WEBVTT - How Global Warming Works 0:00:01.120 --> 0:00:04.600 Welcome to Stuff you Should Know from House Stuff Works 0:00:04.600 --> 0:00:14.680 dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. 0:00:14.760 --> 0:00:19.840 And there's the Chipper Cheery, Charles W. Chuck Bryant, how Deep. 0:00:20.120 --> 0:00:23.360 And there's Jerry over there. Say hi, Jerry, you know what? 0:00:25.079 --> 0:00:27.880 How are you doing? Man? I'm well, sir, how are you? 0:00:28.120 --> 0:00:30.760 I'm pretty well myself. I'm feeling all right. Feel a 0:00:30.760 --> 0:00:35.199 little fit, yeah, yeah, yeah. Um. You're a little sweaty 0:00:35.560 --> 0:00:39.000 as you can tell. But I'm all right. It's gross, 0:00:39.280 --> 0:00:46.959 it is. I don't smell dowey. Okay, good so, friends, listeners, 0:00:48.120 --> 0:00:51.920 country man, Uh, you're gonna notice a little something different 0:00:51.960 --> 0:00:56.280 in this week's feed Tomorrow. This bears a little explanation. 0:00:56.520 --> 0:01:00.120 We are dropping episodes one and two of my new 0:01:00.640 --> 0:01:04.959 movie interview show movie Crush Do Do Do. We're dropping 0:01:04.959 --> 0:01:07.680 those into the Stuff you Should Know feed. Uh, something 0:01:07.720 --> 0:01:09.720 we've never done here at the network, but we're gonna 0:01:10.440 --> 0:01:13.160 I guess I'm the lab rat on this one. The 0:01:13.200 --> 0:01:17.039 guinea pig, the guinea pig. Yeah, I guess either one right. 0:01:17.520 --> 0:01:21.280 The guinea pig doesn't die, the lab rat dies, Yeah, 0:01:21.319 --> 0:01:24.000 I guess. So let's go with the guinea pig for sure. 0:01:24.080 --> 0:01:26.039 That all right. Well either way, we are dropping those 0:01:26.080 --> 0:01:28.399 into the stuff you should know feed uh, and we 0:01:28.480 --> 0:01:30.479 wanted to alert you so when you saw all these 0:01:30.560 --> 0:01:34.759 new things, you didn't rebel against us like everyone hated 0:01:34.800 --> 0:01:38.800 YouTube when they delivered the World Free album, right right, Yeah, 0:01:38.880 --> 0:01:40.679 I mean this is like, this is not just it's 0:01:40.680 --> 0:01:43.080 not a You two album, it's your new show. It's 0:01:43.080 --> 0:01:45.959 more important than any You two album. Well you know 0:01:46.080 --> 0:01:48.960 I appreciate that. Uh so, yeah, that's why they're there. 0:01:48.960 --> 0:01:51.960 An Episode one is uh the Great Janet Varney with 0:01:52.240 --> 0:01:55.720 we talked about the movie Tron and um, that's the 0:01:56.040 --> 0:01:57.680 nature of the show as I talked to people about 0:01:57.680 --> 0:02:03.040 their favorite movie. And episode two is uh tig Nataro 0:02:03.520 --> 0:02:06.120 talking about the movie Mask and that one is a 0:02:06.240 --> 0:02:09.600 very special episode and I'll tease it with this. We 0:02:09.639 --> 0:02:15.720 recorded that interview or conversation rather seconds after she got 0:02:15.760 --> 0:02:18.520 the call that she was cancer free at the five 0:02:18.600 --> 0:02:23.080 year mark. Oh wow. So uh she started crying at 0:02:23.080 --> 0:02:24.880 the beginning, and I didn't know what was going on. 0:02:25.960 --> 0:02:28.600 I gave her some time. I was freaking out, and 0:02:28.600 --> 0:02:31.640 it turned out to be good news. But and I 0:02:31.639 --> 0:02:33.760 explained that all the the onset of the episode, but 0:02:33.800 --> 0:02:37.000 it turned out to be a very special experience. Man, Chuck, 0:02:37.000 --> 0:02:40.560 your like Barbara Walters, I didn't get it out of her. 0:02:40.600 --> 0:02:43.840 It was just weird timing. But anyway, those are in there, 0:02:44.000 --> 0:02:47.320 and uh, it won't happen every week, but I would 0:02:47.360 --> 0:02:49.680 love for you to subscribe. Well, yeah, that's the way 0:02:49.720 --> 0:02:52.200 to get it, right, Yeah, just subscribe anywhere you you 0:02:52.240 --> 0:02:54.760 listen to podcasts. These are a couple of gifts a 0:02:54.800 --> 0:02:58.920 little Jim, that's right, and I appreciate your support on it. Yeah, 0:02:58.960 --> 0:03:01.760 well where to go, man can gratulations. I speak for 0:03:01.840 --> 0:03:03.440 me and the rest of the world when I say 0:03:03.560 --> 0:03:05.880 we are looking forward to this, Thanks dude. And you 0:03:05.919 --> 0:03:07.840 know I'm gonna have you on as a guess. That's 0:03:07.880 --> 0:03:10.320 gonna be very strange and awesome. Yeah, I think it'll 0:03:10.320 --> 0:03:13.040 be neat. I'll start crying to do you know what 0:03:13.080 --> 0:03:15.799 your favorite movie is that you would pick? I got 0:03:15.800 --> 0:03:17.960 a couple I think I could choose from. Sure, all right, 0:03:17.960 --> 0:03:20.200 we'll hold on to that then, okay, and we'll just 0:03:20.280 --> 0:03:23.320 we'll just pick that up later. Okay. Well, congrats again, man, 0:03:23.400 --> 0:03:27.000 thanks pal. Shall we warm the globe? Yeah? All right, 0:03:27.760 --> 0:03:31.840 so Chuck, um, I don't know if you've heard about 0:03:32.000 --> 0:03:36.120 this term recently, but it's been in the news lately. Uh, 0:03:36.320 --> 0:03:42.480 global warming, Are you familiar? It does ring a bell? Okay, well, 0:03:42.680 --> 0:03:45.240 just in case you For those people who aren't aware 0:03:45.240 --> 0:03:49.560 of global warming, global warming is what we're talking about today, 0:03:49.760 --> 0:03:52.080 And UM, A lot of people confuse it or use 0:03:52.120 --> 0:03:55.160 it interchangeably with climate change, and it turns out that's 0:03:55.200 --> 0:04:01.720 not actually fully accurate. Global warming is a symptom of 0:04:01.840 --> 0:04:04.880 climate change as a whole. Climate change is a whole 0:04:04.920 --> 0:04:08.480 bunch of differences to the Earth's climate. Will get into 0:04:08.480 --> 0:04:11.040 what climate is in a second, um, and one of 0:04:11.080 --> 0:04:15.400 those is global warming. Also things like extreme weather events, 0:04:15.640 --> 0:04:20.600 increased drought, increased temperatures, um, sea level rises, all these 0:04:20.640 --> 0:04:23.880 things put together, that's climate change, right, or the results 0:04:23.920 --> 0:04:26.200 of climate change, and global warming is one of them. 0:04:26.240 --> 0:04:28.760 So global warming is climate change, but not all climate 0:04:28.839 --> 0:04:31.680 change is global warming. It just wanted to make sure 0:04:31.720 --> 0:04:33.080 we got that out of the way to begin with. 0:04:33.279 --> 0:04:35.480 Like the square rectangle thing, which I can still never 0:04:35.560 --> 0:04:39.239 keep straight well, and I think the what like every 0:04:39.360 --> 0:04:41.760 square is not a rectangle but every rectangles square or 0:04:42.120 --> 0:04:44.920 the reverse of that, whichever it is. I've never heard 0:04:44.920 --> 0:04:48.400 that before. I even ace geometry the second time I 0:04:48.480 --> 0:04:53.760 took it. It was clearly class that didn't care about squares. Yeah, 0:04:53.839 --> 0:04:56.440 I guess not. I mean they always talked about rectangles, 0:04:56.520 --> 0:05:00.680 but squares were never brought up. Yeah, I think it's 0:05:01.040 --> 0:05:02.640 you know, I'm not going to take myself ahold there. 0:05:03.880 --> 0:05:07.480 That's probably so global warming if you want just a 0:05:07.680 --> 0:05:10.400 kind of a straight up definition is uh. The science 0:05:10.440 --> 0:05:13.920 community defines it as this, and they should know. It's 0:05:13.920 --> 0:05:19.760 a significant increase in the climatic temperature over a short, 0:05:19.880 --> 0:05:23.480 relatively short period of time as a result of activities 0:05:23.520 --> 0:05:28.880 of humans. And by increase in short, we're talking like 0:05:29.400 --> 0:05:33.440 one degree celsius in a couple of hundred years. Is 0:05:33.480 --> 0:05:38.240 global warming, right, Because the effects of climate are so 0:05:39.760 --> 0:05:44.480 pronounced on such a like with just small incremental changes, 0:05:45.320 --> 0:05:48.599 that that that that that is climate change, something that 0:05:48.640 --> 0:05:50.320 if you just look at it on paper, you're like, 0:05:50.360 --> 0:05:53.960 that's nothing. Who cares about one degree? Actually, the point 0:05:54.040 --> 0:05:57.400 of global warming is that when you have these these 0:05:57.440 --> 0:06:01.480 this increase in global temperatures, a whole basket of events 0:06:01.520 --> 0:06:05.279 starts to take place. That's climate change. Like global warming 0:06:05.960 --> 0:06:08.440 is related to climate change, right, it can trigger other 0:06:08.480 --> 0:06:12.280 climate changes. That's right. And Uh, you hear a lot 0:06:12.279 --> 0:06:14.320 of people talk about you hear a lot of numb 0:06:14.360 --> 0:06:19.560 skulls talking about weather as if it is climate, like, uh, 0:06:19.600 --> 0:06:21.920 a very harsh winter might come, and they'll say you 0:06:23.000 --> 0:06:28.000 have global warming. Right, that's a great numb skull. Uh, 0:06:28.040 --> 0:06:30.640 it's not the same thing. Whether is is local, it's 0:06:30.640 --> 0:06:34.760 short term. Climate is long term. Um, it's not even 0:06:34.839 --> 0:06:37.360 like the weather over a period of a year or 0:06:37.440 --> 0:06:41.160 even a couple of years. We're talking about predictable, generally 0:06:41.200 --> 0:06:45.640 predictable average weather conditions in a region over a long, 0:06:45.640 --> 0:06:49.120 long period of time. So you can safely say in 0:06:49.279 --> 0:06:53.039 Green Bay, Wisconsin, it is cold in the wintertime. That 0:06:53.279 --> 0:06:56.960 is the climate of Green Bay and that Midwestern region 0:06:57.000 --> 0:07:00.960 as a whole. Right, But if it snows in February 0:07:01.120 --> 0:07:05.560 February of you know, next year, on a Tuesday, then 0:07:05.720 --> 0:07:09.520 that's just the weather. Yeah. Or if it's snows in 0:07:09.560 --> 0:07:15.520 Miami once, then that's not a reputation of what climate 0:07:15.600 --> 0:07:20.400 change means. That is a weird anomaly and those happen. Yeah, 0:07:20.480 --> 0:07:23.360 And um, this is a this is a grabster and 0:07:23.520 --> 0:07:26.960 strickling code joint, by the way, So that's why it 0:07:27.120 --> 0:07:30.560 popped off the page if you noticed. But um, one 0:07:30.600 --> 0:07:33.120 of the things they wisely pick point out is what 0:07:33.200 --> 0:07:36.040 you just said that, Yes, some some weather anomaly happens 0:07:36.080 --> 0:07:38.240 like that, even if it happened three years in a row. 0:07:39.120 --> 0:07:41.200 I think a lot of scientists would pay attention to 0:07:41.240 --> 0:07:43.480 why it snowed in Miami three years in a row. 0:07:44.320 --> 0:07:46.560 But if it went back to normal or something like 0:07:46.600 --> 0:07:49.320 that like that, that that would not necessarily be climate change. 0:07:49.360 --> 0:07:53.880 That's just a weird occurrence. Right. Climate change is this 0:07:53.880 --> 0:07:58.040 this change in predictable changes, and that can take like 0:07:58.320 --> 0:08:02.960 thousands and ten thousands of years sometimes most times under 0:08:03.040 --> 0:08:06.760 natural circumstances. And here's where we come to the current 0:08:06.880 --> 0:08:10.880 use for global warming. Right, global warming can can happen 0:08:11.600 --> 0:08:15.920 by itself naturally. The Earth um basically as it in 0:08:16.040 --> 0:08:19.640 its current present state, swings back and forth between glacial 0:08:19.640 --> 0:08:23.080 periods and interglacial periods, so cool periods and warm periods, 0:08:23.360 --> 0:08:26.680 And for an ice age to occur, um, the global 0:08:26.720 --> 0:08:30.160 temperature only needs to drop by about five degrees celsius 0:08:30.200 --> 0:08:31.760 on average, and all of a sudden we're in an 0:08:31.760 --> 0:08:34.040 ice age. Right. Yeah, that doesn't mean the entire Earth 0:08:34.120 --> 0:08:37.960 is a big round cube, round cube. Wow, that's like 0:08:38.000 --> 0:08:41.200 a square rectangle, but not at all the same. Well, 0:08:41.240 --> 0:08:43.200 you know when you go to a fancy cocktail bar 0:08:43.240 --> 0:08:45.880 and they have those awesome round I want to say 0:08:45.920 --> 0:08:50.560 ice cubes again, ice spheres. Uh, that's not what the 0:08:50.559 --> 0:08:53.880 Earth looks like necessarily during an ice age. No, no, no, 0:08:53.960 --> 0:08:58.480 it's just much cooler and like because it's cooler by 0:08:58.600 --> 0:09:02.800 say five degrees celsius um. Like, a lot of stuff changes. 0:09:02.960 --> 0:09:04.920 It's the same thing as global warming, but on the 0:09:04.960 --> 0:09:09.320 opposite end, right, Like you have changes in migration patterns, 0:09:09.320 --> 0:09:11.880 you have changes in habitat for animals. Some things go 0:09:12.000 --> 0:09:16.160 extinct during the transition um, sea levels change, A lot 0:09:16.200 --> 0:09:18.839 of stuff happens, right, So this is part of the 0:09:18.880 --> 0:09:22.200 normal process of the Earth. But the Earth's kind of 0:09:22.240 --> 0:09:24.720 got it, like, hey, hey, I've got this under control. 0:09:24.920 --> 0:09:28.800 I don't need any help from you humans and I 0:09:28.920 --> 0:09:30.920 when I do do this, this is the Earth talking 0:09:31.000 --> 0:09:33.840 and first person. When I do change from a glacial 0:09:33.880 --> 0:09:37.640 period to a warm period, it takes many tens and 0:09:37.760 --> 0:09:42.960 tens of thousands of years. Right you humans here again, 0:09:43.000 --> 0:09:46.720 this is still me, the Earth. You humans are really 0:09:46.800 --> 0:09:50.679 messing with my program here and accelerating the process. And 0:09:50.679 --> 0:09:53.000 you know what, I'll even give you a clue as 0:09:53.000 --> 0:09:55.800 to what you're doing that's making it so bad carbon 0:09:55.840 --> 0:10:00.000 dioxide emissions. Bam, said the Earth and dropped its microphone. 0:10:00.000 --> 0:10:01.840 I walked away. Yeah, and then it went back and 0:10:01.880 --> 0:10:05.120 picked up his mic and said, and maybe stop littering. Yeah, 0:10:05.480 --> 0:10:09.000 and then it dropped the mic again. Yeh Uh. We 0:10:09.000 --> 0:10:11.760 should talk a minute about a wonderful group called the 0:10:11.760 --> 0:10:16.319 i p c C, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Yes, 0:10:16.480 --> 0:10:19.600 a lot of very smart people there. Oh mann, Can 0:10:19.640 --> 0:10:22.040 I just say it's to me, the i p c 0:10:22.240 --> 0:10:25.360 C is one of the coolest things humanity has ever 0:10:25.400 --> 0:10:28.760 come up with, because it's it's the world coming together 0:10:28.800 --> 0:10:30.400 saying we've got a real problem on our hands. Let's 0:10:30.400 --> 0:10:33.080 get our smartest people together and create a database here 0:10:33.240 --> 0:10:38.040 of of good science. Yeah, and those people are specifically 0:10:38.040 --> 0:10:45.040 about actually more scientists from around the world meeting together 0:10:45.160 --> 0:10:49.679 in places like Paris, because why not, right. Uh, they 0:10:49.720 --> 0:10:51.920 did this about ten years ago and came up with 0:10:51.960 --> 0:10:54.720 a lot of um, well, sort of a lot of 0:10:54.760 --> 0:10:58.160 distressing observations. Uh, we'll just tick through a few of 0:10:58.200 --> 0:11:03.000 these um as far as timp trick goes, and um, 0:11:03.040 --> 0:11:05.600 you know, like we said, like one degree celsias can 0:11:05.640 --> 0:11:08.200 make a big swing, and what kind of changes we 0:11:08.240 --> 0:11:12.320 see on the planet. Between nineteen o one and two 0:11:12.440 --> 0:11:18.199 thousand the Earth warmed point six degrees. Uh so that's 0:11:18.280 --> 0:11:21.559 if you if you adjust that to nineteen o six 0:11:21.640 --> 0:11:24.439 to two thousand six, it climbs up to point seven 0:11:24.480 --> 0:11:27.959 four degrees, So about three quarters of a degree in 0:11:28.040 --> 0:11:32.520 temperature rise during that one year period, right, And there's 0:11:32.520 --> 0:11:34.560 a lot. It is a lot. And so a lot 0:11:34.600 --> 0:11:36.960 of people say, well, you guys just said the Earth 0:11:37.040 --> 0:11:40.720 tends to do this on its own, maybe that's it. Well, actually, no, 0:11:40.880 --> 0:11:42.920 there's a lot of science that the I p c 0:11:43.080 --> 0:11:46.160 C Has been able to come up with that shows 0:11:46.200 --> 0:11:49.840 pretty clearly that this is human cause stuff that's actually 0:11:50.080 --> 0:11:53.920 creating this increase in temperature. And again it seems to 0:11:53.960 --> 0:11:57.720 come back to carbon dioxide. Yeah. Should we took over 0:11:57.760 --> 0:12:01.439 a few of these other observations, Yeah, for sure. Um 0:12:01.520 --> 0:12:04.960 let me see, here's a good one. The ocean's temperature 0:12:05.000 --> 0:12:09.960 has increased to at least depths of almost ten thousand 0:12:10.040 --> 0:12:14.520 feet down. The oceans temperature has increased. Not a good thing, 0:12:14.600 --> 0:12:18.880 because that's how um like, what glaciers tend to melt 0:12:18.960 --> 0:12:23.280 is from underneath, that's right. What else? Uh, Westerly winds 0:12:23.280 --> 0:12:26.520 have been growing stronger, droughts have become more intense, have 0:12:26.679 --> 0:12:31.080 lasted longer, covered bigger swaths of land. Uh. What else 0:12:31.120 --> 0:12:36.679 here Precipitation is increased in the Eastern America's, Northern Europe, 0:12:36.760 --> 0:12:41.160 parts of Asia, but it's decreased elsewhere. Yeah, And that's 0:12:41.200 --> 0:12:43.680 I mean, we'll get into this a little bit. A 0:12:43.720 --> 0:12:46.840 little bit of global warming can mean longer growing and 0:12:46.880 --> 0:12:49.280 better growing seasons in some parts of the world, but 0:12:49.559 --> 0:12:53.559 devastating to other parts of the world. I guess I 0:12:53.720 --> 0:12:54.880 let the cat out of the bag there, but we'll 0:12:54.880 --> 0:12:57.960 go over that again later. Uh. And how how about 0:12:57.960 --> 0:13:00.000 this on the warming trend of the last fifty years 0:13:00.559 --> 0:13:04.000 is about double of the last one hundred years. So 0:13:04.400 --> 0:13:06.959 what that means is the rate is increasing. The rate 0:13:06.960 --> 0:13:10.480 of warming is increasing. Yeah, actually so the I think 0:13:10.480 --> 0:13:13.480 the I p c C has determined that each of 0:13:13.480 --> 0:13:17.160 the past forty years has been warmer than the average 0:13:17.200 --> 0:13:20.520 temperature of the twentieth century, and that two thousand and 0:13:20.559 --> 0:13:23.439 sixteen was the hottest year on record, and the twelve 0:13:23.520 --> 0:13:29.040 warmest years on record have occurred since. Dude, you should 0:13:29.040 --> 0:13:33.360 see the the UM we'll get into some of the 0:13:33.480 --> 0:13:36.079 charts that that you can find. And again, like if 0:13:36.080 --> 0:13:39.640 you're even remotely interested in this, like just go look 0:13:39.720 --> 0:13:41.960 up the I P. C. C S stuff, and some 0:13:42.080 --> 0:13:45.160 of it, like you you have to be a climatologist 0:13:45.200 --> 0:13:48.199 to understand what in the name of God they're talking about. 0:13:48.559 --> 0:13:51.319 But other stuff, if especially if you read like executive 0:13:51.360 --> 0:13:55.400 summaries of studies and reports and stuff like that's meant 0:13:55.440 --> 0:13:59.880 to for like a non scientists specifically often like policymaker 0:14:00.480 --> 0:14:03.199 to read and understand, right, so the average person can 0:14:03.280 --> 0:14:07.480 understand that UM. And they have some really great stuff 0:14:07.480 --> 0:14:10.400 that's showing like all of the changes that the world 0:14:10.480 --> 0:14:14.640 is going through thanks to these increases in the global temperature. 0:14:14.800 --> 0:14:17.000 And again, some of the charts that they have are 0:14:17.080 --> 0:14:20.800 just stunning when you see them, because it's like going 0:14:20.840 --> 0:14:23.720 along fine, going along fine, everything's fine, and then oh 0:14:23.760 --> 0:14:28.200 my god, what the hell just happened? Basically that was 0:14:28.240 --> 0:14:31.280 the Industrial revolution? It was. But also one of the 0:14:31.280 --> 0:14:33.440 things that they found recently, especially in the last like 0:14:33.560 --> 0:14:37.320 three or four years, I believe, is that UM is 0:14:37.360 --> 0:14:40.080 that I think you're like what you were saying, the 0:14:40.320 --> 0:14:44.680 increase in global temperatures, but also again, the increasing carbon 0:14:44.720 --> 0:14:49.520 dioxide UM has really shot up over the last like 0:14:49.600 --> 0:14:53.800 fifty years, like from from the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. 0:14:53.840 --> 0:14:56.440 I think they usually start that about seventeen fifty two 0:14:56.480 --> 0:15:00.360 maybe the latest up to like nineteen fi ft or 0:15:00.440 --> 0:15:04.680 so in nineteen sixty, like there's a pretty surprising increase, 0:15:04.760 --> 0:15:08.240 but it is just skyrocketed in the last like fifty 0:15:08.320 --> 0:15:12.120 or sixty years. So um, they're they're seeing like this. 0:15:12.120 --> 0:15:15.240 This the science is bearing out the the kind of 0:15:15.240 --> 0:15:18.640 the general theory of global warming, which we should probably 0:15:18.640 --> 0:15:21.720 talk about this this theory of global warming, right because 0:15:21.800 --> 0:15:26.680 like we said, it's not just um human cause a 0:15:26.800 --> 0:15:31.400 human cause mechanism, Like basically it's an already existing natural, 0:15:31.520 --> 0:15:36.480 natural mechanism that basically keeps the earth nice and toasty 0:15:36.640 --> 0:15:40.960 for um life and water keeps us from being Mars. 0:15:41.080 --> 0:15:43.520 But we have we have started messing with it big 0:15:43.520 --> 0:15:48.680 time because of our our contributions to this normal cycle. Yeah, 0:15:48.720 --> 0:15:51.360 so should we talk about the greenhouse effect a little bit? Yeah, 0:15:51.440 --> 0:15:55.760 the greenhouse effect is literally what keeps us from being Mars. Um. 0:15:55.800 --> 0:16:00.000 It is a good thing when it occurs naturally because 0:16:00.000 --> 0:16:02.720 as like you said, it keeps us on, you know, 0:16:02.720 --> 0:16:05.520 it makes earth habitable and lovely and nice for the 0:16:05.560 --> 0:16:10.240 last part, so they strickling in the grabster. I'm not 0:16:10.280 --> 0:16:12.240 sure who came up with the car analogy, but it's 0:16:12.240 --> 0:16:15.680 a pretty good one. If you go into your car 0:16:15.800 --> 0:16:17.360 on a hot summer day and you get in, your 0:16:17.360 --> 0:16:18.920 car's been sitting out the sun for a little while, 0:16:18.960 --> 0:16:22.440 it's a lot hotter than it is outside. Um, it's 0:16:22.480 --> 0:16:24.200 kind of a no brainer. But you might not have 0:16:24.240 --> 0:16:27.840 thought about why that happens. Um, it's not magic. What's 0:16:27.840 --> 0:16:31.200 happening is the the sun that's coming in through your 0:16:31.200 --> 0:16:34.920 car windows gets absorbed by the interior of your car, 0:16:34.960 --> 0:16:38.880 whether it's your seats or the dashboard or basically kind 0:16:38.880 --> 0:16:43.280 of everything in the car absorbs that heat, and that 0:16:43.400 --> 0:16:47.600 heat is then eventually emitted back out and radiated out 0:16:47.680 --> 0:16:50.320 from the seats and things like that. But it's at 0:16:50.320 --> 0:16:53.440 a different wavelength than that initial sunlight that came in, 0:16:53.520 --> 0:16:56.160 so some of it might get back out of the window, 0:16:56.760 --> 0:16:59.040 but most of it stays kind of trapped in that car. 0:16:59.560 --> 0:17:01.920 So the end result of the net net, as they 0:17:01.920 --> 0:17:05.080 would say in a corporate meeting, is that there's less 0:17:05.200 --> 0:17:09.679 energy going out than than coming in. Right, So your 0:17:09.720 --> 0:17:12.439 car is gonna get hotter. So pretend your car is 0:17:12.480 --> 0:17:14.960 the planet Earth basically, which would be great, and the 0:17:15.000 --> 0:17:19.480 windshield is the atmosphere, right. So, um, that's the greenhouse 0:17:19.480 --> 0:17:21.840 effect in a nutshell as it as it relates to 0:17:21.880 --> 0:17:27.879 the actual Earth. UM. About seventy of the solar energy 0:17:28.000 --> 0:17:32.920 that is directed towards Earth right, stays on the planet, right, 0:17:33.320 --> 0:17:36.920 And instead of being absorbed by car seats and floor 0:17:37.000 --> 0:17:40.119 mats and stuff like that, it gets absorbed by the 0:17:40.160 --> 0:17:46.080 ocean or land, or plants or you. Right. And so 0:17:46.480 --> 0:17:50.600 about thirty percent of that stuff that that didn't make 0:17:50.640 --> 0:17:54.080 it through it was reflected back by clouds, particles in 0:17:54.119 --> 0:17:57.600 the atmosphere, a bunch of other stuff. Right. But as 0:17:57.600 --> 0:18:00.680 you're sitting there getting warm by the sun, you actually 0:18:00.720 --> 0:18:04.520 have the potential to re emit that heat, and so 0:18:04.600 --> 0:18:07.119 that stuff starts to go back through the atmosphere out 0:18:07.160 --> 0:18:10.320 of space. Some of that stuff makes it out into space, 0:18:10.760 --> 0:18:14.800 but there are other particles that take that that um 0:18:14.920 --> 0:18:18.920 solar energy, usually in the form of heat, and absorb it. 0:18:19.359 --> 0:18:22.320 And when they absorb it, they re emit heat and 0:18:22.320 --> 0:18:24.159 then they direct it back down to Earth and the 0:18:24.200 --> 0:18:27.520 process continues. And in some of that some cases, some 0:18:27.600 --> 0:18:29.719 of the stuff that they re emit, they end up 0:18:29.760 --> 0:18:34.480 reabsorbing themselves, so that there is um more heat that's 0:18:34.520 --> 0:18:37.760 being trapped and sustained on Earth than is being allowed 0:18:37.800 --> 0:18:41.680 to escape back into space at any given time. Right 0:18:41.760 --> 0:18:45.119 and again, um, this this is what this is like 0:18:45.160 --> 0:18:49.439 a positive feedback cycle that that creates the atmosphere. It 0:18:49.480 --> 0:18:54.600 also sustains the atmosphere. It also keeps water here on Earth. Um. 0:18:54.640 --> 0:18:58.560 Because water tends to heat up and rise, but then 0:18:58.720 --> 0:19:02.040 it will it will cool off in the atmosphere and 0:19:02.040 --> 0:19:05.080 fall back down as precipitation. And as long as it 0:19:05.160 --> 0:19:07.800 can fall back down in the atmosphere and nucleate around 0:19:07.800 --> 0:19:09.879 some of these particles that are trapped in the atmosphere, 0:19:10.160 --> 0:19:14.080 we've got water here on Earth, that's right. So it's 0:19:14.119 --> 0:19:18.720 all thanks to the wonderful, glorious greenhouse effect. Yeah, so 0:19:18.760 --> 0:19:21.600 that that feels like a good place to pause. Let 0:19:21.600 --> 0:19:24.720 people let that soak in a minute, like a hot 0:19:24.720 --> 0:19:27.720 sun on a black car seat, like a warm chutney 0:19:28.280 --> 0:19:31.480 on your forehead. O God, And we'll be back a 0:19:31.560 --> 0:19:34.919 little bit to talk about the these gases in the 0:19:34.960 --> 0:20:05.320 atmosphere that we're talking about here. All right, So we're back. 0:20:05.720 --> 0:20:08.520 I think everyone probably understands the greenhouse effect if you 0:20:08.520 --> 0:20:11.359 remember your hot car. It's kind of a nice easy 0:20:11.359 --> 0:20:14.520 way to think about it. So when you were explaining 0:20:14.560 --> 0:20:18.199 the more like the Earth's version of that with uh 0:20:19.080 --> 0:20:23.440 getting absorbed hitting things in the atmosphere, we're talking largely 0:20:23.680 --> 0:20:31.440 about three things carbon dioxide, methane gas, actually four things, uh, 0:20:31.560 --> 0:20:34.680 nitrous oxide, and water vapor. And there are a lot 0:20:34.720 --> 0:20:37.240 of others, but as far as like stuff that that 0:20:37.800 --> 0:20:42.160 really has the biggest impact on on global warming, it's 0:20:42.200 --> 0:20:44.719 these guys. Yeah, so we'll start with CEO two excess. 0:20:44.720 --> 0:20:48.640 So when you hear about most often carbon emissions gets 0:20:48.640 --> 0:20:51.919 all all the glory in the headlines these days. Carbon 0:20:52.040 --> 0:20:54.560 c O two is colorless. It's gas. It is a 0:20:55.119 --> 0:21:00.080 byproduct of uh, the combustion of organic stuff. UH, and 0:21:00.119 --> 0:21:01.680 it makes up a very small part of the Earth's 0:21:01.680 --> 0:21:05.000 atmosphere point zero four percent. And most of it that's 0:21:05.080 --> 0:21:08.120 up there was has been there for a long long time. 0:21:08.240 --> 0:21:14.000 It's from uh volcanic activity. However, UH we are pumping 0:21:14.320 --> 0:21:16.480 lots and lots of c O two additional c O 0:21:16.600 --> 0:21:19.840 two UH. And remember there's a delicate balance going on 0:21:20.200 --> 0:21:23.480 there as it is so like you said, Mother Earth 0:21:23.520 --> 0:21:26.000 doesn't need us adding to this, and we have been 0:21:26.040 --> 0:21:30.199 adding c O two like it's Gangbusters. Yeah. So like 0:21:30.240 --> 0:21:32.720 that that you remember when I was talking about how 0:21:32.720 --> 0:21:35.880 water water turns into vapor and rises and falls back down. 0:21:35.920 --> 0:21:39.119 That's the rain cycle. There's also a carbon cycle where 0:21:39.200 --> 0:21:42.399 carbon molecules just kind of go back and forth between 0:21:42.440 --> 0:21:46.800 the atmosphere and the earth. And apparently every year two 0:21:46.880 --> 0:21:50.400 hundred and thirty giga tons of carbon are released into 0:21:50.440 --> 0:21:53.760 the atmosphere from the Earth, from plants, from rocks, from us, 0:21:54.320 --> 0:21:57.280 and then about the same amount another two d and 0:21:57.280 --> 0:22:00.600 thirty giga tons comes back down and it's locked into 0:22:00.640 --> 0:22:03.920 Earth from the atmosphere. Right, And it's like you said, Chuck, 0:22:04.000 --> 0:22:06.399 like a pretty pretty nice balanced the Earth that's got this, 0:22:06.520 --> 0:22:09.680 Please don't mess with it. But when we take carbon 0:22:10.240 --> 0:22:13.520 and unlock it from these carbon sinks, like you know, 0:22:13.880 --> 0:22:16.960 we bust up rocks and mining operations, we burn fossil 0:22:17.000 --> 0:22:20.400 fuels that have carbon locked into them. Um, we cut 0:22:20.400 --> 0:22:23.960 down trees and burn those things as fuel that releases 0:22:23.960 --> 0:22:27.919 more carbon and it messes up that delicate um pretty 0:22:28.000 --> 0:22:31.680 much even exchange between the atmosphere and the earth. Yeah, 0:22:31.680 --> 0:22:33.760 and that's a big problem because carbon has a knack 0:22:33.800 --> 0:22:39.240 for absorbing infrared radiation, so that energy that escapes the atmosphere, 0:22:39.640 --> 0:22:42.400 that that's the form that it comes in. So all 0:22:42.440 --> 0:22:46.679 this extra CEO two means basically like your card, just 0:22:46.720 --> 0:22:50.040 an overall increase in temperature, right, And and so not 0:22:50.160 --> 0:22:54.760 only does it um absorb infrared heat and hang onto it, 0:22:54.760 --> 0:22:58.600 it um it, there's a lot of it there. We 0:22:58.760 --> 0:23:01.480 just finally, in the first time in the history of 0:23:01.720 --> 0:23:05.800 the human race, all of humanity, not since the Industrial Revolution, 0:23:05.840 --> 0:23:08.680 but ever since humans have been around the Earth reached 0:23:09.200 --> 0:23:14.439 UM four hundred parts per million, meaning that out of 0:23:14.480 --> 0:23:17.480 every million molecules that you just snatch out of the 0:23:17.480 --> 0:23:20.399 air and count, you're gonna come up with four hundred 0:23:20.480 --> 0:23:25.400 of those as carbon atoms, right, or carbon dioxide molecules. 0:23:25.480 --> 0:23:28.880 So that's new. That's that's a big deal. And the 0:23:28.920 --> 0:23:30.960 problem with that is is not just that there's a 0:23:31.000 --> 0:23:33.320 lot of carbon dioxide in there, but it's like you said, 0:23:33.480 --> 0:23:36.480 the more carbon dioxide there is, the more radiative heat 0:23:36.760 --> 0:23:39.639 that comes back down to Earth that doesn't escape into space, 0:23:39.880 --> 0:23:42.639 and the higher the global temperature gets. Yeah, and just 0:23:42.640 --> 0:23:48.399 to into perspective, four hundred parts per million now, and 0:23:48.440 --> 0:23:51.399 that's two thousand seventeen numbers, I guess. I think in 0:23:51.440 --> 0:23:54.199 two thousand fifteen we hit four hundred and we're up 0:23:54.200 --> 0:23:57.600 to like four hundred and four now. So that pre 0:23:57.760 --> 0:24:01.320 Industrial Revolution was about out two d and eight parts 0:24:01.320 --> 0:24:04.760 per million, So it has swelled by about a hundred 0:24:04.800 --> 0:24:09.400 and twenty four parts per million since uh, the Industrial Revolution, 0:24:09.400 --> 0:24:12.000 which is pretty staggering. Yeah, and there's apparently a way 0:24:12.040 --> 0:24:15.520