Climate Catastrophe Headlines Don’t Match Reality

0:01 surely our modern material progress has come at the expense of an unsustainable ravaging of our planet's finite resources right the story of stuff can't be a happy environmental ending can it just ask any of the millions of kids who've been subjected to Annie Leonard's the story of stuff in their environmental classes for the last decade we live on a finite planet and you cannot run a linear system on a finite Planet indefinitely it's a system in crisis nobody wants to turn a dirty

0:33 degraded world over to our children and grandchildren and we can see that waste has come with our wealth up to 40% of all food in America ends up wasted we all buy stuff we turn out to not like or use and fill our trash cans every week we should embrace our responsibility as stewards of the natural world our unique and genuity has given Humanity Total Domination over life on Earth if we don't take care of the planet nobody

1:01 else will and if you listen to the voices promoted in our media you would think we're doing the worst possible job climate change is ravaging the planet environmental pollution contributed to the deaths of about 9 million people we could start seeing worsening food shortages and wildfires and a mass die off of coral reefs are they right is Humanity like a bunch of bros who went on a bender in Vegas and trash the place we up the headlines say we are are we've

1:30 trashed the Land Air the rivers and the Seas and then there's climate change extreme weather events are on the rise the coral reefs are Vanishing the sea levels are rising fast biodiversity is collapsing as Humanity's growth causes a sixth great Extinction event the anthropocene extinction it's only a matter of time until mother nature rebalances and wipes Humanity from the earth in the face of all this how could anyone want to have kids we've surely

2:03 reached the Tipping Point haven't we maybe that Broken malthusian Clock is finally about to be right on time and this time it really is a crisis a world-ending catastrophy in the making escape from which may already be impossible that is a really scary story and one that's been heard millions of times from prominent politicians academics and activists the survival of our civilization is at stake and it

2:35 sounds dire but it is dire but three degrees of global warming would be catastrophic we're going to pass the point of no return within the next 8 to 10 years our kids are bombarded by it starting in kindergarten all things will die the human race will have fallen to any number of calamities War pollution global warming so it's no wonder that 84% of 16 to 25y olds are worried about the climate crisis 45% said that their

3:05 feelings about climate change negatively affected their daily life and functioning is it any Wonder young couldbe parents are skittish a 20-year-old teacher in brookin told Business Insider I would be raising them in a world that is essentially dying which is kind of hard to Grapple with emotionally again she is not alone 40% of those 16 to 25y olds are reluctant to have kids themselves due to worries about climate anxiety did the

3:36 environmental movement shift the Gul posts a few times along the way sure they did from global cooling what scientists are telling us now is that the threat of an ice age is not as remote as they once thought to the ozone layer the protective ozone layers being threatened as never before were all at risk to global warming there is a troubling indicator about global warming and now climate change 600,000 Hiroshima class atomic bombs exploding every single day on the earth

4:05 that's what's boiling the oceans creating these atmospheric rivers and the rain bombs has Our Truth been made inconvenient by a 20ft rising sea level no not yet celebrities and former presidents can still buy beachfront properties and get them fully insured but that's science you say observe hypothesize test review and revise the problem is that most of that big story story is just plain wrong climate change climate change give

4:36 me climate change some of it are truths exaggerated past the breaking point others are flat out Fabrications the overall takeaway that our world is going to get worse for people and the rest of life on Earth is not supported by even the most mainstream scientists our world is not going to end now I feel better it's going to keep getting better as long as we don't kill ourselves in a nuclear war that is

5:06 philosopher of science Carl poer introduced an important test to any scientific hypothesis can it be falsified if you can contradict a theory with empirical evidence that refutes it you've falsified that theory and disproven its underlying assumptions about cause and effect all of modern history since 1798 has falsified Thomas Malthus and Paul erick's Theory about overpopulation he falsified his research but what about today's climate crisis claims including

5:36 those of Erick and his ilk here's a few falsifying facts to consider are extreme weather events actually on the rise no they're not according to NASA scientists the area burned globally by forest fires has declined by over 25% in the past 20 years that's an area the size of Texas land falling us hurricanes are flat and have slightly declined over the past 120 years in fact the real cost

6:07 of natural disasters is declining everywhere after you adjust for GDP growth you see since the whole world has gotten more populace and more wealthy driving up GDP we have more wealth to be damaged in a hurricane but we also have even more income to pay for the repairs than ever before deaths due to flooding globally have declined as Alex Epstein has noted in his research climate related disaster deaths have plummeted 98% over the last century even as CO2

6:39 has risen substantially those are some pretty inconvenient truths for those hoping to scare the future family out of you I don't really want kids parts of the famous Great Barrier Reef recorded their highest levels of coral in 36 years according to the Australian Institute of Marine Science that's heartening news for all you responsible scuba divers out there now about that sixth great mass extinction we hear so much about if an Extinction event happens in the forest and all of the

7:08 animals are still around afterward is it still an event to be considered a mass extinction event over 90% of your species have to be going extinct or on the verge of Extinction just 6% are here's the real problem if you really do care about our environment I care I care a lot fear-mongering climate crisis rhetoric has crowded out the fact that conservationists and Animal Advocates have made enormous progress on protecting endangered species and habitats thanks to that work and our

7:39 material progress the truth is that our kids' future is not a Dying World but one brimming with diverse and expanding life life uh finds a way it's also a world getting substantially Greener according to NASA increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has led to substantial plant growth over the past 35 years as the NASA study notes The Greening represents an increase in leaves on plants and trees equivalent to the area of two times the continental

8:10 United States two times the US in additional Greening on all of Earth's surface this is amazing but it really shouldn't be that surprising if you remembered one thing from 9th grade biology it's got to be that CO2 is essential plant food but bro's got what plants crave it's got electrolytes do you still think we're heading towards a crisis that should stop your family line in its tracks maybe you're holding out for that mythical Tipping Point pundits

8:37 and activists love to trot out in the name of inducing political urgency for their favorite new policies they say the green New Deal is too expensive you tell me the alternative we're investing more than $50 billion we have to get to 100% renewable energy well if we aren't already in a climate hell there's little reason to think we will tip into one because carbon emissions have likely already peaked globally in the most advanced economies like here in the US

9:07 the UK and elsewhere carbon emissions peaked over a decade ago how is that possible you might ask well one thing is the shift from coal to dramatically cleaner natural gas but also things like the iPhone think about it all of this has been replaced by this small slate of metal and glass this is truly amazing a portable television Studio we really are doing more with less every year including less people if there's a

9:38 Tipping Point to worry about it's not CO2 it's our global population decline most demographers are revising their estimates downward some project the global population to plummet to 6 billion people by 2100 the full gravity of this will it is not well understood but will become severe severe issue in in the next few decades unlike 75 years of future global weather demographics are a much more straightforward thing to forecast China can't start producing new

10:09 30-year-olds for example nobody can and this right here is a perfect demonstration of how our public opinions can be wildly off from actual reality overpopulation remains a major worry in the public Consciousness for literally no reason at all too many people too much consumption and growth Mania so ask yourself if most people can be wrong about this fact it's at least possible that our alarm over climate is similarly

10:40 Off the [Music] Mark and since the same people who were wrong before and are still wrong on population are the ones sounding the loudest climate alarm rate of Extinction is extraordinarily high now I think deep suspicion is in order finally what about those dire predictions about our future are we heading towards a world of poverty or Worse human extinction itself you'd think so if you only read the

11:12 headlines code red for Humanity Mass starvation extinctions disasters and then there's this Whopper that went viral a couple years ago the world is going to end in 12 years if we don't address climate change there's just one problem with all this coverage it's all conject hyperbole no it's worse it's mostly lies you sit on a throne of lies and you don't need to stray from the mainstream sources of climate research to debunk this dystopian Tale the

11:42 intergovernmental panel on climate change or ipcc is the world's leading curator of climate research and catastrophe is not at the heart of its underlying research the physical science basis report now these ipcc projections are just that projections their computer-based guesses about the path of our entire Society over the next 75 years and here's the thing we can't use computer models to predict the outcome of the Super Bowl Any Given Sunday the worst team can beat the best as football

12:14 guys yet there are trillions of variables and individual human choices involved in these climate models never mind the insane complex fluid dynamics of global weather so skepticism is in order big time even if the actual ual research is broadly positive which it kind of is you can't find the words extinct or Extinction anywhere in its 2400 Pages you can't find crisis either collapse nope

12:44 disaster NADA download it for yourself and give it a try real scientists don't use this kind of bombastic emotionally charged language but that's not the most important part of the story what is this are you trying to trick me wait just wait keep your shirt on let me read the lead that gets buried so deep you need a jackhammer to une Earth it lies in What's called the shared socioeconomic Pathways or ssps these are five scenarios developed by the climate

13:16 research world to project the path of humanity ranging from ssp1 sustainability or taking the Green Road to SSP 5 fossil fuel development or taking the highway each SSP scenario tries to predict a different path of carbon use and human development between now and the year 2100 now are you ready to have your mind blown none of these scenarios predict

13:47 Doom none of them take a look in all five scenarios income per person on earth is higher in 2100 than it is today consider the lowest growth scenario SSP 3 Regional rivalry or a rocky road as they call it Rocky Road it imagines a world of resurgent nationalism and Regional conflicts where investments in education and technological development Decline and a low International priority

14:17 for addressing environmental concerns humanity is only two times richer in this scenario and if we take the high carbon highway to a hotter Planet SSP 5 well Humanity is 10 times wealthier in 2100 we're also much more capable of mastering whatever climate related challenges come our way as a result yes look what I have created yes the climate is changing and human activity contributes to that change but there is

14:50 no crisis catastrophy doesn't await there is no Extinction we need to rebel against and you unequivocally do not need to be afraid for your future or forgo the joys of building a big family in the name of saving the planet that's not me talking that's the underlying research of the world's leading scientists and experts why then do so many people believe the [Music]

15:21 opposite what is going on here why are young activists defacing precious art and gluing themselves of all sorts of things while they burn baby carriages if the leading climate science models project a wealthier world in their worst case scenarios why why why the reason is that too many of our most influential people at the commanding Heights of our culture have embraced the Romantic religion of 18th century French philosopher Jean jacqu rouso in this

15:53 pseudo biblical story life on earth existed in a delicate harmonious balance primitive people lived lives of simple peaceful plenty in Tranquility equality and self-sufficiency our impacts on the rest of life on Earth were little more than those of other animals who again we coexisted with in harmony that is of course until the great satans of modern civilization industrialization colonialization and capitalism ruined everything having eaten from that

16:25 forbidden fruit we fell from grace and have been a plague on Mother Earth ever since every impact we leave on this planet is an immoral act of desecration our only hope to cleanse this original sin is to eliminate every human impact today we are the asteroid that's causing many many species to go extinct this is The Narrative of the noble savage the idelic indigenous peoples it's the plot of countless movies from Avatar to

16:56 Dances with Wolves to Planet of the Apes for the leading lights of climate alarmism the collapse of human civilization isn't a future to fear but a goal to embrace consider how biologist David M Graber describes his shared philosophy with leading environmentalist Bill McKibben McKibben is a bioc Centrist and so am I we are not interested in the utility of a particular species or free flowing river or ecosystem to mankind they have

17:26 intrinsic value more value to me than another human body or a billion of them human happiness and certainly human facundity are not as important as a wild and Healthy Planet until such time as Homo sapiens should decide to rejoin nature some of us can only hope for the right virus to come along thank you or consider Paul erck himself who wrote about cheap

17:58 carbon-free nuclear energy in 1975 giving Society cheap abundant energy at this point would be the moral equivalent of giving an idiot child a machine gun with cheap abundant energy the attempt clearly would be made to pave develop industrialize and exploit every last bit of the planet we need to reject this dangerous Dogma first and foremost because it is false pure Fiction it's false no way it's a total fabrication look I don't believe this

18:29 anti-human perspective is a majority view among environmentalists or young people this is a minority Fringe but it is an influential one and its views inform the entire framework of our discussion Humanity Survival on this planet has never been a story of balance with a benevolent Mother Nature the animal kingdom is brutal defined by predators and prey mass extinctions have marked Earth for millions of years just ask the D dinosaurs and most human

19:00 history is filled with huddled masses whose lives were scarred and shortened by struggle we were all natives made Restless by the death of our children routine famine and constant conflict this romantic view of the natural world has always been a fantasy a naturalistic fallacy an unjustified dream of Jean jaac Russo snap out of it as author Alex EP writes Humanity has thrived by mastering

19:31 the wild potential of an otherwise harsh and inhospitable world that's trying to kill us at every turn and every living creature leaves an impact what makes us unique is our ability to cooperate and innovate our desire to live long and prosper in a beautiful environment has produced a world with 8 billion people living better than ever that's also cleaner and literally greener than it was a 100 years ago this is the real

20:02 story of the past two centuries it's a story of creative Triumph creativity is human nature it is good and there's no better way to embrace our creative nature than to create life itself