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All statements about climate change

222 statements about climate change in 107 videos, by upload date.

Back to climate change.

2007

  • 2007-01-10 · Brotherhood 2.0: January 10, 2007 — John: As a joke global-warming solution, John proposes filling Olympic-sized pools with carbon and shooting them into space, wondering why no one thought of it. (joke, hedged) — 00:01:03
  • 2007-04-06 · Brotherhood 2.0: April 6: Nerdfighters Never Surrender — John rejects the break: injustice, despair, global warming and suck don't take every eighth week off, and nor will the Nerdfighters, who fight all year except weekends and occasional holidays. (playful) — 00:00:56
  • 2007-04-11 · April 11th: EcoGeek Podcasting — Hank reports that Second Life residents saw floodwaters rise in virtual Tokyo, London and the Netherlands, caused by global-warming activists who, he jokes, lamely asked permission first. (playful) — 00:00:10
  • 2007-04-13 · Friday the 13th: Step It Up! — Hank says a vast majority of Americans have decided global warming is a really big deal that needs action, yet so far no one is doing anything about it. — 00:00:29
  • 2007-04-13 · Friday the 13th: Step It Up! — Hank says decreasing suck levels worldwide means decreasing temperatures worldwide, or at least carbon emissions. — 00:00:58
  • 2007-04-16 · Brotherhood 2.0: April 16: Brotherhood of Traveling Shirts — John says (via his poster) he feels he too is not doing enough in the fight against climate change. (hedged) — 00:00:38
  • 2007-04-16 · Brotherhood 2.0: April 16: Brotherhood of Traveling Shirts — announcement: John: For the next week John will use no electricity he doesn't absolutely need: fridge and computer stay on, lights only for reading, no TV except important soccer games, minimal hot water. — 00:00:38
  • 2007-04-16 · Brotherhood 2.0: April 16: Brotherhood of Traveling Shirts — ask: John will do further things through the week to reduce his carbon emissions and asks Hank for ideas. — 00:01:07
  • 2007-04-16 · Brotherhood 2.0: April 16: Brotherhood of Traveling Shirts — John: Biss's two top issues are raising education funding in Illinois, which John says is the 49th state in terms of education, and cutting carbon emissions. — 00:02:49
  • 2007-04-17 · April 17th: Stepped Up — Hank says one day without power was pretty hard and more would be much harder; he doesn't know how John will manage it for an entire week. (hedged) — 00:01:46
  • 2007-04-17 · April 17th: Stepped Up — Hank thinks it is good sometimes to try to understand life without electronics, but doesn't think it would be better, so he works on how to go forward: no way out of this mess without many good ideas. (hedged) — 00:03:18
  • 2007-04-17 · April 17th: Stepped Up — Hank thinks it is good that John hasn't decided to just offset his carbon with 'some strange scheme'. (hedged) — 00:03:18
  • 2007-04-17 · April 17th: Stepped Up — Hank expects John's week to be a huge pain and looks forward to seeing him deal with it tomorrow. (playful) — 00:03:18
  • 2007-04-18 · Brotherhood 2.0: April 18th: Prom and Consequences — John: On his carbon-cutting week, John jokes he didn't know reducing his footprint meant eating unheated food and won't do that; he is just not turning on the lights unless he really has to. (playful) — 00:00:57
  • 2007-04-20 · Brotherhood 2.0: Carbon Neutralizing Youtube — John says Brotherhood 2.0, as a video blog, is itself contributing to global warming, and he wants to make it a carbon-neutral video blog. — 00:00:09
  • 2007-06-01 · June 1: Barack Saabama — Hank grants that other issues matter and maybe should matter more to him than global warming, but it is what he does and cares about most. (hedged) — 00:01:23
  • 2007-06-05 · Jun 5th: S-S-S-Somethin From the Forum — Hank: The Weather Channel emailed Hank asking to interview him for a new show on global warming; he doubts many will watch but thinks it's very cool. — 00:01:37
  • 2007-06-06 · June 6th: Lindsay Lohan's Bikini and My Pants — John teases that Hank will be a TV star who does for the Weather Channel what I Love the 80s did for VH1: its Michael Ian Black. (playful) — 00:01:35
  • 2007-06-07 · June 7: Weather and My Pants — Hank does a light, sound and position check for the Weather Channel; the yellow background light is a fluorescent bulb wrapped in tissue paper. (playful) — 00:00:23
  • 2007-06-07 · June 7: Weather and My Pants — Hank first frames his upgraded set (no clutter, more light, dark shirt, no They Might Be Giants posters) as for the Nerdfighters, then admits it is to get onto the Weather Channel. (playful) — 00:00:46
  • 2007-06-07 · June 7: Weather and My Pants — Hank doesn't know whether it will happen: the Weather Channel is finicky about him living in Montana, calling it a daunting task, which it wouldn't be if he lived in LA. (hedged) — 00:01:16
  • 2007-06-07 · June 7: Weather and My Pants — Hank: On a call with the Weather Channel Hank asks that his byline not say .com 'because it's .org', then says he is going to be on the Weather Channel; they call again tomorrow. — 00:02:34
  • 2007-06-19 · June 19: GOOD LUCK JOHN — Hank appeared on The Weather Channel's Forecast Earth in an episode about heat that starts with John Kerry; it was his first national TV appearance and he thinks Brotherhood 2.0 was mentioned. (hedged) — 00:02:19
  • 2007-06-20 · Brotherhood 2.0: June 20: Moving — John congratulates Hank on the Weather Channel; he hasn't seen it yet, but their mom says it's awesome. — 00:00:52
  • 2007-08-01 · August 1: It's Too Hot — Hank sings that anyone would have to be deranged not to believe in climate change when it is 102 degrees in Montana after dark. (playful) — 00:02:25
  • 2007-09-06 · September 6th: The Book Club Returns — John says the atmosphere couldn't handle that much carbon dioxide, and human life would in very short order become impossible. — 00:01:30
  • 2007-09-25 · September 25th: TMBG and NYT — Hank got a gig reviewing a couple of children's books on global warming and the environment for The New York Times Book Review. — 00:01:57
  • 2007-10-05 · October 5th: Feuding, Goonies and Politics — Hank argues that really good health care in America won't matter much if we can't feed ourselves because we've poisoned the Earth. — 00:02:39
  • 2007-10-09 · October 9th: The Feud Continues — Hank tends to believe the environmental crisis is the biggest problem humanity has ever faced, so he favors the candidate with strong environmental policies, John Edwards; he is 'an Edwards man'. (hedged) — 00:01:17
  • 2007-10-09 · October 9th: The Feud Continues — Hank: If Edwards loses the primary, Hank will back the next candidate with the strongest environmental record; Obama is up there with good plans but lacks nearly as strong a global warming policy. — 00:01:47
  • 2007-10-12 · October 12th: Carbon Re-Neutralizing Brotherhood 2.0 — John reports that Al Gore, whom he calls a noted American nerdfighter, just won half the Nobel Peace Prize for his work on climate change. — 00:00:14
  • 2007-10-12 · October 12th: Carbon Re-Neutralizing Brotherhood 2.0 — John thanks Al Gore and Hank for helping him understand the environmental emergency everyone faces. — 00:03:14

2008

  • 2008-02-04 · Obama Says Subscribe — Hank says Republicans generally don't treat the environment as an issue, and McCain, who does, has a much weaker climate plan than Obama or Clinton. — 00:02:31

Also named in: Happy (Belated) Birthday, Hank

2009

2010

2011

  • 2011-02-23 · WE ARE 812 YEARS OLD — John says, with a pointed pause, that it is 'fine' if viewers don't believe carbon dioxide emissions contribute to climate change. (satire) — 00:00:29
  • 2011-02-23 · WE ARE 812 YEARS OLD — John: If Nerdfighteria, which most people have never heard of, is responsible for a million pounds of carbon, John says, it shows how huge the problem we face really is. — 00:02:47
  • 2011-04-27 · NASA: Increasing Awesome — Hank: NASA is adding three more climate-monitoring satellites to its fleet to help understand and respond to global climate change. — 00:02:50

2012

  • 2012-11-08 · VOLT! A Dream Comes True. — John calls the Volt perhaps the most politicized car of our time: people ask why buy it over a cheaper Toyota Corolla, assuming he thinks he'll fix global warming. (hedged) — 00:01:42
  • 2012-11-08 · VOLT! A Dream Comes True. — John: Noting no new car purchase is carbon neutral, John says he bought the Volt not to end global warming but because it's awesome, super fast and fits a car seat. — 00:02:12
  • 2012-12-17 · THE PROJECT FOR AWESOME 2012 IS HERE! Save the Children. — John says poverty is an incredibly complex problem: corrupt governments, malaria and HIV/AIDS, climate change and energy policy hurting food production, malnutrition, poor infrastructure and education, and discrimination all contribute. — 00:00:52

2013

  • 2013-05-31 · Optimism is Not Insane — Hank thinks we see a graph rising toward a disaster point and assume we have only years left, but usually we adapt: capitalism, technology and even Congress adapt. (hedged) — 00:02:04
  • 2013-09-27 · Invalid Arguments: Climate Change — In the description Hank says climate change is here, happening, caused by humanity, and one of the largest problems humanity will ever face. — video description
  • 2013-09-27 · Invalid Arguments: Climate Change — In the description Hank asks that people finally agree climate change is not a conspiracy theory made up to annoy the rich and powerful. — video description
  • 2013-09-27 · Invalid Arguments: Climate Change — In the description Hank says he believes humanity will face climate change with the desperate ingenuity and bravado of its whole history, and survive it. (hedged) — video description
  • 2013-09-27 · Invalid Arguments: Climate Change — Hank says he will probably still be alive in 2060, which is when world population will probably peak at around 10 billion. (hedged) — 00:00:01
  • 2013-09-27 · Invalid Arguments: Climate Change — Hank says 2060 is probably when the really significant effects of global climate change start to be felt, a problem that will not be solved in the next 50 years. (hedged) — 00:00:09
  • 2013-09-27 · Invalid Arguments: Climate Change — Hank feels that before walking that path we have to agree there is a problem, which apparently has not happened yet. (hedged) — 00:00:30
  • 2013-09-27 · Invalid Arguments: Climate Change — Hank: To "climate change is natural", Hank says the climate did change in the past, often because of rising carbon dioxide, which clearly indicates more carbon dioxide raises temperatures. — 00:00:43

2014

  • 2014-01-03 · The Golden Gate Bridge Didn't Collapse!! — Hank says global climate change is going to threaten the stability of everything. — 00:03:29
  • 2014-01-10 · Global Warming and the Polar Vortex — Hank says weird weather always makes us talk about global warming, which is exactly the wrong way to think about it; local cold no more disproves it than an absurd non sequitur. — 00:00:57
  • 2014-01-10 · Global Warming and the Polar Vortex — Hank thinks the problem is that 'global warming' is a terrible name for the thing: it makes it sound like things will just get warmer. (hedged) — 00:01:13
  • 2014-01-10 · Global Warming and the Polar Vortex — Hank says a 4 degree Celsius rise for the planet would be a disaster, while the same rise in a town would go unnoticed. — 00:01:30
  • 2014-01-10 · Global Warming and the Polar Vortex — Hank says the scientific community prefers "global climate change" because it is not just warming: some places get warmer, some colder, some lose rain. — 00:01:43
  • 2014-01-10 · Global Warming and the Polar Vortex — Hank says the real problem is not 'climate change' or 'warming' but 'global': we are terrible at thinking globally, it is impossible. — 00:01:59
  • 2014-01-10 · Global Warming and the Polar Vortex — Hank thinks of global warming as an overall increase in energy trapped in the atmosphere, as water vapour, wind, heat, hurricanes or polar vortices; as it increases the globe warms and the climate changes. — 00:02:44
  • 2014-01-10 · Global Warming and the Polar Vortex — Hank feels people would accept the idea more if it were framed as an energy increase, separate from everyday experience, though 'average global atmospheric energy increase' isn't catchy and he could be wrong. (hedged) — 00:03:09
  • 2014-02-07 · Kill All The Humans — Hank says we are in an environmental crisis (climate change, oil spills, dead zones, garbage patches, meltdowns, mass extinction) whose root is people, created to satisfy human needs or whims. — 00:00:00
  • 2014-09-22 · Bill Gates and John Green Discuss Agriculture — Bill Gates: Gates says climate change is the only thing working against these farmers; every other factor (output, self-sufficiency, storage, amazing seeds, advanced techniques) favours them. — 00:03:09
  • 2014-10-07 · I Kind of Hate Batman — John asks why no one calls Batman out for spending all his resources on crime in Gotham when he could also fight global poverty, habitat destruction or climate change. (hedged) — 00:02:39
  • 2014-12-26 · The Best and Worst of 2014 — Hank says 2014 will very likely have been the warmest year ever recorded. (hedged) — 00:00:28
  • 2014-12-26 · The Best and Worst of 2014 — Hank says humans are adaptable and he has faith in us, but growing food as rainfall shifts and replacing infrastructure will be very expensive. — 00:00:31

2015

  • 2015-02-13 · Draw My Life + 16 Other Suggestions — Hank says tar sands are unconventional oil, which should ideally all stay in the ground: there is so much that burning it would be 'game over' for climate change. — 00:02:25
  • 2015-07-03 · Thoughts from Yachts — Hank hopes growing productivity will one day give everyone enough to minimize suffering, but in Cannes and Saint-Tropez he worries no one will ever be satisfied, so wealth keeps concentrating instead of serving global goals like ending poverty, war and climate insecurity. (hedged) — 00:02:08
  • 2015-12-18 · We're All Gonna Die - A Song — Hank reports the world just had its first year in which the global economy grew while global carbon emissions did not. — 00:02:56

2016

2017

2018

  • 2018-02-06 · Sawdust Bread — John says feeling that progress is inevitable also makes him complacent, as if he could sit back while grain yields feed the world, Elon Musk fixes climate change and disease cures itself. (playful) — 00:02:36
  • 2018-05-15 · Seven Maps to Better Understand the World — John: A map of average temperature change between 1965 and 2014 shows red where Earth got warmer, white where unchanged and blue where colder, and there is no blue. — 00:01:45
  • 2018-07-10 · The General Crisis — John: Earth also experienced significant climate change, sometimes called the Little Ice Age: global temperatures dropped on average around one degree Celsius, contributing to famines. — 00:03:16
  • 2018-07-10 · The General Crisis — John starts to reassure that the period's climate change is not like today's, then admits that it is. (playful) — 00:03:29
  • 2018-07-10 · The General Crisis — John: It is also a reminder that a changing climate can fuel global instability. — 00:03:46
  • 2018-09-04 · The Eisenhower Matrix — John: The obvious example is climate change, maybe the biggest problem facing humans, yet constantly deprioritized in favor of breaking news. (hedged) — 00:01:15
  • 2018-10-19 · This is the scariest graph I've ever seen — Hank: If we wait until 2100, when the serious sting of climate change is really felt, we will have signed up for much worse. — 00:02:54
  • 2018-10-19 · This is the scariest graph I've ever seen — recommendation: Hank points to a long video on Hank's channel on his somewhat different, more nuanced and a little optimistic take on climate change. (hedged) — 00:03:22
  • 2018-12-04 · When it All Seems Like Too Much — Hank says the IPCC's just-released climate change report was full of bad news. — 00:00:20
  • 2018-12-04 · When it All Seems Like Too Much — Hank: People regularly ask Hank, who knows a fair bit about the situation we are putting ourselves into, whether he has any hope left; he finds the loss of hope terrible because he does not think you can do anything without it. (hedged) — 00:00:29
  • 2018-12-04 · When it All Seems Like Too Much — Hank says the world is going to be worse: there will be climate refugees, and the global situation will probably destabilize somewhat as we deal with the problem. (hedged) — 00:01:04
  • 2018-12-04 · When it All Seems Like Too Much — Hank says there are many tipping points ahead, but there will always be a spectrum of bad, and our future will be somewhere on it. — 00:01:40
  • 2018-12-04 · When it All Seems Like Too Much — Hank's view of climate change, which he knows better than most big problems, gives him more hope for others: like crime, justice, racism or suffering, it has no binary fixed-or-broken state. — 00:01:50

2019

  • 2019-02-26 · The Necessity to Struggle / The Futility of Effort — John: In that mood John thinks of the airport as the Hunger Games with himself a resident of the capital, its acquired stuff headed for landfills and its air travel adding carbon for no good reason. — 00:01:27
  • 2019-02-26 · The Necessity to Struggle / The Futility of Effort — John: For John the question is not which view is true but which is productive: if despair cut his carbon emissions he'd be for it, but it mostly leaves him empty and inert. — 00:02:26
  • 2019-05-03 · What Game of Thrones is Really About — Hank argues Game of Thrones is ultimately about people fighting for power in the shadow of an external threat that can't be bargained with, and its real-world analog is the geopolitics of global warming. — 00:00:00
  • 2019-05-03 · What Game of Thrones is Really About — Hank asks whether the climate crisis will ultimately drive humanity apart or bring it together. — video description
  • 2019-05-03 · What Game of Thrones is Really About — Hank: Unlike a soccer game or a battle, where someone wins, against global warming we will spend resources indefinitely, not to win but to make life on average a little better. — 00:04:41
  • 2019-05-03 · What Game of Thrones is Really About — Hank: Climate change is the first global-scale collective problem our species has faced, so it is no surprise we don't know how to face it. — 00:05:10
  • 2019-05-03 · What Game of Thrones is Really About — Hank: Climate change isn't evil or immoral: we blame fossil fuel companies at conferences we flew to, and any green conversion is possible only thanks to a century of burning ancient sunlight. — 00:06:06
  • 2019-05-03 · What Game of Thrones is Really About — Hank: Global warming doesn't want to kill us; it results from people trying to improve their lives, and there is less suffering because of fossil fuels, so calling them immoral while exonerating users rings false. — 00:06:35
  • 2019-05-07 · How I Read and Why — John strongly favors reviewing: thoughtful analysis of art is vital to making good art, and reading art through a lens (Game of Thrones via climate change, Jane Eyre via gender norms) helps. — 00:01:01
  • 2019-05-24 · The Monterey Bay Aquarium Has a Secret — Hank: Ocean water has warmed over the last 50 years or so, and warm water holds less oxygen, which is bad for many animals. — 00:06:14
  • 2019-05-31 · Uncomfortable Nuance: Natural Gas Edition — Hank says more regulated fracking in Asia could help bring an immediate end to new coal plants in China and India, probably the most important short-term goal for curbing the climate crisis. (hedged) — video description
  • 2019-05-31 · Uncomfortable Nuance: Natural Gas Edition — Hank says that facing a climate crisis, many call the solutions impractical or impossible, but we can do this. — 00:00:40
  • 2019-05-31 · Uncomfortable Nuance: Natural Gas Edition — Hank says, as he does over and over, that climate change is like the biggest challenge humanity has ever faced. — 00:02:26
  • 2019-05-31 · Uncomfortable Nuance: Natural Gas Edition — Hank says the ways we mitigate climate change will themselves have environmental impacts, which is uncomfortable to think or talk about. — 00:02:26
  • 2019-08-06 · Uncertain and Afraid — John sometimes feels waves of anger and fear wash over him so forcefully that he is powerless, like an actor in a play he cannot rewrite, whether over a friend's death, climate change or mass murder. — 00:02:26
  • 2019-08-30 · The Earth Shouldn't Have Oxygen — Hank says the carbon dioxide stored in living vegetation matters enormously for global warming but has no effect on our ability to breathe. — video description
  • 2019-08-30 · The Earth Shouldn't Have Oxygen — Hank says burning fossil fuels measurably lowers Earth's oxygen, but only by a small share; carbon dioxide, though, is extremely low and we are well on our way to doubling it. — 00:02:51
  • 2019-09-27 · Crisis — Hank lists the crises on offer: constitutional crises a couple of times a week, housing, existential always, and climate, where scientists would like people to panic. (playful) — 00:00:00
  • 2019-09-27 · Crisis — Hank: As a climate advocate, Hank says panic would make sense and is a normal emotion given the circumstances, but it is not the most helpful one and solves nothing. — 00:01:15
  • 2019-09-27 · Crisis — Hank: On climate, Hank grants that denial is discouraging and many deadlines have been crossed, but says we have started down many promising paths. — 00:02:30
  • 2019-12-27 · Why I'm Worried about 2020 — Hank says part of it must be that we are starting to feel the real effects of climate change: the climate is actually changing. — 00:00:50
  • 2019-12-27 · Why I'm Worried about 2020 — Hank says a growing populace of young people know they will have to solve climate change while their elected leaders don't recognize it exists, which causes tension. — 00:00:58

2020

  • 2020-02-14 · Ending The Great Airplane Seat Debate — announcement: Hank lists tour dates: March 9 Columbus, March 10 Carmel, March 11 Hank alone at Albion College on climate change and the internet, March 12 Ann Arbor. — 00:03:33
  • 2020-05-22 · The Meteor Men Beg to Differ // Judging by the Hole in the Satellite Picture — Hank says 'the meteor men beg to differ, judging by the hole in the satellite picture' is a forced rhyme that misunderstands climate science, but is less intrusive because it isn't emphasized. — 00:01:01
  • 2020-08-21 · The Water's Getting Warm — Hank recalls that last year's (2019) video on Game of Thrones as a climate-change allegory said climate change is literally the first global-scale collective problem our species has faced. — 00:00:00
  • 2020-08-21 · The Water's Getting Warm — In the description Hank says humans are hyper-adaptable problem-solving machines and long term we've got this, though there will be a lot of bad along the way. — video description
  • 2020-08-21 · The Water's Getting Warm — Hank: If collective means everyone contributes and can affect it, however slightly, through their actions, then maybe global warming is the first large-scale collective problem the world has faced. (hedged) — 00:00:29
  • 2020-08-21 · The Water's Getting Warm — Hank: Often overlooked: overcoming climate change requires prosperity, a world with enough for people to be safe and happy and resources to free ourselves from the carbon economy. — 00:00:29
  • 2020-08-21 · The Water's Getting Warm — Hank: Much current safety, health and prosperity relies on the carbon economy; right now we can't guarantee people's health and happiness while also spending extra on climate change. — 00:01:17
  • 2020-08-21 · The Water's Getting Warm — Hank: The UN's upper estimate of what it would cost to fix climate change is four trillion dollars per year. — 00:01:17
  • 2020-08-21 · The Water's Getting Warm — Hank: So every year we don't tackle climate change, we incur the costs of about one half to one COVID epidemic. — 00:01:44
  • 2020-08-21 · The Water's Getting Warm — Hank: Meanwhile we won't be focused on climate change, understandably, and won't have the resources we otherwise would have had to free ourselves from the carbon economy. — 00:02:14
  • 2020-08-21 · The Water's Getting Warm — Hank: Having seen collective action of the kind, if not the magnitude, climate change needs, Hank is more fearful of a less prosperous world but more hopeful, since people make sacrifices when they see what's on the line. — 00:03:12
  • 2020-10-14 · John Predicts the Future! — Hank adds that it is unseasonably warm most days in most places: 2020 is one of the warmest years of the last hundred, or one of the coolest of the next hundred. (playful) — 00:00:29
  • 2020-10-14 · John Predicts the Future! — Hank says our lives and history are governed by unknown unknowns: the rise of social media, climate change and the internal combustion engine all once were. — 00:02:55
  • 2020-10-27 · The time I met Joe Biden — John calls Biden's climate change proposals serious and Trump's literally non-existent. — 00:01:56
  • 2020-10-27 · The time I met Joe Biden — John rejects that idea of governance: we will not us-versus-them our way out of COVID, climate change or anything else. — 00:02:55

2021

  • 2021-01-05 · SUPERIOR FISH BEINGS — John: As a species, John says, we are too powerful and not powerful enough: able to change the planet's climate but not to choose how we change it. — 00:03:24
  • 2021-03-05 · How Much Hope is OK? — Hank: Given the injustice of this disaster, of future ones and of the world even without pandemics or climate change, Hank worries about the selfishness of his good feelings. — 00:02:43
  • 2021-05-25 · The Anthropocene Reviewed, Animated — John: Above all John wanted to understand the contradiction of human power: we are powerful enough to reshape Earth's climate and biodiversity but not to choose how, to escape the atmosphere but not to save loved ones from suffering. — 00:12:23
  • 2021-07-09 · Wrong on the Internet — The description says we must treat the climate crisis as an emergency; personal action has a small impact, becomes part of your identity and shows others you care. — video description
  • 2021-07-09 · Wrong on the Internet — The description calls climate a justice issue: affluent people will suffer far less than those with less, within and across borders. — video description
  • 2021-07-09 · Wrong on the Internet — Hank says for all 41 years of his life we have known climate change will impose devastating instability; those who deny it through greed, bias or ignorance are wrong. — 00:00:45
  • 2021-07-09 · Wrong on the Internet — Hank says we don't know exactly what to do about climate change: he doesn't know what he or anyone else should do, or what any of us would do with sole power to act. (unsure) — 00:00:58
  • 2021-08-13 · How We Fix the Climate — Hank promises to teach one of the most important things anyone can do to help mitigate climate change; watching will make viewers better at it than almost everyone on Earth. — 00:00:00
  • 2021-08-13 · How We Fix the Climate — Hank: Every six or seven years the UN publishes a report on climate change; one came out this week (week of 9 August 2021), producing many headlines that do not look good. — 00:00:00
  • 2021-08-13 · How We Fix the Climate — Hank was glad to find a climate scientist's tweet saying they have not hope but certainty: we know what causes climate change, how to solve it, and in a way we are. — 00:00:29
  • 2021-08-13 · How We Fix the Climate — Hank: The IPCC report is clear we are headed the wrong way: avoiding the worst means keeping warming below 2 degrees Celsius, and we are not on target even if all agreements are kept. — 00:00:58
  • 2021-08-13 · How We Fix the Climate — Hank: Asked if there is hope, Hank says yes, depending on what you mean: there is no hope of escaping negative impacts, which we are already experiencing. — 00:01:39
  • 2021-08-13 · How We Fix the Climate — Hank: Climate change is going to make life worse, but we do not know how much worse. — 00:01:56
  • 2021-08-13 · How We Fix the Climate — Hank: Global warming, like almost every issue, is a justice issue: it will hit hardest those least responsible, while relatively affluent people in affluent places will be mostly okay. — 00:02:05
  • 2021-08-13 · How We Fix the Climate — Hank: Asked what to do, Hank says viewers should do a lot, around their other duties, because climate change is the most important and difficult issue humanity faces. — 00:02:26
  • 2021-10-22 · A Tool with No Blood on It — Hank says global warming was not created by evil but by people solving problems; some fossil-fuel problems will require stopping their use. — 00:02:26
  • 2021-10-26 · Why Avocados Still Exist — John says why they went extinct is much debated: some argue climate change was the main factor, others that human behavior including hunting may have contributed. — 00:01:05
  • 2021-11-12 · Everything a Normal Person Needs to Know About Helium — Hank says the bad news is that the long-term goal is to leave natural gas in the ground, because it and its combustion products are warming the Earth. — 00:02:26

2022

  • 2022-01-21 · How to Be Hopeful About Doomsday — Hank: Reflecting three years of piling-up bad (pandemics, climate change, isolationism, fascism), the clock has stood at 100 seconds to midnight for three years, the closest in its 75 years. — 00:00:00
  • 2022-01-21 · How to Be Hopeful About Doomsday — recommendation: Hank: Instead of getting mad, get curious: start with someone who deeply discusses a big problem, like the Prison Policy Initiative on incarceration, David Roberts' Volts on climate, or Fair Fight and Stacey Abrams on voting rights. — 00:02:53
  • 2022-02-18 · You Don't Want a Gas Stovetop — The description says household methane use is a big contributor to climate change that must stop over the next 30 years; attachment to gas ranges is a silly reason to worsen it. — video description
  • 2022-02-18 · You Don't Want a Gas Stovetop — Hank concedes cooking does not significantly add to climate change, but household natural gas use is a big contributor, mostly not from the stovetop. — 00:01:11
  • 2022-02-18 · You Don't Want a Gas Stovetop — Hank: Since induction beats gas, one of the most important things a person concerned about climate change can do is drop the belief that gas stoves are best. — 00:02:39
  • 2022-03-11 · Is it All Hopeless? — Hank says this happens under a global climate changing faster than it maybe has ever changed in the planet's history. (hedged) — 00:01:49
  • 2022-04-15 · Are You Stuck in The Sad Gap — Hank says that for the first time since the Industrial Revolution we have decoupled economic growth from carbon emissions. — 00:01:57
  • 2022-04-19 · How do you cross the Sad Gap? — John goes deep on maternal and child health in West Africa, Hank on climate change, and Rosianna Halse Rojas is getting a master's in refugee studies; all benefit from each other's priorities. — 00:02:55
  • 2022-07-29 · How Climate Change /Actually/ Works...in 4 Minutes — The description says Hank agrees with simplifying climate change as a greenhouse or heat-trapping blanket, but the real story is simple: more energy comes in than goes out because of 'wiggles'. (playful) — video description
  • 2022-07-29 · How Climate Change /Actually/ Works...in 4 Minutes — In a comment, Hank says he left out the ground's absorbing and re-emitting light, though among the most important mechanisms of climate change, because people don't think of Earth emitting light and it would confuse. — creator comment
  • 2022-07-29 · How Climate Change /Actually/ Works...in 4 Minutes — Hank says human infrastructure assumes rainfall and temperature stay as they were; as they change, crop yields might fall and leave people hungry, power grids fail under air conditioning, and forests burn. (hedged) — 00:00:46
  • 2022-08-12 · The Biggest Climate Bill of Your Life - But What does it DO!? — Hank: Burning them releases carbon dioxide, opaque to infrared, so heat stays in the atmosphere, changing weather and increasing droughts, fires, storms and heat waves. — 00:01:35
  • 2022-08-12 · The Biggest Climate Bill of Your Life - But What does it DO!? — Hank: Powerful opponents moved from denying climate change to saying the costs are too great, and Hank expects them to say next that it is too late. — 00:20:04
  • 2022-08-12 · The Biggest Climate Bill of Your Life - But What does it DO!? — Hank: For the first time in decades Hank believes climate change can be tackled, thanks to many people's hard work and effects too real to ignore. — 00:20:33
  • 2022-11-29 · The Weight of Life — John says humans currently have outsized power: their behavior is causing extinctions and reshaping the climate and habitats. — 00:01:56
  • 2022-12-20 · The Best Books Get Better — John describes Parable of the Sower: a young black woman narrates a future America of collapsing systems, a demagogue president, climate havoc and a substance abuse epidemic, things that feel just a little contemporary. (playful) — 00:01:27

2023

2024

  • 2024-02-09 · My Favorite Climate Graph — Hank thinks he and John should not be talking about direct air capture now, because removing a pound of CO2 costs far more than not emitting one. — 00:00:00
  • 2024-03-08 · I Believed These Four Lies — Hank's brain read the graph as showing climate change damage, as Twitter did, though neither NOAA nor the article, which was about disaster preparedness, said so. — 00:05:58
  • 2024-03-08 · I Believed These Four Lies — Hank says climate change is part but not all of the reason the graph rises, and disasters are increasing, especially heavy rainfall events and heat waves. — 00:07:25
  • 2024-06-11 · BEEF DAYS — John says that unless humans dramatically reduce beef consumption it will be impossible to limit post-industrial global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. — 00:00:29
  • 2024-06-11 · BEEF DAYS — John says climate talk tends to focus on technologies like electric cars, solar panels and batteries, which matter, but we don't talk enough about social norms. — 00:00:58
  • 2024-06-11 · BEEF DAYS — John says bigger, more energy-intensive cars and houses are a social-norm problem, not a technological one: limiting climate change needs new technologies and changed social norms. — 00:01:56
  • 2024-06-11 · BEEF DAYS — John says beef days are not a solution to climate change: many technologies and norms must come together to speed the decrease in greenhouse emissions. — 00:04:55
  • 2024-06-14 · Some Reasons why People Suck — Hank says not using cows for meat needs no new technology, just one different choice, and if everyone did it, future warming would fall by 10%. — 00:00:29
  • 2024-08-02 · My Letter to the Future — Hank thinks the future will figure out climate change, and makes a risky bet that geothermal power will be a big part of it, which people will then call obvious. — 00:01:57
  • 2024-09-13 · My Governor is Weirder than Yours — Ryan Busse: Busse says change is coming whether we like it: coal economics are shifting and climate change is real, and working people must be at the center of the transition. — 00:18:12
  • 2024-09-13 · My Governor is Weirder than Yours — Ryan Busse: Busse says in the famous Held case 16 young people sued Montana for violating the right to a clean and healthful environment. — 00:40:47
  • 2024-10-03 · Broadly in Favor of Humans — John still thinks humanity will get through the polycrisis of climate change, growing violence and massive inequity, and survive our moment. — 00:04:25
  • 2024-10-04 · Trees are Destroying the Earth (Again) — Hank says the rise of natural gas as a cleaner, cheaper fuel drove much of coal's decline from the 1990s, as did the UK's Climate Change Act. — 00:03:10
  • 2024-10-04 · Trees are Destroying the Earth (Again) — Hank says the flood happened because our warmer atmosphere carries more water, which happened because we have been digging up old trees and burning them. — 00:04:09
  • 2024-10-04 · October 4, 2024 — Hank says he did the math once: one tree absorbing all the carbon dioxide emitted since the Industrial Revolution would need three or four times the mass of every tree on Earth combined. (hedged) — 00:00:00

2025

  • 2025-02-25 · EVERYTHING IS TUBERCULOSIS — John says the steam engine led to everything from air conditioning to AirPods while releasing over a trillion tons of carbon dioxide and reshaping the climate. — 00:00:00
  • 2025-06-06 · The Secret Inside my MIT Commencement Speech — Hank says the world is getting hotter faster, and the sudden acceleration of AI, communications and biotechnology promises huge opportunities and tremendous disruption. — 00:07:55
  • 2025-06-06 · The Secret Inside my MIT Commencement Speech — Hank says feeling a birthday party or a playlist for a friend is insignificant next to climate change, AI or the erosion of democracy alienates you from human existence and your place as a builder of meaning. — 00:18:40
  • 2025-07-04 · This Graph Changed My Life — Hank says the article's comments variously claimed that fossil fuels are not bad for the Earth, that climate change is fake, and that the Earth manufactures fossil fuels. — 00:00:59
  • 2025-07-04 · This Graph Changed My Life — Hank says that asked whether global warming is happening, roughly four-fifths of Americans say yes. — 00:02:56
  • 2025-07-04 · This Graph Changed My Life — Hank says that although many Americans accept global warming, we are not doing a great job of adapting to that reality. — 00:02:56
  • 2025-07-04 · This Graph Changed My Life — Hank: The graph changed Hank because it clashed with his perception: before, he would have said about half of Americans thought climate change a scam or hoax. — 00:03:20
  • 2025-07-04 · This Graph Changed My Life — Hank says the real situation is complex: many people are unsure and even more have other concerns, so they are not very focused on climate change. — 00:03:20
  • 2025-07-04 · This Graph Changed My Life — Hank says believing this means fighting the wrong fight: not trying to convince people who are mostly convinced, but focused on other problems like the price of eggs. — 00:04:03
  • 2025-07-04 · This Graph Changed My Life — Hank says 'those people' are not simple, unified or monolithic: four-fifths of them think climate change is real and very few are committed climate skeptics. — 00:04:32
  • 2025-07-25 · The Molecule that Changed Everything — Hank: Asked whether we will escape the effects of climate change, Hank says no: we are experiencing them now and are past the point of no negative impacts. — 00:06:28
  • 2025-07-25 · The Molecule that Changed Everything — Hank says he does not know whether this will become a second apocalypse-level event caused by the same trees, and he does not like not knowing. (unsure) — 00:06:40

2026

  • 2026-02-13 · Project for Awesome 2026 Kickoff! — John: Extending the 2027 bit, John says a giant squid came to Earth to hug rather than attack, unifying humanity into a utopia where climate change is past tense and due process is back on the menu. (joke) — 06:43:01