WEBVTT - How Global Warming Works 0:00:01.000 --> 0:00:04.120 Hey, everybody. Chuck here with another one of our sciencey 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:09.039 Playlist curated podcast episodes. This one's on global warming and 0:00:09.119 --> 0:00:13.080 it's appropriately titled How global Warming Works. Please to listen 0:00:13.080 --> 0:00:13.880 to it right now. 0:00:15.800 --> 0:00:25.960 Welcome to Stuff you Should Know from HowStuffWorks dot com. 0:00:26.160 --> 0:00:29.479 Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, and 0:00:29.600 --> 0:00:34.440 there's the Chipper Cheery, Charles w Chuck Bryant, how do you? 0:00:34.760 --> 0:00:40.040 And there's Jerry over there. Say hi, Jerry, how are 0:00:40.040 --> 0:00:40.680 you doing? Man? 0:00:41.400 --> 0:00:42.519 I'm welcher. How are you? 0:00:42.760 --> 0:00:45.360 I'm pretty well myself. I'm feeling all right. Feel a 0:00:45.400 --> 0:00:50.360 little fit? Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're a little sweaty as 0:00:50.400 --> 0:00:51.919 you can tell. But I'm all right. 0:00:53.040 --> 0:00:54.279 It's gross, it is. 0:00:54.560 --> 0:00:56.800 I don't smell, do I No? Okay? 0:00:56.880 --> 0:01:05.480 Good so friends, listeners, country men, You're gonna notice a 0:01:05.520 --> 0:01:09.960 little something different in this week's feed. Tomorrow. This bears 0:01:09.959 --> 0:01:13.600 a little explanation. We are dropping episodes one and two 0:01:13.840 --> 0:01:17.840 of my new movie interview show movie Crush Do Do 0:01:17.840 --> 0:01:20.680 Do Do? We're dropping those into the Stuff you Should 0:01:20.720 --> 0:01:23.800 Know Feed, something we've never done here at the network, 0:01:23.840 --> 0:01:27.080 but we're gonna I guess I'm the labrat on this one. 0:01:27.720 --> 0:01:31.080 The guinea pig, the guinea pig. Sure, yeah, I guess 0:01:31.080 --> 0:01:34.560 either one, right, the guinea pig doesn't die, the lab rat. 0:01:34.400 --> 0:01:38.080 Dies, Yeah, I guess, so let's go with the guinea 0:01:38.120 --> 0:01:38.800 pig for sure though. 0:01:38.880 --> 0:01:40.880 All right, well either way, we are dropping those into 0:01:40.880 --> 0:01:43.360 the stuff you should know feed uh, And we wanted 0:01:43.400 --> 0:01:45.840 to alert you so when you saw all these new things, 0:01:46.520 --> 0:01:49.760 you didn't rebel against us, like everyone hated you two 0:01:50.200 --> 0:01:52.240 when they delivered the World Free album. 0:01:52.680 --> 0:01:54.680 Right right, Yeah, I mean this is like, this is 0:01:54.720 --> 0:01:56.920 not just it's not a U two album, it's your 0:01:56.960 --> 0:01:59.360 new show. It's more important than any U two album. 0:01:59.400 --> 0:02:02.880 Oh well, you know I appreciate that. Yeah, So yeah, 0:02:02.920 --> 0:02:05.640 that's why they're there. And episode one is the great 0:02:05.720 --> 0:02:08.880 Janet Varney with we talked about the movie Tron, and 0:02:10.040 --> 0:02:11.760 that's the nature of the show as I talk to 0:02:11.840 --> 0:02:16.280 people about their favorite movie. And episode two is tig 0:02:16.400 --> 0:02:20.200 Nataro Wow, talking about the movie Mask And that one 0:02:20.480 --> 0:02:23.400 is a very special episode and I'll tease it with this. 0:02:24.080 --> 0:02:30.040 We recorded that interview or conversation rather seconds after she 0:02:30.160 --> 0:02:32.960 got the call that she was cancer free at the 0:02:32.960 --> 0:02:33.679 five year mark. 0:02:34.280 --> 0:02:35.000 Oh wow. 0:02:35.320 --> 0:02:38.720 So she started crying at the beginning and I didn't 0:02:38.760 --> 0:02:41.520 know what was going on. I gave her some time. 0:02:41.760 --> 0:02:43.920 I was freaking out, and it turned out to be 0:02:44.000 --> 0:02:47.240 good news. But and I explained that all the at 0:02:47.240 --> 0:02:48.919 the onset of the episode. But it turned out to 0:02:48.919 --> 0:02:50.760 be a very special experience. 0:02:51.040 --> 0:02:52.799 Man, Chuck, you're like Barbara Walters. 0:02:54.240 --> 0:02:55.520 I didn't get it out of her. It was just 0:02:55.639 --> 0:02:58.799 weird timing. Yeah, but anyway, those are in there, and 0:02:59.800 --> 0:03:02.200 it won't happen every week. But I would love for 0:03:02.200 --> 0:03:03.120 you to subscribe. 0:03:03.400 --> 0:03:05.560 Well, yeah, that's the way to get it, right, Yeah. 0:03:05.440 --> 0:03:07.920 Just subscribe anywhere you listen to podcasts. 0:03:08.040 --> 0:03:10.240 These are a couple of gifts, a little gems. 0:03:10.480 --> 0:03:12.919 That's right, and I appreciate your support on it. 0:03:13.320 --> 0:03:16.359 Yeah, well, way to go, man. Congratulations. I speak for 0:03:16.480 --> 0:03:18.080 me and the rest of the world when I say 0:03:18.160 --> 0:03:19.359 we are looking forward to this. 0:03:19.440 --> 0:03:21.520 Thanks dude. And you know I'm gonna have you on 0:03:21.560 --> 0:03:23.840 as a guess. It's gonna be very strange and awesome. 0:03:24.160 --> 0:03:24.359 Yeah. 0:03:24.400 --> 0:03:27.239 I think it'll be neat. I'll start crying too. 0:03:27.320 --> 0:03:28.720 Do you know what your favorite movie is that you 0:03:28.720 --> 0:03:29.120 would pick? 0:03:30.080 --> 0:03:32.520 I got a couple I think I could choose from sure, all. 0:03:32.480 --> 0:03:35.080 Right, well, hold on to that then, okay, and we'll 0:03:35.160 --> 0:03:36.080 just pick that up later. 0:03:36.280 --> 0:03:38.120 Okay, Well, congrats again man. 0:03:38.040 --> 0:03:41.200 Thanks pal. Shall we warm the globe? Yeah? 0:03:41.280 --> 0:03:45.840 All right, So, Chuck, I don't know if you've heard 0:03:46.200 --> 0:03:49.840 about this term recently, but it's been in the news lately. 0:03:51.000 --> 0:03:53.960 Global warming. Are you familiar? 0:03:54.640 --> 0:03:55.480 It does ring a bell? 0:03:55.920 --> 0:03:59.200 Okay, well, just in case you For those people who 0:03:59.240 --> 0:04:02.800 aren't aware of global warming, global warming is what we're 0:04:02.800 --> 0:04:06.360 talking about today, and a lot of people confuse it 0:04:06.480 --> 0:04:09.400 or use it interchangeably with climate change, and it turns 0:04:09.440 --> 0:04:15.120 out that's not actually fully accurate. Global warming is a 0:04:15.200 --> 0:04:19.120 symptom of climate change as a whole, and climate change 0:04:19.160 --> 0:04:22.560 is a whole bunch of differences to the Earth's climate. 0:04:22.600 --> 0:04:25.320 We'll get into what climate is in a second, and 0:04:25.400 --> 0:04:29.120 one of those is global warming. Also things like extreme 0:04:29.160 --> 0:04:35.080 weather events, increased drought, increased temperatures, sea level rises, all 0:04:35.120 --> 0:04:38.039 these things put together, that's climate change, right, or the 0:04:38.120 --> 0:04:40.840 result of climate change, and global warming is one of them. 0:04:40.880 --> 0:04:43.400 So global warming is climate change, but not all climate 0:04:43.440 --> 0:04:46.320 change is global warming. I just wanted to make sure 0:04:46.320 --> 0:04:47.719 we got that out of the way to begin with. 0:04:47.800 --> 0:04:50.200 So, like the square rectangle thing, which I can still. 0:04:49.960 --> 0:04:52.280 Never keeps straight, well, and I think the what. 0:04:53.400 --> 0:04:55.799 Like, every square is not a rectangle, but every rectangle 0:04:55.880 --> 0:04:58.160 square or the reverse of that, whichever it is. 0:04:58.920 --> 0:05:02.360 I've never heard that before. What I even aced geometry 0:05:02.400 --> 0:05:03.360 the second time I took it. 0:05:03.680 --> 0:05:07.920 Oh, it was clearly a class that didn't care about squares. 0:05:08.200 --> 0:05:11.080 Yeah, I guess not. I mean they always talked about rectangles, 0:05:11.160 --> 0:05:12.520 it squares were never brought up. 0:05:13.640 --> 0:05:16.320 Yeah. I think it's you know, I'm not going to 0:05:16.400 --> 0:05:20.799 dig myself a hole there. That's probably be so global 0:05:20.800 --> 0:05:22.840 warming if you want just a kind of a straight 0:05:22.880 --> 0:05:26.560 up definition. Is the science community defines it as this, 0:05:26.720 --> 0:05:30.160 and they should know. It's a significant increase in the 0:05:31.200 --> 0:05:35.960 climatic temperature over a short, relatively short period of time 0:05:36.520 --> 0:05:41.480 as a result of activities of humans. And by increase, 0:05:41.600 --> 0:05:46.400 in short, we're talking like one degree celsius in a 0:05:46.400 --> 0:05:47.520 couple of hundred years. 0:05:48.000 --> 0:05:52.640 Is global warming, right, because the effects of climate are 0:05:52.720 --> 0:05:59.120 so pronounced on such a like with just small incremental changes. 0:05:59.160 --> 0:06:03.160 Oh yeah, that that that that is climate change, something 0:06:03.160 --> 0:06:04.960 that if you just look at it on paper, you're like, 0:06:05.000 --> 0:06:08.640 that's nothing. Who cares about one degree? Actually, the point 0:06:08.680 --> 0:06:12.040 of global warming is that when you have these these 0:06:12.080 --> 0:06:16.120 this increase in global temperatures, a whole basket of events 0:06:16.160 --> 0:06:19.919 starts to take place. That's climate change. Like global warming 0:06:20.600 --> 0:06:23.080 is related to climate change, right, it can trigger other 0:06:23.120 --> 0:06:25.200 climate changes, that's right. 0:06:25.279 --> 0:06:28.279 And you hear a lot of people talk about you 0:06:28.320 --> 0:06:31.600 hear a lot of numbskulls talking about weather as if 0:06:31.600 --> 0:06:35.840 it is climate, right, like a very harsh winter might come, 0:06:35.920 --> 0:06:38.440 and they'll say, yeah, global warming. 0:06:38.600 --> 0:06:42.200 Right, that's a great numbskull. 0:06:42.680 --> 0:06:45.880 It's not the same thing. Weather is local, it's short term. 0:06:46.400 --> 0:06:50.680 Climate is long term. It's not even like the weather 0:06:50.800 --> 0:06:52.679 over a period of a year or even a couple 0:06:52.680 --> 0:06:57.679 of years. We're talking about predictable, generally predictable average weather 0:06:57.720 --> 0:07:01.200 conditions in a region over a long, long period of time. 0:07:01.360 --> 0:07:05.919 So you can safely say in Green Bay, Wisconsin, it 0:07:06.080 --> 0:07:08.720 is cold in the winter time. That is the climate 0:07:08.800 --> 0:07:12.560 of Green Bay in that Midwestern region as a whole. Right. 0:07:12.600 --> 0:07:17.560 But if it snows in February February of you know, 0:07:17.680 --> 0:07:21.320 next year, on a Tuesday, then that's just the weather. 0:07:22.160 --> 0:07:27.480 Yeah. Or if it snows in Miami once, then that's 0:07:27.600 --> 0:07:32.000 not a refutation of what climate change means. That is 0:07:32.000 --> 0:07:34.160 a weird anomaly. And those happen. 0:07:34.840 --> 0:07:38.000 Yeah, and this is a this is a grabster and 0:07:38.160 --> 0:07:41.400 strickling code joint, by the way, So that's why heavy 0:07:41.560 --> 0:07:45.200 it popped off the page if you noticed. But one 0:07:45.240 --> 0:07:47.760 of the things they wisely picked point out is what 0:07:47.840 --> 0:07:50.960 you just said that, Yes, some weather anomaly happens like that, 0:07:51.160 --> 0:07:53.840 even if it happened three years in a row. I 0:07:53.880 --> 0:07:56.080 think a lot of scientists would pay attention to why 0:07:56.120 --> 0:07:58.640 it snowed in Miami three years in a row. Right, 0:07:58.920 --> 0:08:01.200 But if it went back to normal or something like 0:08:01.240 --> 0:08:03.960 that like that, that would not necessarily be climate change. 0:08:04.000 --> 0:08:07.800 It's just a weird occurrence. Right. Climate change is this 0:08:08.920 --> 0:08:11.080 change in predictable changes. 0:08:11.440 --> 0:08:14.320 Yeah, and that can take like thousands and ten thousands 0:08:14.360 --> 0:08:16.120 of years sometimes. 0:08:15.840 --> 0:08:19.640 Right normost times under natural circumstances. And here is where 0:08:19.760 --> 0:08:23.120 we come to the current use for global warming. Right. 0:08:23.800 --> 0:08:29.760 Global warming can happen by itself naturally. The Earth, basically 0:08:30.000 --> 0:08:33.440 as in its current presence state, swings back and forth 0:08:33.480 --> 0:08:36.840 between glacial periods and interglacial periods, so cool periods and 0:08:36.880 --> 0:08:40.640 warm periods, and for an ice age to occur, the 0:08:40.880 --> 0:08:44.200 global temperature only needs to drop by about five degrees 0:08:44.240 --> 0:08:46.280 celsius on average, and all of a sudden, we're in 0:08:46.280 --> 0:08:47.040 an ice age. 0:08:46.920 --> 0:08:48.880 Right, Yeah, that doesn't mean the entire Earth is a 0:08:48.880 --> 0:08:51.120 big round cube, round cube. 0:08:51.240 --> 0:08:55.240 Wow, that's like a square rectangle, but not at all 0:08:55.320 --> 0:08:55.640 the same. 0:08:55.720 --> 0:08:57.680 Well, you know when you go to a fancy cocktail 0:08:57.720 --> 0:09:00.360 bar and they have those awesome round I want to 0:09:00.360 --> 0:09:05.040 say ice cubes again, ice spheres. Yep, that's not what 0:09:05.080 --> 0:09:07.280 the Earth looks like necessarily during an ice age. 0:09:07.800 --> 0:09:12.040 No, no, no, it's just much cooler, and like, because it's 0:09:12.520 --> 0:09:16.680 cooler by say, five degrees celsius. Like, a lot of 0:09:16.679 --> 0:09:19.240 stuff changes. It's the same thing as global warming, but 0:09:19.320 --> 0:09:22.400 on the opposite end, right, Like you have changes in 0:09:22.800 --> 0:09:26.160 migration patterns, you have changes in habitat for animals, some 0:09:26.160 --> 0:09:30.600 things go extinct during the transition, sea levels change, A 0:09:30.640 --> 0:09:33.280 lot of stuff happens, right, So this is part of 0:09:33.320 --> 0:09:36.800 the normal process of the Earth. But the Earth's kind 0:09:36.800 --> 0:09:39.360 of got it, like, hey, hey, I've got this under control. 0:09:39.559 --> 0:09:42.959 I don't need any help from you humans. Sure, And 0:09:43.559 --> 0:09:45.560 when I do do this, this is the Earth talking 0:09:45.640 --> 0:09:48.480 and first person. When I do change from a glacial 0:09:48.480 --> 0:09:52.320 period to a warm period, it takes many tens and 0:09:52.400 --> 0:09:57.600 tens of thousands of years, right, yeah, you humans here again, 0:09:57.640 --> 0:10:01.800 this is still me the Earth. Humans are really messing 0:10:01.920 --> 0:10:05.440 with my program here and accelerating the process. And you 0:10:05.480 --> 0:10:07.760 know what, I'll even give you a clue as to 0:10:07.800 --> 0:10:12.240 what you're doing that's making it so bad carbon dioxide emissions. Bam, 0:10:12.480 --> 0:10:15.240 said the Earth and dropped its microphone and walked away. 0:10:15.440 --> 0:10:17.000 Yeah, and then it went back and picked up as 0:10:17.040 --> 0:10:20.360 mic and said, and maybe stop littering, yeah, and then 0:10:20.520 --> 0:10:24.640 dropped the mic again. Yeah, we should talk a minute 0:10:24.679 --> 0:10:29.600 about a wonderful group called the IPCC, the Intergovernmental Panel 0:10:29.679 --> 0:10:32.400 on Climate Change. Yes, a lot of very smart people there. 0:10:32.720 --> 0:10:36.160 Oh man, can I just say it's to me, the 0:10:36.240 --> 0:10:40.199 IPCC is one of the coolest things humanity's ever come 0:10:40.320 --> 0:10:43.640 up with. Yeah, cause it's the world coming together saying 0:10:43.640 --> 0:10:45.160 we got a real problem on our hands. Let's get 0:10:45.160 --> 0:10:47.880 our smartest people together and create a database here of 0:10:48.760 --> 0:10:49.640 good science. 0:10:49.960 --> 0:10:53.959 Yeah. And those people are specifically about twenty five hundred, 0:10:54.120 --> 0:10:58.199 actually more twenty five hundred scientists from around the world 0:10:59.000 --> 0:11:04.319 meeting together like Paris, because why not, right, Sure, they 0:11:04.320 --> 0:11:06.560 did this about ten years ago and came up with 0:11:06.600 --> 0:11:10.800 a lot of well, sort of a lot of distressing observations. 0:11:11.600 --> 0:11:14.240 We'll just tick through a few of these as far 0:11:14.280 --> 0:11:18.640 as temperature goes, and you know, like we said, like 0:11:19.040 --> 0:11:21.960 one degree celsias can make a big swing, and what 0:11:22.080 --> 0:11:26.240 kind of changes we see on the planet. Between nineteen 0:11:26.240 --> 0:11:30.880 oh one and two thousand, the Earth warmed point six degrees, 0:11:32.320 --> 0:11:36.040 so that's you. If you adjust that to nineteen oh 0:11:36.040 --> 0:11:38.360 six to two thousand and six, it climbs up to 0:11:38.480 --> 0:11:41.720 point seventy four degrees, So about three quarters of a 0:11:41.760 --> 0:11:46.400 degree in temperature rise during that one hundred year period, right. 0:11:46.760 --> 0:11:48.920 And there's a lot, It is a lot, And so 0:11:49.000 --> 0:11:51.160 a lot of people say, well, you guys just said 0:11:51.200 --> 0:11:53.720 the Earth tends to do this on its own, maybe 0:11:53.760 --> 0:11:56.720 that's it. Well, actually, no, there's a lot of science 0:11:56.800 --> 0:11:59.520 that the IPCC has been able to come up with 0:12:00.120 --> 0:12:03.800 that shows pretty clearly that this is human cause stuff 0:12:03.840 --> 0:12:08.120 that's actually creating this increase in temperature. And again it 0:12:08.120 --> 0:12:10.600 seems to come back to carbon dioxide. 0:12:11.120 --> 0:12:14.280 Yeah, should we took over a few of these other observations, Yeah, 0:12:14.320 --> 0:12:18.560 for sure. Let me see. Here's a good one. The 0:12:18.640 --> 0:12:23.920 ocean's temperature has increased to at least depths of almost 0:12:24.000 --> 0:12:27.880 ten thousand feet down. The ocean's temperature has increased. 0:12:27.840 --> 0:12:32.360 Yep, not a good thing, because that's how like what 0:12:32.520 --> 0:12:35.000 glaciers tend to melt is from underneath, That's right. 0:12:35.720 --> 0:12:39.440 What else, Chuck, Westerly winds have been growing stronger. Yeah, 0:12:39.640 --> 0:12:43.400 Droughts have become more intense, lasted longer, covered bigger swaths 0:12:43.440 --> 0:12:48.920 of land. What else Here, Precipitation has increased in the 0:12:48.960 --> 0:12:52.679 Eastern Americas or the Europe parts of Asia. 0:12:52.800 --> 0:12:54.280 But it's decreased elsewhere. 0:12:55.120 --> 0:12:56.880 Yeah, And that's I mean, we'll get into this a 0:12:56.880 --> 0:12:59.920 little bit. A little bit of global warming can mean 0:13:00.559 --> 0:13:03.079 longer growing and better growing seasons in some parts of 0:13:03.120 --> 0:13:06.040 the world, but devastating to other parts of the world. 0:13:06.320 --> 0:13:06.880 Exactly. 0:13:07.840 --> 0:13:09.240 I guess I let the cat out of the bag there, 0:13:09.240 --> 0:13:12.560 But we'll go over that again later. And how about 0:13:12.600 --> 0:13:14.520 this on the warming trend of the last fifty years 0:13:15.160 --> 0:13:18.559 is about double of the last one hundred years. So 0:13:19.040 --> 0:13:21.559 what that means is the rate is increasing. The rate 0:13:21.600 --> 0:13:22.640 of warming is increasing. 0:13:22.800 --> 0:13:27.360 Yeah, actually so, I think the IPCC has determined that 0:13:27.760 --> 0:13:31.000 each of the past forty years has been warmer than 0:13:31.040 --> 0:13:35.119 the average temperature of the twentieth century, and that twenty 0:13:35.200 --> 0:13:38.120 sixteen was the hottest year on record, and the twelve 0:13:38.160 --> 0:13:43.160 warmest years on record have occurred since nineteen ninety eight. Dude, 0:13:43.200 --> 0:13:47.880 you should see the we'll get into it some of 0:13:47.920 --> 0:13:50.679 the charts that you can find. And again, like if 0:13:50.720 --> 0:13:54.280 you're even remotely interested in this, like just go look 0:13:54.360 --> 0:13:57.240 up the IPCC's stuff in some of it, like you 0:13:57.720 --> 0:14:01.200 have to be a climatologist to understand what in the 0:14:01.280 --> 0:14:04.760 name of God they're talking about. But other stuff, especially 0:14:04.760 --> 0:14:08.440 if you read like executive summaries of studies and reports 0:14:08.440 --> 0:14:11.520 and stuff like that's meant to for like a non 0:14:11.600 --> 0:14:16.640 scientist specifically often like policy makers to read and understand, right, 0:14:16.720 --> 0:14:19.880 so the average person can understand that. And they have 0:14:20.000 --> 0:14:23.920 some really great stuff that's showing like all of the 0:14:24.040 --> 0:14:27.600 changes that the world is going through thanks to these 0:14:27.680 --> 0:14:30.280 increases in the global temperature. And again, some of the 0:14:30.400 --> 0:14:33.440 charts that they have are just stunning when you see them, 0:14:33.960 --> 0:14:37.920 because it's like going along fine, going along fine, everything's fine, 0:14:37.920 --> 0:14:40.080 and they oh, my god, what the hell just happened? 0:14:40.280 --> 0:14:43.880 Basically that was the Industrial Revolution? 0:14:44.400 --> 0:14:46.360 It was. But also one of the things that they 0:14:46.360 --> 0:14:49.080 found recently, especially in the last like three four years, 0:14:49.120 --> 0:14:52.680 I believe, is that it is that I think you, 0:14:53.000 --> 0:14:57.600 like you were saying the increase in global temperatures, but 0:14:57.640 --> 0:15:02.520 also again the increase in carbon dioxide has really shot 0:15:02.600 --> 0:15:06.680 up over the last like fifty years, like from from 0:15:06.720 --> 0:15:09.240 the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. I think they usually 0:15:09.280 --> 0:15:12.200 start that about seventeen fifty to maybe eighteen hundred at 0:15:12.240 --> 0:15:16.200 the latest, up to like nineteen fifty or so nineteen sixty, 0:15:16.840 --> 0:15:20.120 Like there's a pretty surprising increase, but it is just 0:15:20.320 --> 0:15:23.880 skyrocketed in the last like fifty or sixty years. So 0:15:25.280 --> 0:15:28.560 they're seeing like this, the science is bearing out the 0:15:29.560 --> 0:15:32.640 kind of the general theory of global warming, which we 0:15:32.640 --> 0:15:36.360 should probably talk about this theory of global warming, right, because, 0:15:36.440 --> 0:15:41.680 like we said, it's not just human caused a human 0:15:41.720 --> 0:15:47.360 cause mechanism, Like basically, it's an already existing natural mechanism 0:15:47.680 --> 0:15:53.240 that basically keeps the earth nice and toasty for life 0:15:53.640 --> 0:15:54.160 and water. 0:15:54.360 --> 0:15:55.600 It keeps us from being Mars. 0:15:55.720 --> 0:15:58.920 But we have started messing with it big time because 0:15:58.960 --> 0:16:02.560 of our our contributions to this normal cycle. 0:16:03.080 --> 0:16:04.920 Yeah, so should we talk about the greenhouse effect a 0:16:04.920 --> 0:16:05.280 little bit? 0:16:05.440 --> 0:16:06.000 Yeah? 0:16:06.080 --> 0:16:09.320 The greenhouse effect is literally what keeps us from being Mars. 0:16:10.440 --> 0:16:14.800 It is a good thing when it occurs naturally because 0:16:14.840 --> 0:16:17.440 like you said, it keeps us on. You know, it 0:16:17.480 --> 0:16:20.640 makes earth habitable and lovely and nice for the best part, 0:16:21.480 --> 0:16:25.240 So they strickling in the grabster. I'm not sure who 0:16:25.240 --> 0:16:27.160 came up with the car analogy, but it's a pretty 0:16:27.200 --> 0:16:27.480 good one. 0:16:27.640 --> 0:16:29.040 I agree. 0:16:29.160 --> 0:16:31.080 If you go into your car on a hot summer 0:16:31.160 --> 0:16:32.600 day and you get in your car, it's been sitting 0:16:32.600 --> 0:16:33.960 out the sun for a little while, it's a lot 0:16:34.000 --> 0:16:37.920 hotter than it is outside. It's kind of a no brainer, 0:16:38.040 --> 0:16:40.400 but you might not have thought about why that happens. 0:16:41.440 --> 0:16:45.320 It's not magic. What's happening is the sun that's coming 0:16:45.360 --> 0:16:49.000 in through your car windows gets absorbed by the interior 0:16:49.080 --> 0:16:52.240 of your car, whether it's your seats or the dashboard 0:16:52.480 --> 0:16:56.440 or basically kind of everything in the car absorbs that heat, 0:16:56.640 --> 0:17:01.200 and that heat is then eventually emitted back out and 0:17:01.320 --> 0:17:04.520 radiated out from the seats and things like that. But 0:17:04.640 --> 0:17:07.639 it's at a different wavelength than that initial sunlight that 0:17:07.760 --> 0:17:09.879 came in, so some of it might get back out 0:17:10.119 --> 0:17:12.720 of the window, but most of it stays kind of 0:17:12.720 --> 0:17:15.679 trapped in that car. So the end result of the 0:17:15.720 --> 0:17:17.879 net net, as they would say in a corporate meeting, 0:17:18.680 --> 0:17:22.720 is that there's less energy going out than coming in. 0:17:23.240 --> 0:17:25.280 Right so your car is going to get hotter. 0:17:25.760 --> 0:17:28.720 So pretend your car is the planet Earth basically, which 0:17:28.720 --> 0:17:32.080 would be great, and the windshield is the atmosphere, right. Yeah, 0:17:32.280 --> 0:17:35.960 So that's the greenhouse effect in a nutshell, as it 0:17:36.000 --> 0:17:41.600 relates to the actual Earth. About seventy percent of the 0:17:41.640 --> 0:17:46.560 solar energy that is directed toward Earth right, stays on 0:17:46.640 --> 0:17:50.000 the planet, right, And instead of it being absorbed by 0:17:50.440 --> 0:17:53.119 car seats and floor mats and stuff like that, it 0:17:53.119 --> 0:17:58.239 gets absorbed by the ocean or land, or plants or 0:17:58.280 --> 0:18:02.880 you right, right. And so about thirty percent of that 0:18:03.000 --> 0:18:06.840 stuff that didn't make it through it was reflected back 0:18:06.920 --> 0:18:11.200 by clouds, particles in the atmosphere, a bunch of other stuff. Right. 0:18:11.720 --> 0:18:14.160 But as you're sitting there getting warm by the sun, 0:18:14.600 --> 0:18:18.639 you actually have the potential to re emit that heat, 0:18:18.840 --> 0:18:21.080 and so that stuff starts to go back through the 0:18:21.119 --> 0:18:24.119 atmosphere out of space. Some of that stuff makes it 0:18:24.160 --> 0:18:28.200 out into space, but there are other particles that take 0:18:28.280 --> 0:18:32.640 that solar energy, usually in the form of heat, and 0:18:32.920 --> 0:18:36.160 absorb it. And when they absorb it, they re emit 0:18:36.240 --> 0:18:38.440 heat and then they direct it back down at Earth 0:18:38.640 --> 0:18:41.320 and the process continues, and in some of that some 0:18:41.400 --> 0:18:44.000 cases some of the stuff that they re emit, they 0:18:44.080 --> 0:18:48.760 end up reabsorbing themselves, so that there is more heat 0:18:48.880 --> 0:18:51.960 that's being trapped and sustained on Earth than is being 0:18:52.080 --> 0:18:55.040 allowed to escape back into space at any given time. Yeah, 0:18:55.200 --> 0:18:58.800 just like your car, right, And again, this is what 0:18:59.359 --> 0:19:03.920 this is, like a positive feedback cycle that creates the atmosphere. 0:19:03.960 --> 0:19:07.640 It also sustains the atmosphere. It also keeps water here 0:19:07.680 --> 0:19:12.280 on Earth because water tends to heat up and rise, 0:19:12.680 --> 0:19:16.080 but then it will it will cool off in the 0:19:16.119 --> 0:19:19.480 atmosphere and fall back down as precipitation. And as long 0:19:19.520 --> 0:19:21.639 as it can fall back down in the atmosphere and 0:19:21.720 --> 0:19:23.840 nucleate around some of these particles that are trapped in 0:19:23.880 --> 0:19:27.880 the atmosphere, we've got water here on Earth, that's right. 0:19:28.119 --> 0:19:31.879 So it's all thanks to the wonderful, glorious greenhouse effect. 0:19:32.720 --> 0:19:35.080 Yeah, so that feels like a good place to pause. 0:19:36.040 --> 0:19:38.919 Let people let that soak in a minute, like a 0:19:39.080 --> 0:19:40.800 hot sun on a black car seat. 0:19:41.000 --> 0:19:43.800 Like a warm chutney on your forehead. 0:19:44.440 --> 0:19:46.679 My god. And we'll be back a little bit to 0:19:46.720 --> 0:19:50.600 talk about the these gases in the atmosphere that we're 0:19:50.640 --> 0:20:20.680 talking about here, all right, So we're back I think 0:20:20.800 --> 0:20:23.600 everyone probably understands the greenhouse effect if you remember your 0:20:23.640 --> 0:20:26.160 hot car. Yeah, it's kind of a nice easy way 0:20:26.200 --> 0:20:29.280 to think about it. So, when you were explaining the 0:20:29.320 --> 0:20:34.600 more like the Earth's version of that with getting absorbed 0:20:34.840 --> 0:20:39.120 hitting things in the atmosphere, we're talking largely about three 0:20:39.240 --> 0:20:47.240 things carbon dioxide, methane gas, actually four things, nitrous oxide, 0:20:47.400 --> 0:20:48.680 and water vapor. 0:20:48.720 --> 0:20:50.360 And there are a lot of others, but as far 0:20:50.400 --> 0:20:56.600 as stuff that really has the biggest impact on global warming, 0:20:56.640 --> 0:20:57.480 it's these guys. 0:20:57.720 --> 0:20:59.520 Yeah, so we'll start with CO two excess. The when 0:20:59.520 --> 0:21:03.879 you hear about most often carbon emissions gets all the 0:21:03.880 --> 0:21:07.840 glory in the headlines these days. Carbon CO two is colorless, 0:21:07.880 --> 0:21:12.320 it's gas. It is a byproduct of the combustion of 0:21:12.440 --> 0:21:15.920 organic stuff, and it makes up a very small part 0:21:15.920 --> 0:21:19.120 of the arth atmosphere point zero four percent, and most 0:21:19.160 --> 0:21:22.080 of it that's up there has been there for a 0:21:22.119 --> 0:21:28.200 long long time. It's from volcanic activity. However, we are 0:21:28.240 --> 0:21:31.440 pumping lots and lots of CO two, additional CO two, 0:21:32.560 --> 0:21:35.440 and remember there's a delicate balance going on there as 0:21:35.440 --> 0:21:38.640 it is. So like you said, mother Earth doesn't need 0:21:38.720 --> 0:21:41.119 us adding to this, and we have been adding CO 0:21:41.359 --> 0:21:44.200 two like it's Gangbusters. Yeah. 0:21:44.440 --> 0:21:47.200 So like that, you remember when I was talking about 0:21:47.200 --> 0:21:50.480 how water turns into vapor and rises and falls back down. 0:21:50.560 --> 0:21:53.760 That's the rain cycle. There's also a carbon cycle where 0:21:53.880 --> 0:21:57.040 carbon molecules just kind of go back and forth between 0:21:57.080 --> 0:22:01.400 the atmosphere and the earth. And apparently every year two 0:22:01.560 --> 0:22:05.119 hundred and thirty gigatons of carbon are released into the 0:22:05.160 --> 0:22:08.359 atmosphere from the Earth, from plants, from rocks, from us, 0:22:08.960 --> 0:22:11.919 and then about the same amount another two hundred and 0:22:11.920 --> 0:22:15.600 thirty gigatons comes back down and is locked into Earth 0:22:15.800 --> 0:22:18.560 from the atmosphere. Right, And this is, like you said, Chuck, 0:22:18.640 --> 0:22:20.960 like a pretty nice balance. The Earth has got this, 0:22:21.119 --> 0:22:24.400 Please don't mess with it. But when we take carbon 0:22:24.880 --> 0:22:28.159 and unlock it from these carbon sinks, like you know, 0:22:28.520 --> 0:22:31.560 we bust up rocks and mining operations, we burn fossil 0:22:31.600 --> 0:22:35.280 fuels that have carbon locked into them, we cut down 0:22:35.359 --> 0:22:39.360 trees and burn those things. Is fuel that releases more carbon, 0:22:39.640 --> 0:22:43.879 and it messes up that delicate pretty much even exchange 0:22:44.000 --> 0:22:45.679 between the atmosphere and the Earth. 0:22:46.080 --> 0:22:48.119 Yeah, and that's a big problem because carbon has a 0:22:48.160 --> 0:22:53.080 knack for absorbing infrared radiation, so that energy that escapes 0:22:53.119 --> 0:22:56.800