Sign up to save your podcasts
Or
Share Countering Climate Skepticism
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Or
Countering Climate Skepticism
Countering Climate Skepticism episodes
- Ep18 - Q&A3 - Climate bodycount?
Welcome back to our (very tardy) final Q&A and FINAL!! episode in this podcast series!
Today we deal with a couple of outstanding listener questions.Listener Josh wants to know how many people have and will die from climate change and Rob is interested in knowing whether a carbon tax will save the day!Both very difficult questions, but thought provoking nevertheless!Since the podcast will cease to exist at the end of July, please find an archive of past episodes of the show on Youtube!https://www.youtube.com/@CounteringClimateSkepticismIt's not impossible that we could be tempted out of retirement, so please keep in touch via the show's email:Once again, thank you for listening to the show. Both John and I enjoyed making it.We hope you have a better understanding of the climate system, climate denial and that you aren't completely demoralised!I mean it will take an awful lot to stop the by now well underway global energy transition.Somehow I don't think any amount or form of climate denial is going to be enough! 😊TIMESTAMPS: AVAILABLESHOWNOTES:@10:09IPCC WG2 Summary for policymakers (climate change impacts)@26.50What impacts are we likely to see with 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 & 6°C of global warming? (~1600 words) - see also episode 9https://docs.google.com/document/d/15mcbYoi1_-uBiAFb3G9VdivpjlWWFqSYb3FnhOboM2Q/edit@41:40We talk about Solar Geoengineering in more detail in this episodehttps://ccspod.podbean.com/e/ep11-but-technology-will-save-us/@42:10Perennially optimistic Kurzgesagt (10 min youtube video)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxgMdjyw8uw@43:10Word Economic Forum attempts to put a number on the climate bodycount by 2050https://www.weforum.org/press/2024/01/wef24-climate-crisis-health/#:~:text=Climate-driven%20health%20effects&text=Floods%20were%20found%20to%20pose,an%20anticipated%203.2%20million%20deaths.Full report here:https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Quantifying_the_Impact_of_Climate_Change_on_Human_Health_2024.pdf59 min - Ep17 - SUMMARY of the ENTIRE SERIES!
A lot has been covered in the past 16 episodes, so many a climate hot take (excuse the pun) has been dealt with!
Surely it can't all be summarised in half an hour? Oh ye of little faith!This will be the penultimate episode of the podcast, find us on Youtube.https://www.youtube.com/@CounteringClimateSkepticismTIMESTAMP AVAILABLE!SHOWNOTES - COMING UP@4.33 - Earth's atmosphere and oceans aren't as big as you might think!https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Dxa8a7CaVKQUtH6YwVZ2hhBo5HLnbdcbVoVwnLoyE6A/mobilebasic@12.39 - XKCD - it's the rate stupid!https://xkcd.com/1732/@7.43: ”IT’S NOT CO2 IT’S WATER VAPOUR(H20)!”Do you remember why the denier brings up water vapour (H20) John?-1x H20 molecule is 5-10x more potent a warming gas than a CO2 one-H20 is typically around 20x more abundant in the atmosphere, so with just this knowledge one might think, maybe the denier might have a point! Maybe CO2 isn’t our main problem?Now in episode 3 I came up with a fairly convoluted explanation for how you can win in a fight with a skeptic brandishing this argument, however I have since seen a clearer explanation.So in climate science, the understanding is that CO2 acts as a kind of thermostat. More CO2 in the atmosphere, higher global temperatures. But as the temperature rises, so does the amount of water vapour evaporated from the ocean. Okay they both seem to increase in tandem so why are we sure it’s increased CO2 causing increased H2O and not vice versa?Well imagine you were a misguided super villain John and decided that you wanted to make global warming even worse! So you devise a machine to pump out extra H2O into the atmosphere, what would happen? Pretty quickly the extra bit you pumped in, would just rain out, because it is the temperature that sets the ceiling for how much H20/water vapour can be 'held' by the atmosphere before it falls out as rain.Alternatively if you were a super hero and wanted to improve global warming, by sucking H2O out of the atmosphere, all that would happen is just that evaporation rates from the ocean would just increase to counter the change you are trying to make.So essentially water vapour is buffered at a particular temperature dependant set-point in the atmosphere, so only by changing the temperature first can you change this set point.CO2 on the other hand is not buffered. If we dump more in the atmosphere, the concentration does go and stays up. If we suck it out, concentrations do come down and stay down. Therefore H2O responds to CO2 not the other way round!If that makes sense!32 min - Ep16 - Q&A number2
APOLOGIES FOR THE SOUND ISSUES ON MARK'S SIDE!
6(b) - 'We're all doomed' part 2?Who should be held responsible for climate change? Should it be China, should it be the USA or how about Germany or the UK?Because OBVIOUSLY the entire blame/responsibility for fixing should all fall to one of them right?We're on YouTube!www.youtube.com/@CounteringClimateSkepticismTIMESTAMPS AVAILABLE!SHOWNOTES@5.40 and @14.02 - Our world in datahttps://ourworldindata.org/co2-emissions-metrics@20.35 - Kurzgesagt video on climate responsibilityhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipVxxxqwBQw35 min - Ep15 - Ziggurat6(b) - But we're all doomed!
After a probably unforgivable 6 month cliff-hanger, we finally get round to part 2 of the sixth and final level of the ziggurat.
We're doomed!Or are we? or what does doomed mean? Who's saying we're doomed? So many questions!And are we sure this is even climate change denial in the first place?Oh yes, and currently the most in vogue!TIMESTAMPS AVAILABLESHOWNOTES- Show now on Youtube (for when the POD comes off air)www.youtube.com/@CounteringClimateSkepticism- (@5.40) Temperature projection graphhttps://www.metoffice.gov.uk/blog/2023/making-sense-of-climate-change-projections- (@12.20) The impacts of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 5+ degrees of global warminghttps://docs.google.com/document/d/15mcbYoi1_-uBiAFb3G9VdivpjlWWFqSYb3FnhOboM2Q/edit?tab=t.0- (@15.20) Kurzgesagt on the progress we've already made with climate changehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxgMdjyw8uw- (@26.15) Simon Clarke on the proliferation of 'doomist' argumentshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XSG2Dw2mL840 min - Ep13 - Ziggurat6(a) - But we can't wreck the economy!
We've now reached the apex of the ziggurat (first of a two-parter!). Everything else the denialists have thrown at us hasn't worked and now the've resorted to fear-mongering.
But do they have a point?Mark and John take a look.TIMESTAMPS: AVAILABLE SOON!SHOWNOTES:@10.30 - Dieter Helm on why coordinated action between nations is a must."This is one of the reasons (domestic carbon tax without carbon border adjustments/tariffs) why despite everything that people in Europe and the UK have been doing, we haven't made an iota of difference to climate change....That's why we've had 30 wasted years in which the concentration of CO2 has gone up in the atmosphere every single year since ... 1990" - Dieter Helmhttps://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000613h@1917 - 2406@24.20 - How to terraform Marshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HpcTJW4ur54@24.20 - How to terraform Venushttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-WO-z-QuWI37 min - Ep12 - Ziggurat5 - But technology will save us!
Being a techno optimist is no bad thing, but can we sit back and let the relentless march of technology save us from our selves? Listen and find out!
TIMESTAMPS AVAILABLESHOWNOTES:14.24 - Technological invention has slowed down dramatically, scientists warn | The Independenthttps://www.independent.co.uk/tech/new-discoveries-breakthroughs-research-latest-b2256023.html47.00 - waste heat from fusion on twitterhttps://twitter.com/rahmstorf/status/1605967891928596481?t=2uDM_fCZ8YT4qx1U-dk1eQ&s=0851.34 - John good news story59 min - Ep8 - Why so much climate denial/skepticism anyway?
The world is imperilled, yet many are STILL questioning the science.
Are you in a dream?No, reality appears to be stranger than fiction.Hence the question: Why so much denial/skepticism anyway?By the end of this episode, you should have some idea!Happy new year dear listeners!TIMESTAMPS: AVAILABLESHOWNOTES:@10.30 - Neil De Grass Tyson - Cosmos Episode 7. Clair Patterson vs Leaded petrol
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Clean_Room@20 - small oceans and atmosphereshttps://docs.google.com/document/d/1Dxa8a7CaVKQUtH6YwVZ2hhBo5HLnbdcbVoVwnLoyE6A/edit?usp=sharing@26.33 - Climate change: ‘You almost couldn’t design a problem that is a worse fit with our underlying psychology’ essay (by Mike Berners-Lee)
https://docs.google.com/document/d/17bA4GNW8biaZ7TQPgt4FSyoxKZah9gDNJRImEfQAGOk/edit?usp=sharing47 min - Ep4 - Ziggurat1 - The world may not be warming... (Part2)
Surely no one's still arguing the world isn't warming, and even if they are, surely it can be covered in 1 podcast! Well sorry to have to break it to you but, they are, and it can't! :D :D
TIMESTAMPS AVAILABLE!
SHOWNOTESThis episode continues to use the powerpoint:https://drive.google.com/file/d/1yH83k5YuhU7sdq0adnZRRz0vsClK_izY/view@37.28 - Skeptical sciencehttps://skepticalscience.com/argument.php46 min - 2 min
About Countering Climate Skepticism
From the publisher's feed
Ever get annoyed by denial of climate science?
You know that 97%+ of climate scientists agree that climate change is human caused yet you still hear people arguing that:
- “Climate has always changed” or
- “But CO2 only makes up a tiny fraction of the atmosphere”
And struggle to know how to counter?
My name is John, a history teacher and joining me in this brand new podcast series ‘Countering Climate Skepticism’ is my old secondary school classmate Mark the climate researcher.
Together we aim to provide you the layperson with foundational knowledge about the Earth’s climate such that you can identify and respond to the dizzying array of denial arguments you find out there!
Email us on: [email protected]