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Trees are Destroying the Earth (Again)

2024-10-04 · letter vlog · Hank · 5:56 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Science & nature · mode: Explainer · tags: timely hook, calendar ritual, self promotion, fundraising ask

On the last day of Pizzamas, Hank marks the shutdown of the UK's last coal-fired power plant by tracing its coal to an ancient evolutionary arms race in which plants grew tall, drew down carbon dioxide and probably caused the late Devonian mass extinction; he ties burning that coal to a flood ravaging part of the US and argues that, unlike the trees, humans have agency and a chance to stop.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Last day of Pizzamas; Hank's favourite map of where today's land sat in the supercontinent, and the swampy future UK

  • ★ Hank would love to pay someone to make a scientifically informed, beautiful, detailed map showing where people's land was when all land was one supercontinent. — 00:00:00

00:00:29 — Plants race upward, lock away carbon, probably trigger the late Devonian mass extinction, and form coal in the centre of Pangea

  • ★★ Hank says that 300 million years ago, on the warm swampy land that would become the UK, land plants went within about 50 million years from about 30 cm to about 30 m maximum height. — 00:00:29 · United Kingdom
  • ★★ Hank explains that plants reaching higher got more sunlight while shaded ones died, creating strong selective pressure toward height that produced tougher plant tissues and big deep roots. — 00:00:58
  • ★★★ Hank says there was a big gap between plants making hard tissues and other organisms learning to break them down, so plants pulled carbon dioxide from the air with few paths back: the opposite of today's problem. — 00:01:10
  • ★★★ Hank says plummeting atmospheric carbon dioxide, combined with tree roots breaking up rocks and releasing minerals into the oceans, probably kicked off the late Devonian mass extinction. (hedged) — 00:01:27
  • ★ Hank does not blame the trees for the mass extinction, since they didn't know what they were doing, but says they do seem to have done it. (playful) — 00:01:44
  • ★★★ Hank says the undecomposed vegetation was buried and pressed by geological processes into coal, which happened a lot 300 million years ago in the warm swampy centre of Pangea. — 00:01:56
  • ★★ Hank says people on that land began digging up and burning the coal for heat and cooking around 2000 years ago, but it stayed insignificant until about 150 years ago. — 00:02:11

00:02:26 — The UK's coal history from the first power plant in 1882 to the shutdown of its last coal-fired plant, and why coal fell

  • ★★ Hank says the UK's ancient history, the tectonic luck that kept coal near the surface, and its people's history and culture made it start an ever-rising process of digging up and burning coal. — 00:02:26 · United Kingdom
  • ★★ Hank says the first ever coal-fired power plant was built in London in 1882. — 00:02:44 · London
  • ★★ Hank says coal produced 76% of the UK's power at its peak, around 40 years ago. — 00:02:49 · United Kingdom
  • ★★★ Hank shows a video of the UK's power mix from this week (week of 30 September 2024): the UK's last coal-fired power plant has shut down, ending a 300-million-year-old story. — 00:03:04 · United Kingdom
  • ★★ 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 · United Kingdom, climate change
  • ★★ Hank says that in 2015 the UK said it would phase out coal over the next 10 years, and then it did. — 00:03:26 · United Kingdom
  • ★★ Hank says a big part of coal's end was the UK's geographic luck of a relatively fantastic position for wind resources. — 00:03:33 · United Kingdom
  • ★★ Hank calls the end of UK coal a big deal, celebrated enthusiastically in his circles, though he thinks most people didn't really notice. — 00:03:40 · United Kingdom
  • ★★ Hank says per capita CO2 emissions in the UK are now lower than they were in 1854. — 00:03:50 · United Kingdom

00:03:53 — A flood linked to burning old trees; being a witness and participant in Earth's story; unlike the trees, humans can stop themselves

  • ★★ The same week, a flood ravaged a part of the US Hank loves dearly, where friends are now trying to put their lives back together. — 00:03:55
  • ★★★ 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 · climate change
  • ★★ Hank can hardly believe he gets to witness the story of Earth, and, weirder and more intimidating, to be a participant in it. — 00:04:23 · Earth
  • ★★★ Hank says the trees' mass extinction is in a way less worrying than people causing one, since people know better, but the trees were practically worse because they couldn't stop themselves, and we can. — 00:04:33
  • ★★ Hank doesn't know that humans will stop themselves, at least not as fast as needed. (unsure) — 00:04:52
  • ★★★ Given the choice between the trees' situation and ours, Hank takes ours, because now we at least have some agency and a chance. — 00:04:55
  • ★★ Hank thanks John for a wonderful Pizzamas and says, as always, 100% of Pizzamas profit is donated to help Partners In Health build health systems where most needed. — 00:05:05 · Pizzamas, Partners In Health

00:05:07 — Thanks for Pizzamas, profit to Partners In Health, last-chance leftover sale discounts and sign-off

  • ★★ Hank tells viewers that today through the weekend is the last time to get Pizzamas stuff. — 00:05:14 · Pizzamas
  • ★★ To clear undersold warehouse inventory, the leftover sale discounts the lunchbox, blanket, pimple patches, tattoos, clog charms, BRAT shirts and past years' items; the blanket comes with a free Pizza John print. — 00:05:21 · Pizzamas, Pizza John

In the description and comments

  • ★★ In the description Hank adds, not fully sure, that the UK was so good for coal formation partly because it was very wet: swamps prevent the fires that release trees' carbon. (hedged) — video description · United Kingdom
  • ★ In a comment Hank says scientists are unsure about that extinction: it is geologically messy, mostly of ocean organisms, and may have been a very slow mass extinction. (hedged) — creator comment

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: coal · Late Devonian extinction · United Kingdom

Also: Projects: Pizzamas

Organizations: Partners In Health

Terms: Pizza John

Concepts: arms race · carbon dioxide · climate change · energy transition · Extinction event · natural gas · natural selection · wind power

Places: Earth · London · Pangaea

Policies: Climate Change Act

Also centred on coal: May 30th: Ranavalona and Clean Coal · Uncomfortable Nuance: Natural Gas Edition · The Molecule that Changed Everything

Also centred on Late Devonian extinction: The Molecule that Changed Everything

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