Ep 43 The Bare Basics of Climate Science Explained

January 11, 2016 / 2 Comments »

Let’s talk climate science. With the help of Elizabeth Jeremiah and Marvin Bloom I present a simple primer behind the complex issue of climate change. You will get to hear Elizabeth’s very helpful analogy to tupperware, and Marvin dispels myths about volcanoes. We also get a very easy to understand short physics lesson thanks to the folks at Yale Climate Connection.

Climate Stew is available on Stitcher, SoundCloud, or Listen here  on our site. Also check out our Facebook page where you can give your ideas of what you want to hear on the program. We have been on  iTunes for the longest time, but lately there has been an issue from their end. Shoot even Serial had iTunes problems. Hopefully it will be sorted out quickly.

Links

• Climate Science: What You Need to Know–YouTube
• Yale Climate Connections: Whodunnit? The Case of Global Warming
• EPA Climate Change: Basic Info
• 7 Minutes on Climate Change Basics Q&A 
• Difference between climate and weather 
• Volcanic Gas and Climate Change
• Elizabeth Jeremiah and Generational Curses
• Citizens Climate Lobby

Music Credits

• Over and Over from Five Song Demo by Mark Chadwick
• Dream On on Lush Life by Poldoore

Transcript

Intro: With the ambient background sounds of steam heat, a washer machine, and my own post-holiday post-nasal drip, this Peterson Toscano with Episode 43 of Climate Stew Hello there, happy new year, and welcome Today we get down to the basics. While I weave in lots of science into this program, so far we have not dealt too directly with climate science. I will give a Climate Change 101 presentation with the help from some of my friends and fellow climate stew contributors, including Eizabeth Jeremiah and Marvin Bloom. To start us off with our climate change primer Dr. Anthony Leiserowitz from Yale Climate Connections speaks with Dr. Anthony Broccoli to deduce the cause of global warming

Yale Climate Connections:

To identify the cause of global warming, Doctor Anthony Broccoli of Rutgers University looks at the evidence just as Sherlock Holmes would. A review of physics leads to the primary suspect: heat-trapping greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide.

BROCCOLI: “The earth’s temperature is maintained by a balance between the energy coming in from the sun and the energy that the earth radiates back to space in the form of infrared energy. Greenhouse gases make it harder for that infrared energy to escape to space.”

So Broccoli deduces that the greenhouse gases humans emit into the atmosphere will trap additional heat and warm the earth. Observations support the theory.

BROCCOLI: “We see warming in many forms in weather stations on land, warming ocean temperatures, glaciers retreating, and less ice on rivers and lakes.”

Tracking the evidence on human-caused warming. CLICK TO TWEET

To determine if this warming can be explained by natural causes alone, Broccoli turns to computer models of the climate. They show that without human caused emissions, the earth’s climate would not have rapidly heated up, as it has over the last few decades.

So when you consider the evidence, it’s elementary, dear Watson . . . Recent global warming is primarily human-caused.

Reporting credit: ChavoBart Digital Media.
Photo: Statue of Sherlock Holmes in London (copyright protected).

Main Section: Climate Change Basics

Peterson chats with Elizabeth Jeremiah who gives the analogy that CO2 (carbon dioxide) is very much like tupperware containers that stack up in her refrigerator. Marvin Blooms talks volcanoes and how they are not at all to blame for the warming of the planet.

(no transcript available)