Bobby, I want a word with you about gateway-drugs. We got an EV a couple of years ago and now we're waiting for 16 solar panels and a battery to be installed and I hold you personally responsible! Thank you for your work and opening my eyes/mind to the possibilities. Keep it up 👏
My "Gateway drug" was our Hyundai ionic hybrid. Only happy when it switched to electric. So since then got 4kw solar and 5.2kw battery. Decarbonised the house and the new car is now EV. And still going
We’ve had exactly the same experience just over 3 years, and we’ve transformed our house in that time. I’ve told Robert as much when I met him, that my wife HATED him, and that she’d be setting up a support group for the spouses of people like us.
Just to cheer you up, I’m 50, so definitely knocking on the door of “older white male” territory, and I couldn’t be more concerned about climate charge and more determined to do my bit to mitigate against it. My father in law is 85 so definitely qualifies, he’s just bought his first electric car and is absolutely delighted with it
Another great podcast. Going Electric is the best thing we’ve done in many years. It’s all about energy and how we use it. Thank you for leading us there.
Robert and Ed, thank you so much for this very thoughtful show! As a 74 year old environmentalist who has been driving EVs since 1991, your educational activities inspire me and I'm sure are influencing others to do the right thing. There is tremendous denial among folks here in the US, though climate disasters are on our side in helping to wake people up. Peace
Don't lose faith, Bobby! What you are doing with your channel is so helpful to the world. As your guest said, we got ourselves into this mess and we can get ourselves out. And that won't be easy without your continued voice in these matters. Cheers!
Robert, I appreciate longer, calmer and thoughtful discussions such as this. I have learned so much over the years watching the Fully Charged Show and now Everything Electric! I believe that you are indeed making a difference and helping to push back on and eventually topple the current wave of climate denial and fossil fuel addiction. Keep on with your excellent work!
The biological reason to have children is passing on our DNA, you would think the logical step is to leave them a habitable world. I often wonder how much of the push back is paid for by the fossil industry.
@@mrfr87the less wealth you have, the more changes to your lifestyle you have to make in order to help. I have a friend who isn't wealthy - he moved closer to his job, sold his car, cycles or commutes to work, etc. It's certainly a less comfortable living, but he does seem to be happier to me now. I had switched to an EV, PV panels, etc. - which resulted in being much more aware of energy consumption and led me to use a lot less energy than before.
I'm doing my best, but solar pv and wind turbines are a non-starter in rented accommodation. It's been over a year since I was due a heat pump 'in three months'!! I don't run a car, which helps and can't afford overseas holidays in any case, so zero air miles in over six years.
Great podcast. I tuned in because the title had ‘climate’ in it. The same reason why I bought an electric car. It would be good to see Ed’s climate stripes featured on all Fully Charged and Everything Electric branding 😊
I quit smoking because my doctor told me it was very detrimental to my health! I stopped driving ICE vehicles, operating ICE lawnmowers, weed wackers & saws because they are detrimental to the health of planet earth!
Congrats on 13 years... I've enjoyed many many years listening to FC content and going to the show. It has definitely helped inform me on my own journey to understand our situation over the years. I've stopped being too concerned about what happens to humans now, it the other species which are going to be wiped out by behaviour.
Good discussion Robert. As one of those few boomers who has spent half my career trying to reduce greenhouse gases and pollution, I learned early on hardly anyone cared about this like I did, it usually had the opposite effect of alienating these people. So I focused on efficiency and saving money. This was a big hit. But I think we're past that. Another elephant in the room in my opinion is the out of control human population which not only affects climate change and pollution, but also resource depletion and negatively impacts our natural systems. If we simply pushed for two-child families now, in 100 years we could have our population down to half without causing huge societal issues (see PR China). What saddens me is that we have the capital and technology for all people to live reasonably (especially at 4 billion) without killing our environment that we are but one part of. Let's hope our kids and grandkids can do a better job.
3 years vegan and Last year we got solar and battery system. Turned off the gas. Removed the radiators and put in internal insulation. Removed our big bath in favour of the electric shower. Gas to induction Cooking etc. Driving BEV. Still a way to go but feel we are getting there.
I remember snow still being a regular feature here in the UK in the early 1990s and when the local shops stopped selling snow shovels and salt for gritting the paths and driveways sometime around 2007/08 due to lack of demand by the Swansea area populace due to lack of snow & icey conditions. I haven't felt the need to wear thermal underwear for about 25yrs; the weather just doesn't warrant it anymore.
Followed your lead Robert for a decade. As far as "Cword" goes also found it difficult to clearly explain climate specifics. Eventually stumbled onto another way to present info to male friends who consider themselves science oriented. One friend in particular had a career building battery factories for Energizer around the world. We agreed laws of physics rule! THis opened door to showing the 200 year old proofs of ability of CO2 to absorb Infrared heat energy. Added fact that today we're adding 51and growing billion tons of greenhouse gases pollution to our SHARED ATMOSPHERE ANNUALLY. This he understood.
No body is talking about limiting the growth of Homo Sapiens ! You talking about growing billion tons of GGs.! The current billions are scheduled to hugely increse !
Brilliant Podcast episode. Some great talking points & complex issues broken down so well. Great to hear your views Robert & glad to see that you’re all aware that EVs are only a tiny part of the solution. Would love to hear more about car sharing initiatives. Such a shame about Sono motors Sion dying. That could’ve been a game changer. 😢 Thank you. 🙏🌍🌱
Agriculture is responsible for 1/3 of the emission of CO2 in Denmark! So there are areas other than transport that are important to change in a more ecological direction :D Thanks for your good work from an almost happy EV owner... P.S: This year around 70% of electricity is produced by renewable energy in Denmark.
I get all the ammunition I need for my dinosaur gun from this channel. Keep it going guys! Especially stuff about the climate change catastrophe that is already with us
As someone who worked in at atmospheric research for twenty-five years, I am all too familiar with mansplaining individuals who think they know better than an atmospheric scientist. The latest encounter was with a builder this morning. “It’s all just part of a natural cycle.” The words of the ecologist, Bill Rees spring to mind - “A curious thing about H. sapiens is that we are clever enough to document - in exquisite detail - various trends that portend the collapse of modern civilization, yet not nearly smart enough to extricate ourselves from our self-induced predicament.”
I'm an older baby-boomer sitting in the biggest coal exporting city in the world and although not an ex-hippie, I am totally with Robert in the necessity to limit carbon polution. Will it happen; doubtful with the pressure of the ' never mentioned ' acceleration of the world's population, all wanting what you Robert, and Ed, and I have got living in the West ! Power, heating, choice of food provided by transport, mobility etcetera, all facilitated by fossil fuels !
Reducing the need for unnecessary technology and fashion, is a way of reducing the over all production and use of energy . Its the easiest thing we all can do, it was the feature of the past, home production and repair of technology.
Interesting things happening on the climate front right now. CO2 emissions are rising, El Niño will likely make the summers in the southern and northern hemispheres the hottest ever, and the decline in Antarctic sea ice means the newly open waters will absorb a lot of previously reflected sunlight.
The climate discussions are the best one. That said, I don't think most people have "moved on". I find it maddening, but most people don't think at all about the climate and when they do they don't think it is a big problem. It is just terrible. We need to act now and act with tremendous speed. For example, instead of prohibiting the sale of gas and diesel cars in 2030 or 2035, what should be prohibited is the sale of gas and diesel FUEL in 2030. That would create a mad rush to EVs and would mitigate at least that particular part of the climate crisis.
And mostly the same activities that are responsible for global heating are also the cause of the catastrophic fall in biodiversity and habitat destruction. The biodiversity crisis requires more attention also although it is very much part of the same issue. Excellent stuff, valuable and rational discussion
If we all try to recycle more it would stop methane from going into the atmosphere from all the filthy landfills, I live in Finland where all bottles and cans are sent back to the suppliers and you get money back for those! It’s great and would help stop plastics from entering the environment. The rest of the waste is incinerated and is used for heating and electricity production. Why can’t countries like the uk introduce the same, we all need to breath the same air! Thanks Robert your a hero.
Thanks again for a good one.! Fifteen years ago I was a climate sceptic, I used to point to the Medieval warm periods and subsequent cold periods and argue that this current warming is just natural variation in the climate and that its Co2 from us was all a con, even in the face of growing scientific consensus...such arrogance of the older white male, me!! After watching " An Inconvenient Truth " I began to doubt, so I signed up for a free on line course, this one run by Exeter Uni, to get some proper facts and lo, I understood and got a true grasp of the utter enormity of the task ahead, it actually made me quite depressed but that was then; I've since embraced my obligation to make changes within my power fully understanding my behaviours are not going to make any real difference on their own but, also knowing there is no other way, we all can only do what we can. I flip-flop like the good Prof but carry on anyway as you do. Thanks for the good work and the interesting vids and podcasts.
Trees. Attenborough said that we'd chopped down Trillions of trees in the last 10,000 years. We've just had torrential rain causing phenomenal flash flooding in UK Oct '23. I was told by the guys chopping down my neighbour's 300 year old oak that was subsiding his house that that size of tree will take 300 gallons of water out of the ground a day. That's room for sopping up some of the worst if we plant like mad. How much bio-diversity lives in, on and under an oak?
Besides climate change, we are also facing tremendous and growing overpopulation problems, the one problem to rule them all, the crisis of accelerating extinctions and collapse of ecosystems, overshoot (using more oil, water and other resources than we have), unequal distribution of resources, and because of all of the above, increasing human conflict. Your kindness, humility and openness are lessons for us all in how to we can cooperate to solve these problems.
They will not be solved, FH, as human self-interest, greed will triumph in places, underming the positive forces working.. A saving grace might be an incentive system but even that with all the recycling etc. will be eclipse by the sheer numbers of Homo Sapiens ( Not too sapien are we )
While EVs don't solve everything, they are the very biggest sector. When you add vehicle emissions to fuel supply chain emissions (as fossil interests like to do for EVs) its close to 50% of the problem. EVs will remove oils dominance in politics and influence on the media.
@33:17 Indeed, forget net zero. We aren't even at the stage of slowing global warming. We're barely at the stage of accelerating global warming a bit less. Emissions are actually increasing every year. Even if they start decreasing, it will still result in global warming for a very long time!
I remember in the late 70’s looking a plots coming out from one of the programs being run showing that the SO2 coming out from our power station, on the prevailing wind, was killing off the trees in Scandinavia and the USSR!
Interesting that everything we are looking to do over the next thirty years is to stop climate change getting worse. Not to reverse it 😢. So all floods and extreme weather is not going to go away. What we are experiencing now is our future reality.
I’m a white old fart who fully supports you.. I got my first EV last year after my wife past and had to return her Motability car - Really happy with it. Just wish I could get my electric supplier to fit a smart meter but apparently I have no WAN but that’s another story!
Love your 'Silly Voices' Robert ! Yes, the fossil evidence is there; like the stromatalites on the coast of Western Aust. which go back insane distance in the past.
The atmosphere is easy to fix. Just ask sigorny weaver, in the film aliens, they had atmospheric purification devices. We need a few million of them please!
I remember "Wet Liberal Weekly", Robert. Oh, how far we've come. Except the angry rants, those are just as delicious as they've always been. Feel free to angry rant some more - it was basically the original reason why I subscribed all those many moons ago. :) Because we all should be as mad as hell and refuse to take it anymore. And you actually said so, when no-one else had the balls to do so. Keep up the good work.
I am 80 yrs plus and retired farmer , we needed to watch the weather all the time ! We saw unusual changes at all times of the year, freezing winters ,warm winters ,wet cold summers , dry hot summers ,so maybe this climate expert has not spent enough time on the soil of the earth ?
I love my EV too... I wouldn't ever go back to diesel now. My gf loves her EV too. Shame that we need to scar the surface of planet cutting down more trees to mine for all those extra metals. Shame EVs are 30% to 50% heavier than their ICE equivalents and therefore require more energy to move them. Currently in the UK, 94% of that energy comes from burning fossil fuels at source. There are also significant energy losses in the distribution of that energy and the conversion from DC to AC and back to DC. It's a shame we can't beat the laws of thermodynamics. Energy from renewable sources causes warming too. Wind... Wind block, warming the land. Solar... 20% efficient panels. 80% heat Hydro... a body of water at a head causes a spinning body to slow. Slowing a spinning Earth reduces its EMF. Reducing our protective magnetosphere allows more solar radiation to penetrate warming the Earth. Shame really!
@@beepthesheep867Please do not attend anyone's house party. It is a finite experience, you will end up depressing everyone and end up more depressed. 🤣
Would be interested to see if we can push a libertarian narrative about how electrification makes us less dependent on big companies as well as government. Many Americans who could be swayed by climate denying think tanks also distrust big oil as much as big government. Success stories of us middle aged and older white guys with our spreadsheets of cost savings would be a welcome narrative.
Great podcast I’d love to make all the changes that is needed but we just don’t have the funds coming in to make any of the changes I wish the oil companies would even make one change! That is make fuel much cleaner so the mass of us could start making a difference at the pumps with our existing vehicles
I put out a video on my channel, using the same tagline related to the “C” word and it also received less views than any other video on my channel. So it seems people are also put off by use of the letter “C” not just the word “climate”.
For the record, the video was titled “WS33 Did Shakespeare use the ‘C’ word?” and is part of a series of videos that tells you who the really Bard was! It therefore has nothing to do with the climate. So it’s unlikely to be affected by the algorithms used to shore up the oil industry.
Carbon Capture- Let's use a huge amount of energy reducing some of the emissions from our energy consumption. If you do some napkin math on the above statement it should be fairly easy to see the problem with that technology. It is unfortunate, but our only option here is to reduce emissions, reduce energy consumption, stop destroying natural carbon sinks, and hope we can survive a few decades until nature balances out our last century of harm.
Energy efficiency of the Climeworks DAC plant is 90% with a goal of 96%. DAC is not the only CDR method. There are several. Enhanced rock wheathering, biochar, different types of ocean based CDR, etcetera. The IPCC reports clearly shows that we will need several gigatons of CDR per year in the second half of this century.
@reason3581 how exactly are we measuring "energy efficiency" when the alternative is not doing the process at all? Do you mean that the emissions for making the capture plant plus the emissions for the energy needed to run the capture plant only work out to 10% of the carbon captured (with hope to get it down to 4%)? Is that what you mean by "energy efficiency"? And if so, are they reliant on "green" generation for the plant to achieve that figure? Whatever method is used it takes energy to power the fans to push the air through, plus whatever other energy is needed in the process itself if any (And incidentals like transportation and materials). Whatever they do for the math, it needs to be weighed against the emissions savings of just putting that energy into the grid instead. Particularly if they are using green generation, it would reduce emissions to just plug that into the grid and invest the extra money into electrified transportation, or other electrified industrial process to reduce the burning of fuels in the first place. The IPCC report says carbon capture is essential to avoid consequences at this point because we have not acted strongly enough in the past to avoid mass human trauma. But the report does not say that there actually ARE any available carbon capture technologies that ARE good enough to deploy. We need them sure, does not mean we have them. Leading us back to the assessment that reducing consumption, reducing emissions, rebuilding natural carbon sinks, and bracing for the trauma until nature can restore the balance hoping we have not destroyed ourselves is the last resort we are dealing with. There may be some potential for carbon capture directly on-site in some industries preventing emissions. (Needs to be kept away from fuel based generation and fuel production though, that compounds the inefficiency). But using solar (or other green generation) panels to power airborne carbon capture, has a lot to prove vs just plugging the same solar panels into the grid and reducing fuel consumption instead. The worst plan would be to just keep status quo with our fuel consumption, and then try to hide the festering wound with bandaid solution like carbon capture.
@@5353Jumper re: Climeworks, yes they have done so called Life Cycle Analysis. They use 100% geothermal energy for the operation in Iceland. There are several CDR methods with future potential for gigaton level removals. They just need time and money to scale up. We have to go all in on both emission mitigation and CDR. Remember that there already is a Trillion ton CO2 in the atmosphere from historic emissions.
Insulated from surface & space by 70,000 metres (230,000 feet) of super-high-quality rock insulation (so not 10 inches like a house but 230,000 feet) which is why it can only seep out at a miserable rate that can't even melt a little bit of winter snow off the ground, needs the Sun to do that, which is exactly why it is still thousands of degrees hot inside Earth, simple because the heat SIMPLY HAS NO WAY TO GET OUT (volcanoes are sad minuscule little pin pricks like a pin prick on an effelump).
Almerian greenhouses are growing huge amounts of cash crops and cooling the region of southern Spain by 3 degrees. That Spanish region has issues ( put it mildly) but the tech is here. Water is the key to everything and we can produce that by combining the tech. ( Solar Water PLC)
I enjoyed the show however I wanted to correct some CO2 information the CO2 level did not reach 340 ppm until 1981 in 1959 it was 316 ppm thanks again for the show
A way to solve the problem of people losing their 'jobs' due to the transition to renewables energy and sustainable systems would be to make it financially worthwhile for people to SHARE the jobs we NEED people to do and work much LESS....that is how you could very easily offer an alternative 'job' to all the millions of people working in the fossil fuel industries who otherwise will fight against the transition to renewable energy to the bitter end.
Global society needs to embrace a higher value of labor. Pay employees more while executives and shareholders get less. Globally! It is the only way we do not end up with mass starvation in the coming economic retraction. Reducing population, more efficient process, more efficient transportation, more efficient generation, reduction in consumption. All of these things are coming soon, all at the same time, rapidly because we have tried to avoid them with short term profiteering for decades so now it will be sudden trauma. If we can return the value of labor to a point where a single household income can support a modest household, around the world, we can scale back the amount of labor in the workforce and concentrate humanity on other goals such as community and family development, discovery and art. If we are forced into this economic retraction by the nature of the planet with our current unequal distribution of wealth and income it will be global trauma. It will mean billions starving while the wealth elite hide in their mansions, hoping the civil uprising does not dethrone them too aggressively.
Will Happer claims 25% less warming than the expert scientists. That's all he has. So Trolls like you just take 25% of whatever video bod says. Simples !
Robert, big fan of Site & Content, but please try to avoid leading (closed) questions. For example your bit asking about digging up stuff for batteries & recycling batteries etc. Not a question a statement. Otherwise keep up the good work.
Rob....Everything is Political....Like it or Not.....This is a fact and those who fail to embrace that fact (including you) will fail to progress their agenda. We want everything to be Electric and this will only happen when the Political Machine makes it happen through Legislation.
Not necessarily. Electrification is happening whatever the politics think. Practically they only affect the speed. So far I haven't seen any politician wanting to ban electric solutions, just hindering them.
You make a good point my friend that bears consideration. But it also proves that help or hinder you cant ignore politicians and like Politicians or not they will have a tremendous impact on the scale and speed of Electrification@@frejaresund3770
Yes talking electric cars and solar is more around the BBQ in Australia now. Latest topic has been we need rebates for home batteries as there is a lot of solar.
43:00 just a thought on the bug's on the cars. Would there be a notable decline in how many you wash off the car today vs 20 years ago given cars are more aerodynamic and thus being sweeping over the cars rather than mashed into them? I'm not saying that there isn't a decline in insect numbers, just wonder if newer cars keep themselves a bit cleaner due to the air flow over/around them?
Whilst listening to this video I felt very pleased with myself, because at the same time I checked how much co2 my new solar panel system had saved in the last 21months. 10.46 T of co2, had been saved, but I wonder how much was created whilst making the panels, batteries, inverter, cabling and transporting from China? Maybe if I left it for ten years I might get a better idea! Great video, thought provoking.
Regarding the green credentials of bicycles, according to the chart in Sustainable Energy Without the Hot Air, they are roughly twice as efficient as walking, on par with a FULL electric train! Regarding DACCS (Direct air carbon capture as opposed to direct air capture), we should be using the resources to build more zero emissions Technologies, which will mean we need less DACCS in the future, and stopping a tonne of emissions has the same effect as removing a tonne. DACCS, and also clean hydrogen, probably best kept development phase only at the moment and we should focus our available resources stopping emissions in the first instant once we've cracked the backbone on that limp house we can roll out the other technologies to do the mopping up. If the bath is overflowing the first thing to do is turn the taps off, then get the mop and bucket out and think about alternatives to having a bath.
Maybe you could get your researchers to do a comparison on mining fossil fuels vs mining resources for renewable energy ? The world burns over 8 billion tons of coal per year. Every year. Then there's the amount of oil and gas as well . Huge numbers where the product is only used once. Vs the amount of resources required for renewables that will be used many times over and have very long useful lives each time. l think the outcome might be quite interesting.
@@drunkenhobo8020 No there are significant numbers of scientists who do not accept man made climate change they are just silenced by those who do believe it.
@@drunkenhobo8020 That is very conspiratorial and very wrong. I am referring to people such as Dr Judith Curry, Paul Burgess and a founder of Greenpeace Dr Patrick Moore. None of them ae oil paid shills.
@@simonburleigh5551 Patrick Moore was never a founder of Greenpeace. He was there early on, but it had already been founded. It's a lie he tells to give himself more credibility. He's also not a climate scientist. Paul Burgess appears to be just some guy with a UA-cam channel. And Judith Curry is one of the very few climate scientists who don't agree with the science. Although she doesn't appear to have put over any alternative hypothesis, instead she just attacks people. She's also retired six years ago. So congratulations, you found no climate scientists who disagree with the science.
How about considering that one reason for reduced viewing figures for videos which refer to the subject of Human Induced Climate Change is because people on this channel are informed. I've known about HICC for over 30 years, and I pick and choose my viewing on the subject these days, when I feel I'm going to learn more. Maybe there are a substantial number of people out there like me? EDIT: I'm sure you have. 😊
I think most decent people are happy to acknowledge climate change is happening. It's the futile attempts from our species to prevent it that's frustrating. By all means introduce process to improve air quality, but nobody's going to change Earth's weather, no matter what is attempted, as you rightly point out in your introduction. Using phrases like 'climate denial' isn't helping anyone, and just pushes healthy debate into polemic argument.
What really gets me is "What does switching to EVs and other electric equipment hurt people?" Reducing Oil/Gasoline/Gas to electric and more efficient stuff. There's no real argument against reducing CO2 for the average person. It makes no sense for people to fight against it. EVs are better than ICE. Gas/oil boilers switched to something more efficient is obviously better. Yet people will still argue it. Blows my mind.
Just thinking about what is needed to get things sorted and ultimately decided that ‘it’s all down to money'. Imagine if ALL those very rich people who have millions in their banks that simply cannot ever make use of but which could be pooled into getting every home fitted with solar PV and heat pumps. And if everyone could somehow acquire an EV and operate it from their solar by the most part then our atmosphere would change very quickly. Plant more trees and stop chopping them down because all those Forrest fires burning and releasing CO2 are massively adding to the problem.
Just TOO MANY PEOPLE in the world, all now wanting first world lifestyles instead of rural village life ! So, the rise of prosperity of these vast populations in Africa, India, S America will ensure any remediations of our climate will be MINIMAL !
scientists need to get the graphs and the evidence out there and shout a little louder so skeptics can't just dismiss it with their own made up science.
Prof. James Hansen recently has released a new scientific paper talking about how Earth’s energy imbalance is out of control and that things are going to get crazy in the next year or two. And then today Paul Beckwith released a video talking about the shocking lack of sea ice in the Antarctic and how that is going to cause chaos in the climate system during the southern hemisphere summer and beyond. I assume Ed didn’t talk about any of that in this episode. Of course I’m not going to waste my time listening to anything that’s not 100% realistic about where we are in our disastrous situation.
Couple of thoughts. When you have an expert in you should stick as much as possible to their area of expertise rather than a grab bag of shallow and broad sceptic favourites. It might not suit the algorithm or views but part of the communication problem is shallow discussions. Sceptics think the issues are simple and experts are missing or are lying about the obvious. After 35 years following this stuff and getting a science education I think we are doing the same failed communication and expecting a different result. I would like to see more of a deep dive on what our carbon budget looks like for a given amount of warming. For a climate scientist that is our budget for 1.5, 2 or 2.5 degrees warming, You then need other experts to paint a picture for how you might use that budget. I think we also need to discuss social and biological drivers. To what extent is human nature stalling action. Staying optimistic alone is not working.
Bobby, I want a word with you about gateway-drugs. We got an EV a couple of years ago and now we're waiting for 16 solar panels and a battery to be installed and I hold you personally responsible! Thank you for your work and opening my eyes/mind to the possibilities. Keep it up 👏
My "Gateway drug" was our Hyundai ionic hybrid. Only happy when it switched to electric. So since then got 4kw solar and 5.2kw battery. Decarbonised the house and the new car is now EV. And still going
We’ve had exactly the same experience just over 3 years, and we’ve transformed our house in that time.
I’ve told Robert as much when I met him, that my wife HATED him, and that she’d be setting up a support group for the spouses of people like us.
I think if you're really honest with yourself, I think you'll find you were dabbling in LED lightbulbs years before that.
@@cavedoguk3787 I have the Toyota Hybrid Camry, the standard taxi in SYD, and really love it. Hope Toyota keeps going with the move to electrics !
Just to cheer you up, I’m 50, so definitely knocking on the door of “older white male” territory, and I couldn’t be more concerned about climate charge and more determined to do my bit to mitigate against it. My father in law is 85 so definitely qualifies, he’s just bought his first electric car and is absolutely delighted with it
Another great podcast.
Going Electric is the best thing we’ve done in many years. It’s all about energy and how we use it. Thank you for leading us there.
Robert and Ed, thank you so much for this very thoughtful show! As a 74 year old environmentalist who has been driving EVs since 1991, your educational activities inspire me and I'm sure are influencing others to do the right thing. There is tremendous denial among folks here in the US, though climate disasters are on our side in helping to wake people up. Peace
Don't lose faith, Bobby! What you are doing with your channel is so helpful to the world. As your guest said, we got ourselves into this mess and we can get ourselves out. And that won't be easy without your continued voice in these matters. Cheers!
Robert, I appreciate longer, calmer and thoughtful discussions such as this. I have learned so much over the years watching the Fully Charged Show and now Everything Electric! I believe that you are indeed making a difference and helping to push back on and eventually topple the current wave of climate denial and fossil fuel addiction. Keep on with your excellent work!
We have a whole Broadcast organisation in Australia called SBS.
Stop Burning Stuff!!!
Greg,,
if that is ever acheived, the population gradually dies. It is a not going to happen and that is a huge benefit.
Why I decided to go fossil free early this year. We are living an unsustainable lifestyle on finite planet; we are burning our children's future.
The biological reason to have children is passing on our DNA, you would think the logical step is to leave them a habitable world.
I often wonder how much of the push back is paid for by the fossil industry.
Exactly. And we are burning the global south's present.
Good on you. Wish I had the money for that too.
@@mrfr87the less wealth you have, the more changes to your lifestyle you have to make in order to help. I have a friend who isn't wealthy - he moved closer to his job, sold his car, cycles or commutes to work, etc. It's certainly a less comfortable living, but he does seem to be happier to me now.
I had switched to an EV, PV panels, etc. - which resulted in being much more aware of energy consumption and led me to use a lot less energy than before.
I'm doing my best, but solar pv and wind turbines are a non-starter in rented accommodation. It's been over a year since I was due a heat pump 'in three months'!! I don't run a car, which helps and can't afford overseas holidays in any case, so zero air miles in over six years.
Great job , this episode is needed to explain the truth of climate change, thank you !
Great podcast. I tuned in because the title had ‘climate’ in it. The same reason why I bought an electric car. It would be good to see Ed’s climate stripes featured on all Fully Charged and Everything Electric branding 😊
Kindness is still free, kindness is always free, the Highlander😊
I quit smoking because my doctor told me it was very detrimental to my health! I stopped driving ICE vehicles, operating ICE lawnmowers, weed wackers & saws because they are detrimental to the health of planet earth!
I pray for the day all leaf blowers are electric. 😂
Thank you for repeating we're not destroying the planet, we are making it very hard for our species and a lot of other species to live on it.
More like this please.
Great discussion Robert. You two had a good chemistry. Please have him on again!
Congrats on 13 years... I've enjoyed many many years listening to FC content and going to the show. It has definitely helped inform me on my own journey to understand our situation over the years. I've stopped being too concerned about what happens to humans now, it the other species which are going to be wiped out by behaviour.
Good discussion Robert. As one of those few boomers who has spent half my career trying to reduce greenhouse gases and pollution, I learned early on hardly anyone cared about this like I did, it usually had the opposite effect of alienating these people. So I focused on efficiency and saving money. This was a big hit. But I think we're past that. Another elephant in the room in my opinion is the out of control human population which not only affects climate change and pollution, but also resource depletion and negatively impacts our natural systems. If we simply pushed for two-child families now, in 100 years we could have our population down to half without causing huge societal issues (see PR China). What saddens me is that we have the capital and technology for all people to live reasonably (especially at 4 billion) without killing our environment that we are but one part of. Let's hope our kids and grandkids can do a better job.
3 years vegan and Last year we got solar and battery system. Turned off the gas. Removed the radiators and put in internal insulation. Removed our big bath in favour of the electric shower. Gas to induction Cooking etc. Driving BEV. Still a way to go but feel we are getting there.
I remember snow still being a regular feature here in the UK in the early 1990s and when the local shops stopped selling snow shovels and salt for gritting the paths and driveways sometime around 2007/08 due to lack of demand by the Swansea area populace due to lack of snow & icey conditions. I haven't felt the need to wear thermal underwear for about 25yrs; the weather just doesn't warrant it anymore.
hint: oceans. decadal occasilations...nature
What a brilliant PodCast thank you
Followed your lead Robert for a decade. As far as "Cword" goes also found it difficult to clearly explain climate specifics. Eventually stumbled onto another way to present info to male friends who consider themselves science oriented. One friend in particular had a career building battery factories for Energizer around the world. We agreed laws of physics rule! THis opened door to showing the 200 year old proofs of ability of CO2 to absorb Infrared heat energy. Added fact that today we're adding 51and growing billion tons of greenhouse gases pollution to our SHARED ATMOSPHERE ANNUALLY. This he understood.
No body is talking about limiting the growth of Homo Sapiens ! You talking about growing billion tons of GGs.!
The current billions are scheduled to hugely increse !
Brilliant Podcast episode. Some great talking points & complex issues broken down so well. Great to hear your views Robert & glad to see that you’re all aware that EVs are only a tiny part of the solution. Would love to hear more about car sharing initiatives. Such a shame about Sono motors Sion dying. That could’ve been a game changer. 😢 Thank you. 🙏🌍🌱
In Australia we are talking about large sections just becoming not liveable for human habitation
Isn’t that 90% of Australia already! 😂
Agriculture is responsible for 1/3 of the emission of CO2 in Denmark! So there are areas other than transport that are important to change in a more ecological direction :D Thanks for your good work from an almost happy EV owner...
P.S: This year around 70% of electricity is produced by renewable energy in Denmark.
Best episode yet. Incredibly informative. More please.
Thanks so much you guys
Really informative and clear messages that the time is now, responsibly lies with us all, and taking action is not optimal
Or 'optional'.
Another great interview Bobby. Keep up the great work.
Thank you for finally underlying that we don't need to save the planet, but our base of existence. Was advocating this for years! :)
Spot on! Don't like solutions.
I get all the ammunition I need for my dinosaur gun from this channel.
Keep it going guys! Especially stuff about the climate change catastrophe that is already with us
Reason is comfort, and your input is both. With my gratitude.🌿🐇
Live long and prosper.🍎
Watching a conversation improves the effeciency of the infomation transmission ;)
As someone who worked in at atmospheric research for twenty-five years, I am all too familiar with mansplaining individuals who think they know better than an atmospheric scientist. The latest encounter was with a builder this morning. “It’s all just part of a natural cycle.” The words of the ecologist, Bill Rees spring to mind - “A curious thing about H. sapiens is that we are clever enough to document - in exquisite detail - various trends that portend the collapse of modern civilization, yet not nearly smart enough to extricate ourselves from our self-induced predicament.”
I'm an older baby-boomer sitting in the biggest coal exporting city in the world and although not an ex-hippie, I am totally with Robert in the necessity to limit carbon polution. Will it happen; doubtful with the pressure of the ' never mentioned ' acceleration of the world's population, all wanting what you Robert, and Ed, and I have got living in the West ! Power, heating, choice of food provided by transport, mobility etcetera, all facilitated by fossil fuels !
Reducing the need for unnecessary technology and fashion, is a way of reducing the over all production and use of energy . Its the easiest thing we all can do, it was the feature of the past, home production and repair of technology.
Interesting things happening on the climate front right now. CO2 emissions are rising, El Niño will likely make the summers in the southern and northern hemispheres the hottest ever, and the decline in Antarctic sea ice means the newly open waters will absorb a lot of previously reflected sunlight.
The climate discussions are the best one. That said, I don't think most people have "moved on". I find it maddening, but most people don't think at all about the climate and when they do they don't think it is a big problem. It is just terrible. We need to act now and act with tremendous speed. For example, instead of prohibiting the sale of gas and diesel cars in 2030 or 2035, what should be prohibited is the sale of gas and diesel FUEL in 2030. That would create a mad rush to EVs and would mitigate at least that particular part of the climate crisis.
And mostly the same activities that are responsible for global heating are also the cause of the catastrophic fall in biodiversity and habitat destruction. The biodiversity crisis requires more attention also although it is very much part of the same issue. Excellent stuff, valuable and rational discussion
Yes, well said as our existence is really dependent on the the rest of the world's biodiversity.
If we all try to recycle more it would stop methane from going into the atmosphere from all the filthy landfills, I live in Finland where all bottles and cans are sent back to the suppliers and you get money back for those! It’s great and would help stop plastics from entering the environment.
The rest of the waste is incinerated and is used for heating and electricity production. Why can’t countries like the uk introduce the same, we all need to breath the same air! Thanks Robert your a hero.
Thanks again for a good one.! Fifteen years ago I was a climate sceptic, I used to point to the Medieval warm periods and subsequent cold periods and argue that this current warming is just natural variation in the climate and that its Co2 from us was all a con, even in the face of growing scientific consensus...such arrogance of the older white male, me!!
After watching " An Inconvenient Truth " I began to doubt, so I signed up for a free on line course, this one run by Exeter Uni, to get some proper facts and lo, I understood and got a true grasp of the utter enormity of the task ahead, it actually made me quite depressed but that was then; I've since embraced my obligation to make changes within my power fully understanding my behaviours are not going to make any real difference on their own but, also knowing there is no other way, we all can only do what we can.
I flip-flop like the good Prof but carry on anyway as you do.
Thanks for the good work and the interesting vids and podcasts.
sceptic - is a trigger word........fyi.
Absolutely extraordinary, as you said. All the podcasts and videos are excellent, though.
Trees.
Attenborough said that we'd chopped down Trillions of trees in the last 10,000 years.
We've just had torrential rain causing phenomenal flash flooding in UK Oct '23.
I was told by the guys chopping down my neighbour's 300 year old oak that was subsiding his house that that size of tree will take 300 gallons of water out of the ground a day.
That's room for sopping up some of the worst if we plant like mad.
How much bio-diversity lives in, on and under an oak?
Besides climate change, we are also facing tremendous and growing overpopulation problems, the one problem to rule them all, the crisis of accelerating extinctions and collapse of ecosystems, overshoot (using more oil, water and other resources than we have), unequal distribution of resources, and because of all of the above, increasing human conflict. Your kindness, humility and openness are lessons for us all in how to we can cooperate to solve these problems.
They will not be solved, FH, as human self-interest, greed will triumph in places, underming the positive forces working.. A saving grace might be an incentive system but even that with all the recycling etc. will be eclipse by the sheer numbers of Homo Sapiens ( Not too sapien are we )
While EVs don't solve everything, they are the very biggest sector. When you add vehicle emissions to fuel supply chain emissions (as fossil interests like to do for EVs) its close to 50% of the problem. EVs will remove oils dominance in politics and influence on the media.
@33:17 Indeed, forget net zero. We aren't even at the stage of slowing global warming. We're barely at the stage of accelerating global warming a bit less.
Emissions are actually increasing every year. Even if they start decreasing, it will still result in global warming for a very long time!
I remember in the late 70’s looking a plots coming out from one of the programs being run showing that the SO2 coming out from our power station, on the prevailing wind, was killing off the trees in Scandinavia and the USSR!
Interesting that everything we are looking to do over the next thirty years is to stop climate change getting worse. Not to reverse it 😢. So all floods and extreme weather is not going to go away. What we are experiencing now is our future reality.
Thanks for presenting info in an entertaining manner.
Another great interview yet again.
Morning guys
Ooooh... I thought it was going to be "Charging"! Good episode!
I have been enjoyed, so thank you for delivering.
I’m a white old fart who fully supports you.. I got my first EV last year after my wife past and had to return her Motability car - Really happy with it. Just wish I could get my electric supplier to fit a smart meter but apparently I have no WAN but that’s another story!
Great show guys
Now I know why we get along so well Bobby-my father was a HUGE hippy.
Thanks for this, great talk! I really wish I didn't believe in science sometimes, it's a scary future
Love your 'Silly Voices' Robert ! Yes, the fossil evidence is there; like the stromatalites on the coast of Western Aust. which go back insane distance in the past.
Thanks.
The atmosphere is easy to fix. Just ask sigorny weaver, in the film aliens, they had atmospheric purification devices. We need a few million of them please!
I remember "Wet Liberal Weekly", Robert. Oh, how far we've come.
Except the angry rants, those are just as delicious as they've always been. Feel free to angry rant some more - it was basically the original reason why I subscribed all those many moons ago. :)
Because we all should be as mad as hell and refuse to take it anymore. And you actually said so, when no-one else had the balls to do so. Keep up the good work.
I am 80 yrs plus and retired farmer , we needed to watch the weather all the time !
We saw unusual changes at all times of the year, freezing winters ,warm winters ,wet cold summers , dry hot summers ,so maybe this climate expert has not spent enough time on the soil of the earth ?
I ❤️ my electric car!
I love my EV too... I wouldn't ever go back to diesel now. My gf loves her EV too.
Shame that we need to scar the surface of planet cutting down more trees to mine for all those extra metals.
Shame EVs are 30% to 50% heavier than their ICE equivalents and therefore require more energy to move them. Currently in the UK, 94% of that energy comes from burning fossil fuels at source. There are also significant energy losses in the distribution of that energy and the conversion from DC to AC and back to DC.
It's a shame we can't beat the laws of thermodynamics. Energy from renewable sources causes warming too.
Wind... Wind block, warming the land.
Solar... 20% efficient panels. 80% heat
Hydro... a body of water at a head causes a spinning body to slow. Slowing a spinning Earth reduces its EMF. Reducing our protective magnetosphere allows more solar radiation to penetrate warming the Earth.
Shame really!
@@beepthesheep867Please do not attend anyone's house party. It is a finite experience, you will end up depressing everyone and end up more depressed. 🤣
@@TeaBreak. can't attend a house party.
You know why... climate change!
I'd love to be able to afford one and have somewhere to charge one 😢
@beepthesheep867
My country installed a wind turbine and we live on top of lava now.
Would be interested to see if we can push a libertarian narrative about how electrification makes us less dependent on big companies as well as government. Many Americans who could be swayed by climate denying think tanks also distrust big oil as much as big government. Success stories of us middle aged and older white guys with our spreadsheets of cost savings would be a welcome narrative.
Great JOB, Thanks!!!
i enjoyed this episode. thnak you.
Great podcast
I’d love to make all the changes that is needed but we just don’t have the funds coming in to make any of the changes I wish the oil companies would even make one change! That is make fuel much cleaner so the mass of us could start making a difference at the pumps with our existing vehicles
I put out a video on my channel, using the same tagline related to the “C” word and it also received less views than any other video on my channel. So it seems people are also put off by use of the letter “C” not just the word “climate”.
Or.. the algorithm gods are working against our better interests
For the record, the video was titled “WS33 Did Shakespeare use the ‘C’ word?” and is part of a series of videos that tells you who the really Bard was! It therefore has nothing to do with the climate. So it’s unlikely to be affected by the algorithms used to shore up the oil industry.
Thank you, keep going
I bet even the captain of the titanic was thinking ,this is NOT possible, even when the water was up to his neck!
Carbon Capture- Let's use a huge amount of energy reducing some of the emissions from our energy consumption.
If you do some napkin math on the above statement it should be fairly easy to see the problem with that technology.
It is unfortunate, but our only option here is to reduce emissions, reduce energy consumption, stop destroying natural carbon sinks, and hope we can survive a few decades until nature balances out our last century of harm.
Energy efficiency of the Climeworks DAC plant is 90% with a goal of 96%. DAC is not the only CDR method. There are several. Enhanced rock wheathering, biochar, different types of ocean based CDR, etcetera. The IPCC reports clearly shows that we will need several gigatons of CDR per year in the second half of this century.
@reason3581 how exactly are we measuring "energy efficiency" when the alternative is not doing the process at all?
Do you mean that the emissions for making the capture plant plus the emissions for the energy needed to run the capture plant only work out to 10% of the carbon captured (with hope to get it down to 4%)? Is that what you mean by "energy efficiency"?
And if so, are they reliant on "green" generation for the plant to achieve that figure?
Whatever method is used it takes energy to power the fans to push the air through, plus whatever other energy is needed in the process itself if any (And incidentals like transportation and materials).
Whatever they do for the math, it needs to be weighed against the emissions savings of just putting that energy into the grid instead. Particularly if they are using green generation, it would reduce emissions to just plug that into the grid and invest the extra money into electrified transportation, or other electrified industrial process to reduce the burning of fuels in the first place.
The IPCC report says carbon capture is essential to avoid consequences at this point because we have not acted strongly enough in the past to avoid mass human trauma. But the report does not say that there actually ARE any available carbon capture technologies that ARE good enough to deploy. We need them sure, does not mean we have them. Leading us back to the assessment that reducing consumption, reducing emissions, rebuilding natural carbon sinks, and bracing for the trauma until nature can restore the balance hoping we have not destroyed ourselves is the last resort we are dealing with.
There may be some potential for carbon capture directly on-site in some industries preventing emissions. (Needs to be kept away from fuel based generation and fuel production though, that compounds the inefficiency).
But using solar (or other green generation) panels to power airborne carbon capture, has a lot to prove vs just plugging the same solar panels into the grid and reducing fuel consumption instead.
The worst plan would be to just keep status quo with our fuel consumption, and then try to hide the festering wound with bandaid solution like carbon capture.
@@5353Jumper re: Climeworks, yes they have done so called Life Cycle Analysis. They use 100% geothermal energy for the operation in Iceland. There are several CDR methods with future potential for gigaton level removals. They just need time and money to scale up. We have to go all in on both emission mitigation and CDR. Remember that there already is a Trillion ton CO2 in the atmosphere from historic emissions.
There is a massive fire in the center of this, our planet!
Insulated from surface & space by 70,000 metres (230,000 feet) of super-high-quality rock insulation (so not 10 inches like a house but 230,000 feet) which is why it can only seep out at a miserable rate that can't even melt a little bit of winter snow off the ground, needs the Sun to do that, which is exactly why it is still thousands of degrees hot inside Earth, simple because the heat SIMPLY HAS NO WAY TO GET OUT (volcanoes are sad minuscule little pin pricks like a pin prick on an effelump).
Almerian greenhouses are growing huge amounts of cash crops and cooling the region of southern Spain by 3 degrees. That Spanish region has issues ( put it mildly) but the tech is here. Water is the key to everything and we can produce that by combining the tech. ( Solar Water PLC)
I enjoyed the show however I wanted to correct some CO2 information the CO2 level did not reach 340 ppm until 1981 in 1959 it was 316 ppm thanks again for the show
I think he said 314 ppm.
Well done
A way to solve the problem of people losing their 'jobs' due to the transition to renewables energy and sustainable systems would be to make it financially worthwhile for people to SHARE the jobs we NEED people to do and work much LESS....that is how you could very easily offer an alternative 'job' to all the millions of people working in the fossil fuel industries who otherwise will fight against the transition to renewable energy to the bitter end.
Global society needs to embrace a higher value of labor. Pay employees more while executives and shareholders get less. Globally!
It is the only way we do not end up with mass starvation in the coming economic retraction.
Reducing population, more efficient process, more efficient transportation, more efficient generation, reduction in consumption. All of these things are coming soon, all at the same time, rapidly because we have tried to avoid them with short term profiteering for decades so now it will be sudden trauma.
If we can return the value of labor to a point where a single household income can support a modest household, around the world, we can scale back the amount of labor in the workforce and concentrate humanity on other goals such as community and family development, discovery and art.
If we are forced into this economic retraction by the nature of the planet with our current unequal distribution of wealth and income it will be global trauma. It will mean billions starving while the wealth elite hide in their mansions, hoping the civil uprising does not dethrone them too aggressively.
Why not invite Dr Will Happer (Who was Emeritus physics professor of Princeton University)?
Will Happer claims 25% less warming than the expert scientists. That's all he has. So Trolls like you just take 25% of whatever video bod says. Simples !
Robert, big fan of Site & Content, but please try to avoid leading (closed) questions. For example your bit asking about digging up stuff for batteries & recycling batteries etc. Not a question a statement. Otherwise keep up the good work.
Rob....Everything is Political....Like it or Not.....This is a fact and those who fail to embrace that fact (including you) will fail to progress their agenda. We want everything to be Electric and this will only happen when the Political Machine makes it happen through Legislation.
Not necessarily. Electrification is happening whatever the politics think. Practically they only affect the speed. So far I haven't seen any politician wanting to ban electric solutions, just hindering them.
You make a good point my friend that bears consideration. But it also proves that help or hinder you cant ignore politicians and like Politicians or not they will have a tremendous impact on the scale and speed of Electrification@@frejaresund3770
That gases in the atmosphere do something to the atmosphere, that part shouldn't be political.
Yes talking electric cars and solar is more around the BBQ in Australia now. Latest topic has been we need rebates for home batteries as there is a lot of solar.
The Mess is how can we supply enough electrical power for EVs , is it by renewables or hydrocarbons ??
43:00 just a thought on the bug's on the cars. Would there be a notable decline in how many you wash off the car today vs 20 years ago given cars are more aerodynamic and thus being sweeping over the cars rather than mashed into them? I'm not saying that there isn't a decline in insect numbers, just wonder if newer cars keep themselves a bit cleaner due to the air flow over/around them?
The climate has been incrementally changing for hundreds years and doesn’t really matter, I agree with ceeping air clean and breathable though,
Whilst listening to this video I felt very pleased with myself, because at the same time I checked how much co2 my new solar panel system had saved in the last 21months. 10.46 T of co2, had been saved, but I wonder how much was created whilst making the panels, batteries, inverter, cabling and transporting from China? Maybe if I left it for ten years I might get a better idea!
Great video, thought provoking.
The CO2 emissions from manufacturing your system was probably equal to the amount you saved in 6 months.
@@rogerphelps9939without checking the figure I had in mind for solar panels was about a year but it really isn't very long at all
Don't forget to tell your friends
but plants love CO2.......... and how has China and India been doing? Climate fraud, I suspect. Science.
Regarding the green credentials of bicycles, according to the chart in Sustainable Energy Without the Hot Air, they are roughly twice as efficient as walking, on par with a FULL electric train!
Regarding DACCS (Direct air carbon capture as opposed to direct air capture), we should be using the resources to build more zero emissions Technologies, which will mean we need less DACCS in the future, and stopping a tonne of emissions has the same effect as removing a tonne.
DACCS, and also clean hydrogen, probably best kept development phase only at the moment and we should focus our available resources stopping emissions in the first instant once we've cracked the backbone on that limp house we can roll out the other technologies to do the mopping up. If the bath is overflowing the first thing to do is turn the taps off, then get the mop and bucket out and think about alternatives to having a bath.
A simplistic solution, less humans, more trees and a very different economic model.
Maybe you could get your researchers to do a comparison on mining fossil fuels vs mining resources for renewable energy ? The world burns over 8 billion tons of coal per year. Every year. Then there's the amount of oil and gas as well . Huge numbers where the product is only used once.
Vs the amount of resources required for renewables that will be used many times over and have very long useful lives each time. l think the outcome might be quite interesting.
Robert, not all climate scientists believe that climate change is man made, would interview one of those scientists to get a balance on this?
There really is very few of them, so it's kind of a false idea of balance. You'd probably find more scientists believing in creationism.
@@drunkenhobo8020 No there are significant numbers of scientists who do not accept man made climate change they are just silenced by those who do believe it.
@@simonburleigh5551If there were, they'd be hired by oil companies and told to shout from the rooftops. But there's barely any of them.
@@drunkenhobo8020 That is very conspiratorial and very wrong. I am referring to people such as Dr Judith Curry, Paul Burgess and a founder of Greenpeace Dr Patrick Moore. None of them ae oil paid shills.
@@simonburleigh5551 Patrick Moore was never a founder of Greenpeace. He was there early on, but it had already been founded. It's a lie he tells to give himself more credibility. He's also not a climate scientist.
Paul Burgess appears to be just some guy with a UA-cam channel.
And Judith Curry is one of the very few climate scientists who don't agree with the science. Although she doesn't appear to have put over any alternative hypothesis, instead she just attacks people. She's also retired six years ago.
So congratulations, you found no climate scientists who disagree with the science.
Apart from burning fossil fuels, it’s about the cutting down of pure forest and polluting of our oceans.
Carbon capture on a large scale? how about reforesting 1/3 of the planet's surface?
How about considering that one reason for reduced viewing figures for videos which refer to the subject of Human Induced Climate Change is because people on this channel are informed. I've known about HICC for over 30 years, and I pick and choose my viewing on the subject these days, when I feel I'm going to learn more. Maybe there are a substantial number of people out there like me?
EDIT: I'm sure you have. 😊
I’d prefer to hear more science and fewer anecdotes.
I think most decent people are happy to acknowledge climate change is happening. It's the futile attempts from our species to prevent it that's frustrating. By all means introduce process to improve air quality, but nobody's going to change Earth's weather, no matter what is attempted, as you rightly point out in your introduction. Using phrases like 'climate denial' isn't helping anyone, and just pushes healthy debate into polemic argument.
What really gets me is "What does switching to EVs and other electric equipment hurt people?" Reducing Oil/Gasoline/Gas to electric and more efficient stuff. There's no real argument against reducing CO2 for the average person. It makes no sense for people to fight against it.
EVs are better than ICE. Gas/oil boilers switched to something more efficient is obviously better. Yet people will still argue it. Blows my mind.
Just thinking about what is needed to get things sorted and ultimately decided that ‘it’s all down to money'.
Imagine if ALL those very rich people who have millions in their banks that simply cannot ever make use of but which could be pooled into getting every home fitted with solar PV and heat pumps.
And if everyone could somehow acquire an EV and operate it from their solar by the most part then our atmosphere would change very quickly.
Plant more trees and stop chopping them down because all those Forrest fires burning and releasing CO2 are massively adding to the problem.
Every new house should be fitted with a heat pump by law and, if the roof is at all suitable, solar panels must be fitted.
Carbon capture: grow trees. Grow big trees and grow more trees. Think Sherwood Forest.
Just TOO MANY PEOPLE in the world, all now wanting first world lifestyles instead of rural village life ! So, the rise of prosperity of these vast populations in Africa, India, S America will ensure any remediations of our climate will be MINIMAL !
scientists need to get the graphs and the evidence out there and shout a little louder so skeptics can't just dismiss it with their own made up science.
Prof. James Hansen recently has released a new scientific paper talking about how Earth’s energy imbalance is out of control and that things are going to get crazy in the next year or two. And then today Paul Beckwith released a video talking about the shocking lack of sea ice in the Antarctic and how that is going to cause chaos in the climate system during the southern hemisphere summer and beyond. I assume Ed didn’t talk about any of that in this episode. Of course I’m not going to waste my time listening to anything that’s not 100% realistic about where we are in our disastrous situation.
It's not me Rob, wouldn't deter me
Couple of thoughts. When you have an expert in you should stick as much as possible to their area of expertise rather than a grab bag of shallow and broad sceptic favourites. It might not suit the algorithm or views but part of the communication problem is shallow discussions. Sceptics think the issues are simple and experts are missing or are lying about the obvious. After 35 years following this stuff and getting a science education I think we are doing the same failed communication and expecting a different result. I would like to see more of a deep dive on what our carbon budget looks like for a given amount of warming. For a climate scientist that is our budget for 1.5, 2 or 2.5 degrees warming, You then need other experts to paint a picture for how you might use that budget.
I think we also need to discuss social and biological drivers. To what extent is human nature stalling action. Staying optimistic alone is not working.