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164 - Scientist Rebellion with Malik Morrison · The Dr. Joe Show

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So, Tom, can you introduce our guest for tonight, please?
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Absolutely, Dr. Joe.
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So as I have alluded to during our Ukraine episode, I get my news through
2:56
a series of independent journalists on Twitter.
2:59
As silly as that sounds, but you get a lot of interesting on the ground stuff
3:04
And one thing that I have been following is a man named Peter Comis,
3:09
who has been organizing with scientists around the world
3:13
to draw attention to the latest IPCC report.
3:17
That's the International Panel on Climate Change with alarming new findings.
3:22
The more their models only get more and more accurate.
3:24
So he's taken direct action, peaceful protests to wake people up to it.
3:30
And it's gaining traction.
3:32
And it's it's a group called Scientists Rebellion, of which our guest is a member.
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Ladies and gentlemen and everyone.
3:39
Malik Morrison. Yeah.
3:41
Nice to meet you.
3:42
Malik Morrison.
3:43
Thank you so much for coming on the show.
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I am just
3:47
so intrigued by this.
3:49
I mean, we know about climate change, but
3:53
I guess people weren't really paying attention somewhere.
3:58
What what are you guys doing different
4:01
to bring attention to this.
4:05
So I guess what we're doing different
4:07
than I guess like previous
4:10
iterations of of climate
4:12
protest is, I believe that our
4:16
organization is trying to take be
4:18
front and center of or have scientists,
4:22
you know, the individuals actually doing the research collecting the data
4:26
and interpreting the data sort of lead these movements.
4:30
In the past, it's been mostly, you know,
4:33
activists individuals who are
4:37
reading our data second hand.
4:39
And it's actually been the youth as well
4:43
in the past.
4:44
Sort of leading these movements, which is great.
4:47
That's exactly what we want.
4:49
But I believe this movement
4:52
is trying to support those roles as well.
4:58
A lot
4:58
of the times individuals see scientists as,
5:02
you know, individuals who collect the data, publish the data,
5:05
and then they're never seen or heard from again.
5:09
But this movement and which I'm very proud to be
5:11
a part of is is is trying to
5:16
associate names with faces.
5:18
And when they when we risk arrest,
5:21
we're saying that this is our data we know our data.
5:25
We have strong beliefs in our data.
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And if you won't listen, then
5:30
you know, we will do our best to
5:32
to persuade you to to to listen.
5:35
What do you mean, risk arrest?
5:37
So this is the part that's intriguing.
5:39
What has been happening?
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So in,
5:43
I believe, approximately
5:47
1000, maybe more scientists across
5:49
the world have been arrested recently.
5:53
And civil disobedience
5:56
by doing things such as
5:59
maybe gluing themselves to a roadway or
6:03
shackling them or shackling handcuffing themselves to
6:06
maybe the interest or the entrance of a of a bank
6:09
or major facility that that helps drive climate change.
6:13
For example, Citibank was funding using investments
6:18
towards certain drivers of climate change.
6:21
And we caught wind of it and did our research to kind of understand
6:25
why that was going on.
6:26
And I guess they were just more so of the like, I guess, individuals
6:30
that took office.
6:31
But it's not just them.
6:32
It's it's other organizations as well that that take investments
6:37
from from the people and invest in fossil fuel infrastructure.
6:41
And that investment is helping drive
6:45
climate change when you could take those investments
6:48
and put them into renewables that won't hurt or harm
6:54
individuals significantly as much.
6:56
So so let's let's back up a little bit.
6:59
First of all, how did you get involved in this,
7:01
just a little bit
7:02
about yourself, your background and how did you wind up with this?
7:05
OK, so I am on the eastern coast of the United States.
7:11
I graduated from university in December of 2020
7:16
with a bachelor's in environmental science.
7:20
How I got interested in this was
7:22
I kept seeing headlines of, you know,
7:27
climate is,
7:28
you know, to the point of no return.
7:31
If we don't act now, then you know, we will
7:35
you know,
7:36
things will be irreversible.
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And seeing those headlines, I was those are hiring headlines.
7:43
Those are really terrifying things to read.
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And so I began to wonder why?
7:48
Why are we to the point of no return, what can we do to avoid that?
7:53
And is there a possibility to,
7:55
you know, come back from from that point of no return?
8:00
So it's actually
8:01
the funny story of it all was I was in the park one day,
8:05
and after reading this headlines, I like to go to the park
8:08
to kind of decompress and, you know, sit in nature and just observe.
8:14
And I am a wetland ecologist,
8:19
I guess by like by my trade and
8:23
I was just sitting in the park one day and I noticed like
8:26
a bunch of different trees and.
8:28
And before, I would always just look at trees or biota and just say,
8:32
oh, that's green. Green means good.
8:34
But then, like, once I actually started studying the topics
8:37
and the trees, I realized there's a whole plethora
8:41
of different trees in my area
8:45
that I would have never noticed before without actually
8:50
joining the environmental science field
8:54
And I guess
8:55
how I got involved with Scientist Rebellion was,
8:58
um, Peter had put a tweet out
9:03
as saying Scientist
9:08
you know, I think I believe he said scientist.
9:11
Um, I don't think he said like a specific, you know,
9:15
area of study, but he said, scientist reach out to him
9:17
he needs help with a, um, with a possible
9:23
endeavor.
9:24
And as soon as he said that, I was like, OK,
9:27
this sounds like something up my alley.
9:29
Before I met Peter, I had always
9:32
I was tweeting about climate change, the statistics,
9:35
the data, my interpretation what I do in the field.
9:39
I also have a YouTube channel where I talk very briefly and try to educate
9:43
individuals and sort of like a light funny way
9:47
about different climate
9:50
factors.
9:52
So I got involved with Peter through through a tweet.
9:55
I just reached out to him.
9:56
And when he mentioned that there was the possibility of arrest,
10:00
I knew it was serious and it was time to to to act.
10:03
You know, I think a lot of people have heard
10:06
of climate change and global warming.
10:11
Can you just give us
10:13
an idea of what what is it that we're really up against?
10:16
What is this.
10:19
So in terms of what we are up against, the
10:23
the common consensus
10:25
among scientists in the field is the planet is getting warmer.
10:29
When people say global warming, they are specifically talking about
10:34
the average global temperature is rising.
10:38
And it's rising at an alarming rate. The
10:45
a lot of
10:46
misconceptions arise from that, too, because people will say, oh,
10:50
the planet has risen in temperature and fallen in temperature.
10:53
But oh, it's no that just a few months ago.
10:57
Yeah. Yeah.
10:58
It's the weather conditions are reaching extremes
11:02
and they're also somewhat unpredictable and it will get worse.
11:08
Um, so but going back to, you know,
11:11
people saying that the climate has always changed and its true
11:15
climate has always changed, but it's
11:19
changing at a much quicker rate
11:22
than what was previously previously accepted.
11:26
And, and climate change is a reference
11:29
to that being caused by humans more specifically,
11:33
by CO2 in the in the upper atmosphere.
11:37
In the lower atmosphere.
11:40
So is the CO2, which is from combustion
11:45
of of different elements of oils and fossil fuels.
11:49
Am I missing something here or. That's correct.
11:51
So CO2 in the atmosphere is attributed to multiple
11:57
different factors.
11:59
You know, every time you exhale, that's CO2 in the air.
12:03
Your pets exhaling CO2 in the air.
12:07
Having a fire is CO2 in the air.
12:10
But CO2 is carbon dioxide, right.
12:13
Supposed to the sea is carbon.
12:15
And the O2 is two oxygen molecules.
12:17
So carbon dioxide and CO2. OK.
12:21
Just want to clarify that for people.
12:23
No, no, it's fine.
12:24
Yeah.
12:25
So the carbon dioxide in the in
12:30
the atmosphere is attributed
12:34
to to the combustion to the internal combustion engine.
12:37
So there is CO2.
12:38
How does that affect
12:42
global warming?
12:43
What is happening with this CO2?
12:46
So what happens with CO2?
12:49
In the atmosphere is it
12:52
has a couple of different effects.
12:56
From what I understand, it is
12:59
it doesn't allow energy
13:02
from the sun to escape to space as rapidly.
13:07
You know, let's say in a photon comes from the sun,
13:10
bounces off the earth and heads back out to space.
13:13
That's common.
13:13
That's why, you know,
13:14
the Earth were able to see the Earth when we were on the moon.
13:18
Is because the light is being bounced off the earth
13:22
into an individual's eyes on on on the moon.
13:26
Right. That's commonly accepted
13:29
But when
13:30
you have CO2 molecules in the air, they do one of two things.
13:34
They can either bounce the photon back towards the earth and giving it
13:39
a second chance to warm the surface,
13:42
or the CO2 molecule itself can be energized
13:46
and and it will hold that heat in the upper atmosphere.
13:51
And it creates a sort of runaway greenhouse effect
13:55
where the upper atmosphere is has in a sense has a warming
14:00
layer of its own, which just makes it even harder
14:03
for photons to escape back into space.
14:06
But it invites another gas to the party.
14:08
Methane. Methane?
14:11
Yeah.
14:15
Methane is
14:18
is complicated in and of itself because it is another runaway
14:22
greenhouse gas, but is typically attributed to livestock.
14:28
And as the human population
14:30
grows, you know, we have to feed more people and trees
14:35
will be cut down to make space for livestock to feed those people.
14:40
And as deforestation occurs,
14:44
to house the livestock
14:47
you no longer have, as carbon
14:49
sinks, you no longer have trees pulling CO2 from you.
14:53
Lower atmosphere.
14:54
And in a sense, you now have double the factor
14:58
of CO2 in the upper atmosphere, which will warm the planet even more
15:04
And then there's.
15:05
The permafrost in Siberia, is what I was thinking of.
15:08
There's so much methane trapped in that.
15:10
That, yes, more
15:13
it's more biota
15:16
and other,
15:19
I guess, instances of frozen methane are
15:24
just other carbon sinks being frozen within the permafrost
15:27
once that is released, goes straight up into the air. And
15:31
you know me, I'd like I like my CO2 on the ground trap
15:35
and not in the lower atmosphere.
15:39
So the civil disobedience works.
15:42
In my opinion, yes. Civil disobedience
15:46
is definitely works.
15:48
I mean, I'm African-American, so I can directly attest
15:52
to how effective civil disobedience, civil disobedience is, you know, from Dr.
15:58
King and other individuals who engaged in civil disobedience.
16:03
And this is what was part of the driving factor
16:07
for Peter and the scientific scientist rebellion to engage in the civil
16:13
disobedience is because of how effective it was
16:16
in the past.
16:18
And. Why is it effective?
16:21
I think it
16:24
it might be a little bit out of my area of Expertize,
16:28
but I feel as though civil disobedience becomes effective
16:32
because you gather more
16:36
individuals, you gather individuals
16:38
to talk about the subject rather than
16:42
I guess, you know, violently
16:45
force ideas people don't like and you force ideas upon them.
16:49
However, when you get individuals to engage and in certain topics, you
16:57
they develop an understanding.
16:58
They develop the underlying reason for your discussion
17:03
and oftentimes
17:06
are much more
17:09
I guess, recipient.
17:11
I'm not be the proper word, but receptive.
17:13
They're more receptive to it.
17:15
Yes, to your to your
17:18
discussion.
17:19
And part of that has to do with with the respect and value which leads to trust.
17:23
I'm so curious.
17:26
I mean, for some of us, it just makes common sense you know?
17:29
I mean, maybe you need to be a scientist to understand
17:33
how the gases in to interact with each other,
17:36
how that's going to affect photonic energy
17:39
how it's going to affect our ozone layer and how the sun basically can now
17:44
pummel us with so much more of its heat, which we then can't dissipate.
17:50
And that's the greenhouse effect, right?
17:52
I don't know if any people are gardeners, but with a greenhouse,
17:55
what you're trying to do is capture the heat so that you can promote growth
18:00
with your plants, but not too much heat, or else you're going to kill them.
18:05
Then we have talking about the trees being cut down
18:08
which basically are carbon dioxide
18:12
pump sponges.
18:14
Right.
18:15
I mean, that that's what they they live off of carbon dioxide
18:20
and then they push out oxygen, which we need.
18:23
So the chemistry is
18:27
is interesting, profound and real.
18:30
But why is there resistance do you think,
18:34
to what seems pretty obvious to a lot of people,
18:38
the earth is flat.
18:41
Yeah, that's that's so true.
18:44
The Earth is flat. Same
18:48
I mean, this is science denial at its best, you know?
18:51
It really is. And I'm
18:55
I mean, I I'm a fan of this guy,
18:58
Semmelweis, who discovered that you have to wash your hands.
19:02
He was all about science denial in the 1840s.
19:05
1850s.
19:06
People just didn't believe in
19:08
I think we're going through the same sort of thing, the science denial,
19:11
this idea that it just can't be.
19:15
And if it is happening, it can't be me.
19:17
That's doing. Yeah. What do. You think?
19:20
I think
19:21
I've got a buddy who's, who's also in
19:26
there in the medical field
19:27
and a lot of them,
19:30
well, we'll come to him and, you know,
19:32
say their disdain for vaccines
19:36
so we, we share the same science denial
19:41
in our, in our everyday experiences and interactions.
19:46
Why I think people are less receptive to
19:50
science might be because
19:54
as a society, at least in my opinion,
19:58
we more we favor
20:00
things that are flashy, things that are funny, things that are,
20:03
you know, that that get an emotion or positive emotion out of us.
20:09
And oftentimes
20:11
science can be pretty depressing
20:16
and it just it comes back to
20:20
now I don't want to say it's and it's an education thing,
20:23
but it's a lack of underlying research thing, in my opinion.
20:29
When you tell someone,
20:32
you know,
20:34
whatever statistic you find about climate change.
20:38
Well, the last skeptical and it's good to be skeptical in science,
20:41
you know, that's how science was born was asking questions.
20:45
But the questions, at least in what I have recently,
20:51
the conversations I've had are the skepticism is more
20:55
so of where the money is coming from for the funding for the projects.
21:00
Who is the leader of the projects or who is,
21:05
you know, asking the questions of the projects?
21:08
But they don't relate to the projects themselves.
21:11
Well, which projects are we talking about with the funding of which project?
21:15
I'm when I say projects, I just mean,
21:19
you know, X paper that is developed.
21:22
So let's
21:25
I guess like a project,
21:27
you know, that might be better for Peter Rose would be,
21:31
you know, what type of climate research have you found?
21:34
The projects such as those?
21:36
I see because.
21:38
A lot of scientists and this comes back to the scientists
21:40
rebellion is a lot of scientists now want to show their face once
21:45
you put a face behind the research
21:47
so that people better
21:49
people will better associate a face the numbers
21:52
so if if and Peter does a really good job at it is showing emotion
21:57
as Peter's a father and he cares about the future for his children.
22:03
It's not so much about, you know Peter trying to garner
22:08
you know
22:10
like funding for X project.
22:12
Peter wants a secure place for his children.
22:16
And that's why I think
22:20
Peter does such an amazing job is is
22:22
he is garnering the emotional connection
22:27
and just with science overall and people
22:29
who know science when you look at data and you look at numbers, you don't
22:34
you typically don't get that emotional factor.
22:38
Because the fossil fuel lobby has been very good
22:41
at putting faces to their efforts.
22:44
So there's a book I mentioned
22:48
quite a while
22:48
ago called Dark Money, and it follows the Koch brothers,
22:52
and they have their fingers in quite a few pies.
22:56
And I would say them along with the Wilkes brothers it's always brothers.
22:59
I don't I don't know what that is, but it's it's staggering, the number of media
23:03
apparatuses that it's I mean, it sounds like a Bill Gribble, but
23:07
it's real I won't name names because I don't want like to
23:11
sound like I'm accusing anyone of anything but question what you're watching.
23:15
That's a cliche, but
23:17
dark money.
23:18
I'll start there.
23:20
And it's and it's so it's
23:22
it is I find it's so easy
23:25
to trace where an argument comes from.
23:29
So when when individuals make a certain
23:34
or race a question about climate change for example,
23:39
you know going back to climate change always happening.
23:42
It's it's it's very easy to see that to find a graph
23:47
from you know our best guess from the plasticine era
23:51
or you know just different eras throughout throughout the earth's age
23:55
to see you know climate going up and down up and down.
24:00
But it's also really easy to find this underlying references
24:04
or you know, where the data came from.
24:07
I do feel like a lot of people don't do that.
24:10
So you should always question the question what you read.
24:13
And oftentimes the answer is
24:16
usually what it what it appears to be.
24:18
It's not really
24:20
anything crazy or, you know,
24:24
futuristic or extremely farfetched.
24:26
It's it's actually quite simple.
24:28
90% of the time.
24:32
So let's just get back to a little bit of why
24:34
there's been such difficulty in getting the message out.
24:38
We have so many sources of news now.
24:41
We have so many places where different groups can go and learn different things.
24:50
Is there
24:52
is there a desperation in civil disobedience
24:57
or are we at that point where
25:01
people just haven't risen?
25:02
And so now the scientists are saying, hey,
25:05
not only am I going to put a face to it, but I'm willing to go to jail over this.
25:10
I'm willing to to to be handcuffed to something, have police
25:16
come and take me because I need you to believe me.
25:21
I mean,
25:21
this is what this civil disobedience well, this is what Martin Luther King did.
25:26
This was what many of the most important changes in our society have come from us.
25:32
People not being violent, but saying
25:35
you need to listen to me because this is real.
25:39
Is that part of with that desperate?
25:42
Well, I'll say the people are
25:46
have become willing to do more than get arrested.
25:49
Just over the weekends,
25:51
a man named Winn Bruce, a 50 year old Buddhist and climate activist,
25:57
self-immolated in front of the Supreme Court building
26:02
and has been forgotten already.
26:04
Yeah so there that's that's that's a powerful powerful statement
26:10
that's the first I mean it's horrible
26:14
that somebody has to get that desperate
26:17
but I think somebody is going to come along and say, why did you do that?
26:21
It just contributed to global warming.
26:23
I mean, there's been a twisted around.
26:26
Already around it's already.
26:28
It's already happening.
26:29
By the thousands it's yeah.
26:31
Like, you know, he wasted his life.
26:33
That was pointless.
26:35
You bought the gas, you know, it's all it's all.
26:37
Yeah.
26:38
But the gasoline to self-immolate which is contributing to carbon
26:42
in the atmosphere.
26:44
And it's it's so it's so heartbreaking to see someone so desperate
26:49
to get out the message of,
26:53
hey, you know, your children's lives are endangered.
26:56
Listen to me.
26:56
This is how I'm willing to sacrifice everything to get to have a future
27:02
for your children and for people to, to to say that
27:08
that his life
27:08
was thrown away is is heartbreaking.
27:12
Can we say his name again?
27:14
Just given that when Bruce.
27:18
Wow. I had not I had not heard that story.
27:22
Thank you for sharing that story.
27:25
People are getting to the point where they're willing to sacrifice
27:29
their lives for this so that other people won't have to.
27:33
So, Malik, what do you say to the people who say, I'll be dead?
27:37
It won't matter.
27:39
Oh, boy.
27:41
I I'll have to pay somewhere?
27:45
To be honest, I don't know.
27:47
You don't know any of those people.
27:48
So what I would say to those individuals is
27:53
but I don't know.
27:56
I did try to avoid conversation with them
28:00
because, you know, it's
28:03
the earth is the only place that we have found life so far.
28:06
So sure, you'll be dead and gone, but are you really willing to bring
28:12
the only place that has life along with you,
28:16
that life that we know of with you
28:20
at that point?
28:21
I tried to disengage with that.
28:25
All right.
28:25
So let's let's dial that person back and talk to the person that says,
28:29
what am I supposed to do?
28:31
I'm I'm just one individual.
28:34
There is so much that
28:37
anybody can do to help the cause.
28:41
First and foremost, you could take the route that I took.
28:45
If you have those resources available is
28:48
is to join the environmental science field.
28:52
I loved ecology.
28:55
I loved plants.
28:56
I loved learning about how everything was interconnected,
28:59
how one thing can't function without the other thing, and that
29:03
thing needs for other things to function.
29:05
I thought that was the most fascinating things.
29:08
That's the route that I recommend is to,
29:11
you know, find a school, find a a favorite professor,
29:15
find a favorite book a favorite author, and just start learning today.
29:21
There are many resources
29:23
that I would be more than happy to point someone
29:27
on Twitter or my YouTube
29:29
channel, wherever they may be able to contact me is
29:32
I will be more than happy to point them in the right direction. And.
29:36
Really stick with this for a minute because as Mark brings up
29:38
a really important point and usually we wait until the last few minutes
29:45
to talk about this in this show, but I want to bring it up now.
29:48
My daughter Sophie of Science with Sophie said,
29:52
you know, that the I am
29:55
the four domains interconnect your home, the social domain, the biological,
29:59
the I see we have a home domain which is our planet
30:04
and with social interaction is with this this cosmos.
30:08
And then I see is how do we see ourselves on this planet
30:12
in the biological domain is what we can do as well.
30:15
So because the domains interact, a small change can have a big effect.
30:21
What is our call to action?
30:24
What are the small changes that we can do right now
30:29
to either slow down
30:32
climate change and global warming or even reverse it?
30:35
Give us a list of these small changes that we can do.
30:39
Right.
30:41
So I've done you know, I'm a scientist, so research.
30:45
And when you all reached out to me to speak on the show, I instantly started
30:51
listening to all your podcasts on on Spotify.
30:56
And I have been thinking
30:58
about this question for quite some time.
31:01
Thank you.
31:02
There are a multitude of things that anyone can do right
31:06
now, and I believe that
31:10
there are two, in my opinion,
31:13
that I think are most effective
31:16
small things that anyone can do.
31:18
The first is a diet, a dietary change.
31:23
This is one that I personally struggle with
31:27
is but
31:28
you know how I deal with a dietary change to help,
31:32
you know, limit the amount of meat I consume
31:36
which will in turn lessen the methane,
31:39
which will in turn, you know,
31:42
help climate change, but also to plant trees,
31:45
et cetera, not to combat deforestation.
31:49
So what I do now is
31:52
if I am to consume meat,
31:54
I will consume meat for one meal.
31:57
So in the morning, I won't have bacon
32:00
if I know I'm going to eat,
32:02
you know, beef in the afternoon.
32:05
And for two to just begin
32:09
one day out of the week, I will cut out meat.
32:13
So, for example, my day is Wednesday.
32:16
I will not eat meat on Wednesday.
32:19
And as as I become more acclimated and discover more recipes,
32:26
I will expand that.
32:28
I will not eat meat on Wednesday and Thursday
32:31
and then so on and so forth.
32:34
So that is the
32:36
I believe in what I what I believe is to be the easiest
32:40
small change an individual can do and one that you can start today.
32:45
So incredible.
32:46
I love that.
32:48
And Sophie would totally, totally be.
32:51
She's vegan.
32:52
OK, so the first small change is decrease your meat
32:57
because that way we don't have to have as many beef products,
33:02
which means we don't need to cut down trees to make space for them, which.
33:07
Is a lot of water.
33:09
Saves a lot of water preserves and decreases methane
33:12
and preserves our trees, which take the carbon dioxide and make oxygen processes.
33:18
Great, terrific, terrific.
33:20
OK, I'm listening.
33:22
And so the second one is one
33:25
that is a small change that I do think is
33:29
takes a little bit of courage, tenacity
33:33
and a little bit of ingenuity, I guess.
33:37
And and that one is to do as much,
33:42
I guess, you know, the civil disobedience
33:45
as you can, because how I see it,
33:48
the best way to combat climate change is the sun.
33:53
It's, you know, the thing that's affecting us the most,
33:56
but it's the thing that we can utilize the most to help the cause.
34:00
It's solar panels on the top of the roof.
34:04
And if your solar panels, you know, heat your home, cool your home
34:08
charge, your car charge, your lawn mower
34:13
so on and so forth, then that energy demand is a lot less
34:20
it will help
34:21
mitigate the fossil, you know, your electricity company using fossil
34:25
fuels that and then it all groups
34:29
together into basically just lobbying your
34:33
your representative wherever you're at is to to lobby them
34:38
because the fossil fuel companies are most certainly lobbying them right now.
34:43
But there are less individuals
34:46
that are lobbying them on a smaller scale.
34:49
There's a phrase, oh, sorry.
34:52
Now go ahead.
34:53
So they're on a regular programing hour on radio.
34:56
The block before us is called Veterans Voice.
34:59
And they have a phrase that I love when they're referring to lobbying efforts
35:03
to, you know, for whatever fundraising
35:06
what have you seeking annoy
35:10
yeah.
35:12
They are there to serve you
35:16
and you can annoy them
35:18
at every waking hour, right? Yes.
35:21
I choose to annoy them with data.
35:24
Yeah. Because if you just
35:26
hit them
35:27
with everything sort of data you have, it becomes hard to ignore.
35:31
And and I have the few Congress
35:35
individuals that I have spoken with
35:38
what they what they like is they it's money,
35:41
you know, without going too much into it.
35:43
They want things that make economic sense.
35:45
And fossil fuels are not economically viable.
35:49
They will run out eventually.
35:51
The infrastructure is expensive to maintain
35:54
the cost to open new ones is
35:58
is it's never worth it
36:01
in short term.
36:03
But you have other things.
36:05
You know, if you have a decentralized energy grid
36:08
where, you know, my the solar panels on my home
36:12
power, my neighbor's house
36:15
and so on, if everybody on my block you know, has solar panels
36:19
and we power the next neighbors block and so on and so forth, you have what
36:27
a decentralize
36:27
energy grid which saves, you know, infrastructure.
36:32
It saves money on infrastructure, which means lower taxes,
36:35
which means you're likely to get voted for again.
36:39
So interesting idea.
36:42
Interesting idea.
36:46
There is there is big money, though, in fossil fuel.
36:49
They've got a lot of money invested.
36:51
And they're very good at blaming the consumer saying it's the consumer.
36:57
So like the notion of a carbon footprint,
37:00
I only very recently learned this was coined by BP.
37:04
Interesting. They had an online calculator.
37:06
Hey, find out what your carbon footprint and so you can make a difference.
37:10
Don't look at us.
37:11
Yeah. I can't imagine that.
37:14
You know, any single individual or even a family
37:18
is able to have a larger carbon footprint than BP,
37:23
who you know, had millions of barrels of oil spill into the into the Gulf.
37:30
I cannot imagine that individual
37:34
has has a larger carbon footprint than that.
37:38
What do you say to the folks that say, OK, I love it,
37:41
let's let's let's flip the switch let's go right to renewables?
37:47
We're not ready. Right.
37:49
So in the in the short term, it we you're correct.
37:54
We are not ready to have mass renewables in the short term.
37:59
There's, you know, supply chain issues.
38:01
There are you know, you have to expand fossil fuels to mine the material
38:06
to make solar panels to mass produce and an implement for everybody.
38:10
However,
38:12
what scientists rebellion is, is asking
38:17
that the governments of the world is to
38:21
start is to essentially start or put a stronger start on it
38:25
rather than opening up new fossil fuel plans are plants.
38:29
Let's start opening up, you know,
38:32
production factories for small solar panels for every
38:36
air area of the world.
38:38
And, you know, logistically
38:43
and tell me if I'm wrong
38:45
everywhere on the earth is touched by the sun,
38:48
which means everybody can have power
38:51
for individuals in certain countries that don't have access
38:55
to a nearby oil field or the infrastructure to import oil.
39:00
They are less they're
39:03
less likely to get that energy
39:06
at a cost effective rate.
39:10
But if they had solar panels,
39:12
which typically last anywhere between I believe it was like ten to 30 years,
39:18
that's 30 years of maybe one or two deliveries on a
39:21
on an 18 wheeler for a neighborhood to last 30 years.
39:25
Versus getting an 18 wheeler of oil
39:28
to deliver every couple of weeks or so.
39:32
So what I say for individuals
39:34
that want to start is to ask your representative
39:38
to stop funding oil and instead start funding renewables.
39:42
So that way you know we just get the ball rolling.
39:46
And renewables refer to what specifically.
39:51
So when people say renewables what they mean is
39:59
forms of energy that can be harvested
40:03
readily every day without ever depleting.
40:07
So that was really complicated.
40:09
In a, I guess more layman's terms, there'd be the sun,
40:14
the wind oceanic and possibly geologic
40:19
you know, the sun warms solar panel and
40:24
it generates electricity from a differential of
40:27
of you know, active, I guess, ingredients.
40:30
I'm not entirely sure how solar panels work.
40:32
I just know that they
40:35
that they they will generate electricity when the sun warms them and wind.
40:39
So a wind turbine as wind passes through a turbine,
40:44
it will spin the turbine which spins, you know, electric.
40:49
It generates electricity within the
40:52
turbine. Yeah.
40:54
It's interesting because because here
40:56
in Marshfield, we have these tides come back and forth and twice a day
41:02
the entire marsh is is underwater.
41:06
In essence.
41:08
And and there are these little channels that some of the engineers,
41:12
I think the civil engineers have put in so that the water can go back and forth
41:16
you know, through basically through tunnels.
41:20
And a friend of mine while ago said, why don't we capture that energy?
41:25
Why don't we figure out a way to capture the energy
41:28
that's happening as the tide goes in and out?
41:31
That's part of what we're talking about with renewable energy.
41:34
Right. We don't have to do anything it's just there.
41:37
The question is, how do we capture this energy?
41:40
Right.
41:41
So the way to capture it is what
41:44
we are requesting you know, funding to research.
41:48
But it is also to, I guess, enhance the output
41:55
because, you know, I don't know the statistic,
41:57
but not 100% of the sun's
42:00
rays are captured and converted to electricity.
42:04
It's always a depleting factor.
42:06
It's admonishing return.
42:07
It's energy.
42:08
Every energy transmission or transfer is a diminishing return.
42:13
And and renewables are no exception.
42:15
But they will be there every day, most likely every day.
42:20
You know, there might be events like hurricanes or,
42:23
you know, events where the sun is blocked out for the day
42:26
or there's snow on a solar panel, et cetera.
42:31
But I'm really inclined to say that the sun is going to be there tomorrow.
42:38
I'm not entirely sure.
42:39
I'm not saying 100% the sun will be there tomorrow.
42:42
But I am I have a strong feeling the sun will be there tomorrow.
42:47
I think that, you know,
42:50
people, as we were saying earlier, the seasons change.
42:54
You know, we especially here in New England, we can have
42:59
winter that happens in
43:03
strange times of our year.
43:04
But I do think I've noticed a difference.
43:08
It does seem like things are changing
43:10
it seems like either the winters
43:14
sort of just shifted a little bit.
43:17
It's as if some of the winter months are happening later.
43:20
Than they were.
43:21
And sometimes the summers are way hotter than we've had
43:29
but it can be dismissed, especially here in New England,
43:32
because, you know, somebody said if you don't like the weather,
43:35
just wait 20 minutes and it'll change that.
43:39
But it's real.
43:41
It's it's real.
43:43
What is the risk for us?
43:46
How much time do we have if we don't do anything.
43:51
So in the
43:54
I guess to answer the question of how much time do we have, it's
43:58
the answer shifts depending on who you talk to.
44:02
You know, Peter's a climatologist at Davos.
44:06
So this would have been a perfect question for Peter.
44:09
And I will definitely have to consult him later on and
44:13
and give you a better answer.
44:15
But a common consensus for how much time we have
44:21
can range between three years to
44:25
I think the last one I saw was
44:28
maybe 36 to 43 weeks
44:31
before things become irreversible.
44:36
And just a glimpse of of
44:40
what lies ahead is exactly as you said.
44:42
Sometimes it feels like summer starts a little bit earlier
44:46
or summer starts a little bit later.
44:50
I'm in, I'm an ecologist.
44:52
So what I do is field delineations.
44:54
I do wetland delineations
44:57
and it becomes difficult for me.
44:59
Like I was in the field on
45:03
our yesterday and
45:06
I was looking for a specific tree
45:08
and I could not find that specific tree.
45:12
So we looked for a couple of things
45:15
to give us, to point us in the right direction of identifying a tree.
45:19
And that's looking at its leaves, looking at its bark, looking at
45:23
the way its branches, apart from the main
45:28
bark of the tree and a tree that I was looking for,
45:32
should have bloomed or should have at least form leaves
45:36
maybe a month ago, maybe a little earlier than that.
45:40
But when I did find the tree, the leaves were so small
45:44
that I had to rely on other indicators to identify it.
45:48
And, you know, the average individual
45:51
that why do they care about that?
45:53
You know, their leaves still come up,
45:56
you know, at some point but in the future, it's possible
45:59
that they won't come up at all.
46:01
Three years.
46:04
That's what I heard weeks.
46:06
I heard weeks. As well.
46:07
So in this. 36 weeks.
46:09
Yeah.
46:11
Like I said, the the answer the answer changes.
46:14
But the common
46:16
concerns is, is that you need to act.
46:19
Now, I believe the current projection is 20, 30
46:27
and the goal is to stay under 1.5 degrees Celsius.
46:34
Average temperature being raised around the planet.
46:37
But with our current projection,
46:40
it's likely that the earth will warm by up
46:43
to three degrees Celsius by 20, 30,
46:47
which I don't even, to be honest, I don't even want to think about.
46:50
And over a billion people will be displaced.
46:53
I know that much right now in India
46:56
they're in like their 23rd 30th day of over a hundred degrees
47:02
Fahrenheit heat wave.
47:04
There's over a billion people in India and Pakistan.
47:07
Right. And it's it's
47:09
I don't you know a lot of
47:12
that is likely to get worse.
47:14
It's April almost almost May.
47:18
And for it to already be over
47:21
100 degrees is not good
47:24
and that's a lot of people to miss
47:28
can they misidentify weather and climate
47:32
and you know the weather is hey it's raining today.
47:35
Tomorrow it's sunny and the next day it's partly cloudy.
47:38
That's weather but climate is comes back to the average temperature
47:43
of those regions and
47:47
my projection is if it's already this hot and
47:51
you know close to May and India and Pakistan.
47:54
It's.
47:56
That will probably become a norm relatively soon
48:01
if we don't act today like right now.
48:04
Well, it's daunting.
48:06
That certainly activates the whole limbic response of fight, flight freeze.
48:12
And I'm worried that more people even though we're talking global warming,
48:15
this is not a time that people will freeze because they won't know what to do.
48:20
They'll feel like they can't do anything.
48:23
What the kids call doomer. Ism, doomer ism.
48:25
Yeah,
48:27
well, there's the boomer generation.
48:29
Now, we have a doom generation.
48:31
As well, mostly made up of Zuma's
48:36
and why wouldn't they?
48:37
I got to say, like.
48:39
It's this.
48:40
The younger generation definitely has their work cut out for them.
48:45
But, you know, it starts with,
48:48
you know, the older generations passing on what they know
48:52
and then redeveloping you know, rekindling passing that on
48:55
and to till everything is fixed.
49:02
You know,
49:02
we've got a couple of minutes left.
49:05
We've spoken about small changes, can have big effects.
49:08
The second truth of the IAM is everybody is interested in what you think
49:12
or feel about them and you know that it feels differently
49:16
in the biological domain when you feel respected or disrespected
49:20
and we are part of someone's home and social domain.
49:23
I'm hearing a lot that there's a concern that we are disrespecting our planet
49:29
and the planet is going to respond,
49:31
you know, in its own biological way.
49:35
So the second truth is because everyone's interested
49:39
you control no one but you influence everyone,
49:43
you get to choose the kind of influence you want to be like.
49:46
Morrison what kind of influence do you want to be.
49:52
The kind of influence but I want to be
49:57
is is is more so of hope of
50:01
there are people behind the scenes working to
50:05
to fix the problem, to mitigate the issue.
50:09
You know, we do hear harrowing headlines about,
50:14
you know, all the climate disasters and the ones that are coming.
50:18
But we rarely ever hear about the individuals fighting to combat it.
50:23
And I'm hoping with, you know, when I created my YouTube
50:27
channel and, you know, just by engaging with individuals on Twitter that there is.