VOSD Podcast: A Scientist Science-splains Climate Science

News flash: Climate change is real, y’all.

Jeffrey Severinghaus, professor of geosciences at UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography, joins the podcast this week to explain what’s causing the planet’s changing temperatures and rising sea levels.

In a previous podcast, Lewis talked to businessman Peter Farrell about lots of things, but what struck a nerve with listeners was Farrell’s skepticism about climate change.

Lewis plays some of Farrell’s climate claims and lets Severinghaus refute the most surprising ones. At one point, for instance, Farrell says the increase in carbon dioxide isn’t a big deal and that scientists have failed to prove that greenhouse gas is actually a problem.

“The proof is really in the laboratory – people have been measuring directly how much carbon dioxide causes warming in the laboratory since 1869, this is not new science,” Severinghaus responded. “So we know that CO2 traps heat.”

There’s plenty more point-counterpoint where that came from.

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