Mountains of scientific evidence shows humans are indeed warming the planet.
But the way major news outlets present this very serious issue can be scarily misleading, especially when climate change “debates” give equal airtime to scientists and climate change deniers. A Gallup poll recently found one in four Americans are skeptical of climate change — maybe this is partly why?
“Last Night Tonight” host John Oliver is doing his best to rectify that. He counters the all-too-even debates in the hilarious segment below.
“You don’t need people’s opinion on a fact,” he says. “You might as well have a poll asking: ‘Which number is bigger, 15 or 5?’ or ‘Do owls exist?’ or ‘Are there hats?’ ”
MORE: These Scientists Were Fed Up with Climate Change Deniers. Here’s What They Did About It.
When 97 out of 100 climate scientists agree that humans cause global warming, a one-on-one cable news channel debate doesn’t seem like the most accurate way to present the issues surrounding our changing weather. Perhaps the structure of the debate should represent reality in the balance of pro and con climate change believers, to give viewers a truer representation of what the Earth is going through.
That’s precisely why funnyman Oliver staged a mathematically balanced climate change debate featuring Bill Nye the Science Guy and his team of 96 climate scientists against three deniers.
As Oliver says, “It’s a little unwieldy, but this is the only way you can actually have a representative discussion.”
Safe to say, there’s really no debate at all.
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