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Invalid Arguments: Climate Change

2013-09-27 · Hank · watch on YouTube · Science & nature · advocacy activism

Hank says humanity must first agree that climate change is a real, human-caused problem, rebuts ten common arguments against it, and argues for using fossil fuels less while expressing faith that humanity can solve the problem.

What is said

00:00:00 — Hank will be alive in 2060, when population peaks and climate effects bite; problems stay unsolved, but first we must agree there is a problem

  • ★★★ In the description Hank says climate change is here, happening, caused by humanity, and one of the largest problems humanity will ever face. — 00:00:00 · 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. — 00:00:00
  • ★★ 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) — 00:00:00 · 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
  • ★★ 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 · climate change
  • ★★ Hank says many problems will remain unsolved when he and John die, and that is okay: no one has ever died having solved all the problems; there is still a path toward solving them. — 00:00:15
  • ★★★ 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 · climate change

00:00:37 — Rebuttals 1-5: climate change is natural; CO2 follows temperature; the sun; urban thermometers; the Earth is cooling

  • ★★ Hank sets out the top 10 arguments people use to say global warming is not real or not caused by humans, with his responses. — 00:00:37
  • ★★★ 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 · climate change
  • ★★★ To "CO2 rose only because temperatures rose", Hank says many past warmings began without CO2, but CO2 then rose and amplified them; 90% of the warming came after CO2 increased. — 00:01:00
  • ★★ To "the sun's been getting hotter", Hank simply answers no. — 00:01:15
  • ★★★ To "thermometers sit in hot cities", Hank says warming shows up in urban and rural weather stations, satellite data and deep-ocean thermometers; scientists are not stupid. — 00:01:24
  • ★★★ To "the Earth is cooling", Hank says it is not at all: 2000 to 2010 was the hottest decade on record. — 00:01:36

00:01:44 — Rebuttals 6-9: warming is slowing; the 1970s ice age; cherry-picking; more Antarctic ice

  • ★★ To "it's not warming as fast", Hank grants that the trend since 2009 is less steep, but says climate does not change on a scale of years; it must be read over decades and centuries. — 00:01:46
  • ★★★ To "they predicted an ice age in the 70s", Hank says a small research team did and the media covered it for about two weeks, but most peer-reviewed 1970s science said the climate was warming because of CO2 emissions. — 00:02:02
  • ★★ To "you're cherry-picking", Hank says evidence for warming comes from nearly every branch of science: animal and disease ranges, crop yields, water temperatures, snowfall, snowmelt and sea levels. — 00:02:17
  • ★★★ To "Antarctica has more ice", Hank says it has more sea ice, which forms and melts seasonally, but its land ice, the glaciers, is melting at an alarming rate. — 00:02:37

00:03:04 — Fossil fuels are great, but have costs: use less, develop alternatives, be efficient; faith in humanity solving problems; sign-off

  • ★★ On "fossil fuels are great", Hank agrees: he thinks they are miraculous and precious, and he will not rag on people who work hard providing inexpensive energy. (hedged) — 00:03:04
  • ★★★ Hank says burning fossil fuels has costs, so we must use them less, develop alternatives, be more efficient and change how we live. — 00:03:18
  • ★★★ Hank says that as long as we agree there is a problem, he has complete faith in humanity's ability to solve it, because solving problems is what we do best. — 00:03:30

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