaker 1: Because it's the fossil fuel industry. They're they're they're the
50:56
Speaker 1: ones who are who benefit the most from not taking
51:00
Speaker 1: apps against climate change. Um. But even if you look
51:03
Speaker 1: at um, some of the some of these fossil fuel
51:06
Speaker 1: industry companies, UM, they they're they're like, no, we should
51:10
Speaker 1: probably do something. We can figure this out. Even some
51:13
Speaker 1: of them are saying this now. And as of two
51:16
Speaker 1: thousand fourteen, So Chuck, speaking of two fourteen, there was
51:22
Speaker 1: um uh something big that happened, the Paris Accords. Yes,
51:27
Speaker 1: and in two thousand fourteen, I think a hundred and
51:30
Speaker 1: nine countries came together and said, you know what, we're
51:34
Speaker 1: going to do something. We're going to do everything we
51:36
Speaker 1: can to keep the global average temperature from increasing two
51:41
Speaker 1: degrees above normal two degrees celsius. I should say, because
51:45
Speaker 1: that that was kind of a largely agreed upon tipping
51:48
Speaker 1: point that there would be a lot more extreme weather,
51:51
Speaker 1: sea level rise, we would feel the effects of climate
51:54
Speaker 1: change from a two degree celsius increase in global temperature.
51:58
Speaker 1: And so they took us really interesting approach where they said, Um,
52:04
Speaker 1: instead of us coming up with a multi government group
52:08
Speaker 1: that decrease stuff, we're going to just decentralize the whole thing.
52:12
Speaker 1: And how about every country come up with what their
52:15
Speaker 1: country can do on their own to fight to fight
52:19
Speaker 1: um global warming, and then we'll bring them all together
52:22
Speaker 1: and everybody will take a pledge and we'll go do it.
52:25
Speaker 1: And it was hugely successful, like, out of a hundred
52:27
Speaker 1: and nine countries, a hundred and sixty eight have ratified it.
52:32
Speaker 1: And the US had had a pretty good plan as well. Um,
52:36
Speaker 1: I think we were going to we were going to
52:40
Speaker 1: pledge that we would reduce our climate emissions something like
52:46
Speaker 1: by which would be a huge significant UM contribution to
52:51
Speaker 1: fighting global warming. But we got pulled out of that one,
52:56
Speaker 1: I think in in two thousand seventeen. It's correct. So now, um,
53:01
Speaker 1: the rest of the world seems to be carrying on
53:03
Speaker 1: without us, UH, fighting climate change through their own decentralized plans.
53:07
Speaker 1: But that's where the United States stands right now. We
53:10
Speaker 1: have said, um, we're not going to be taking part
53:14
Speaker 1: in that. That's right. But that's not to say that
53:16
Speaker 1: the citizens of the United States can't do everything they
53:19
Speaker 1: can on their own in their own lives by doing
53:22
Speaker 1: some of the following things. UM. First and foremost decreasing
53:25
Speaker 1: our carbon footprint. UM. And I'm gonna put out a
53:29
Speaker 1: call for us right now to go ahead and do
53:31
Speaker 1: one soon ish on carbon offsets because we're a few
53:36
Speaker 1: years into a few years down the road from when
53:38
Speaker 1: carbon offsets first became a thing, and it's much more
53:43
Speaker 1: understood now. Didn't we do one on those? I don't
53:46
Speaker 1: think so we did. We've done them on stand Oh
53:49
Speaker 1: I know what it was. We talked about that kind
53:51
Speaker 1: of cap and trade scheme in the Acid Rain. Yeah, yeah,
53:55
Speaker 1: we should do one a carbon offsets, so because they're
53:57
Speaker 1: much better understood now and that you pretty clear now
54:00
Speaker 1: like the best ways to go about doing something like that.
54:04
Speaker 1: So we're not gonna cover it too much here, but uh,
54:06
Speaker 1: you can buy carbon offsets look for future podcasts. Um.
54:10
Speaker 1: But reducing your carbon footprint is the biggest thing I mean,
54:14
Speaker 1: it's really simple. Um, the stuff that generates the greenhouse gases,
54:17
Speaker 1: if we create less of it, that's a good thing.
54:21
Speaker 1: So you're doing that on a local level can make
54:23
Speaker 1: a big impact of a lot of people are doing that. Um.
54:26
Speaker 1: Using less energy obviously is a just a sort of
54:28
Speaker 1: a no brainer. UM. And it's just period in life,
54:32
Speaker 1: like just being less wasteful, whether it's water or your
54:37
Speaker 1: your lights that you're turning on, or riding your bike
54:40
Speaker 1: instead of driving your car, like, all of that makes
54:43
Speaker 1: a big difference. And but and with electricity in particular,
54:47
Speaker 1: one thing we always mentioned, always mentioned is that even
54:51
Speaker 1: though it seems like your light bulb is fine, it's
54:54
Speaker 1: getting its power most likely from burning coal. So so
54:59
Speaker 1: is that electric car it you bought. Yeah, and your
55:03
Speaker 1: electric car is only as good as uh, the energy
55:06
Speaker 1: that it's where it gets his energy from. Um. And
55:10
Speaker 1: we can that's a whole rabbit hole into itself. Hybrids
55:14
Speaker 1: and electric cars and how green they are. But um,
55:17
Speaker 1: the research I did today roundly says that in the end,
55:22
Speaker 1: a hybrid, an electric car is has a much smaller
55:25
Speaker 1: carbon footprint than a combustion engine. And I know about
55:30
Speaker 1: the batteries and I know where they get this stuff,
55:32
Speaker 1: and this is considering all the costs that go into
55:35
Speaker 1: making these cars and what happens these cars over the years.
55:38
Speaker 1: There are a lot of smart people that put this
55:40
Speaker 1: all together, and it's still a better option than you know,
55:44
Speaker 1: a combustion gas engine. But that's you know, I'm not
55:47
Speaker 1: here to say go out and get a hybrid or
55:49
Speaker 1: electric car. That's up to you. Well, that that kind
55:52
Speaker 1: of raises. One of the issues too, is like it
55:55
Speaker 1: can be expensive to be eco friendly, you know, which
55:58
Speaker 1: really sucks, but also save money though you yeah, in
56:02
Speaker 1: the end, um, it's just the upfront costs are are
56:04
Speaker 1: sometimes you know, greater, which is the problem for you know,
56:07
Speaker 1: for people who can't afford like a more expensive car.
56:10
Speaker 1: Is the same thing with like food, you know, like
56:13
Speaker 1: the better your food, the more expensive it is, which
56:16
Speaker 1: sucks too. Yeah, but you can use less energy in
56:19
Speaker 1: your home and pay less of a energy bill. Yeah no, No,
56:22
Speaker 1: there's plenty things things you can do, like it doesn't
56:24
Speaker 1: cost anything to recycle, you know, yeah, exactly, and all
56:28
Speaker 1: this stuff like recycling you think, well, I mean, I
56:31
Speaker 1: know that's good because there's no trash, but no trash
56:34
Speaker 1: means it's not going to that landfill, and that means
56:36
Speaker 1: it's not releasing bad gases into the atmosphere. So this
56:40
Speaker 1: all affects your carbon footprint, recycling to how long you
56:44
Speaker 1: take a shower because you're using hot water and that
56:46
Speaker 1: water has to be heated somehow. Yep. And I mean
56:49
Speaker 1: if this has become like an issue for you, then
56:51
Speaker 1: then make it one of the things you vote on
56:53
Speaker 1: to like, vote for people who care about this, and
56:56
Speaker 1: will um make sure that that regulations they're put into
57:00
Speaker 1: place that fight climate change. It's a big one. There
57:05
Speaker 1: are politicians out there that care very much about this. Yeah.
57:08
Speaker 1: I remember after we pulled out of the Paris Accord,
57:11
Speaker 1: like a few cities said we're still doing this. We're
57:14
Speaker 1: gonna stick to it regardless. Um. Yeah, you can do it.
57:17
Speaker 1: Your city can do it, other people can do it.
57:20
Speaker 1: The rest of the world doing it except for Nicaragua
57:24
Speaker 1: and Syria. I remember, correctly, you remember, Um, if you
57:29
Speaker 1: want to know more about global warming, just step outside. Uh.
57:34
Speaker 1: And since I said that, it's time for listener mate,
57:39
Speaker 1: I'm gonna call this so smart. I don't get it.
57:42
Speaker 1: But remember during the Buildering podcast, we've read a listener
57:44
Speaker 1: mail about we asked why you get sleepy when you read? Yes, well,
57:50
Speaker 1: we had a chiropractor right in and he says, he
57:52
Speaker 1: is the answer. And I don't know if this is
57:56
Speaker 1: right or not, but it's it certainly sounds good to me.
57:59
Speaker 1: So is a chiropractor. And he studied UH functional neurology
58:03
Speaker 1: in school, and he said, the answer is that when
58:05
Speaker 1: you're reading, your eyes move laterally as they scan the page.
58:09
Speaker 1: This involves the lateral rectus muscle of the eye, which
58:12
Speaker 1: is innervated by the six cranial nerve the abductions. So
58:19
Speaker 1: the abductions originates in the ponds in the brainstem. And
58:23
Speaker 1: what happens is that as you activate this nerve through reading,
58:27
Speaker 1: you also activate the ponto madullary reticular formation or p
58:32
Speaker 1: m r F. One job of the PMF is to
58:35
Speaker 1: dampen the sympathetic response of the intero medio lateral cell
58:40
Speaker 1: column in the spinal cord, which activates the sympathetic nervous system.
58:45
Speaker 1: In short reading, dampens the sympathetic response and relaxes you.
58:51
Speaker 1: I think that's the takeaway. I hope you find this interesting.
58:53
Speaker 1: Love your podcast, use a lot of your knowledge to UH.
58:57
Speaker 1: You teach for Tribua Tuesday that my coworkers I play
59:00
Speaker 1: at my clinic and that is from Dr Michael Hilton
59:04
Speaker 1: in good old Washington, d C. Nice for the district.
59:08
Speaker 1: Thanks Dr Michael the chiropractor from DC. That's right. Uh.
59:15
Speaker 1: If you want to get in touch with us, like
59:17
Speaker 1: Dr Michael did, you can tweet to us at josh
59:21
Speaker 1: um Clark or s y s K podcast both me
59:24
Speaker 1: and Chucker on Facebook, and you can go to our
59:27
Speaker 1: official page at Facebook dot com slash stuff you Should Know.
59:30
Speaker 1: You can send us an email the Stuff podcast at
59:33
Speaker 1: how stuff Works dot com and has always joined us
59:35
Speaker 1: at our home on the web, Stuff you Should Know
59:38
Speaker 1: dot com for more on this and thousands of other topics.
59:46
Speaker 1: Is it how stuff Works dot com