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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Tag: global warming
How Tetris Can Simply Explain the Most Important Issue Facing Humanity
Climate change is one of the most important challenges of our time. But as globally significant as it is, it’s also incredibly complicated to explain.
That’s why the geniuses at TED-Ed have put out a new video that uses the game of Tetris as an analogy of this critical problem. Their short lesson clocks in at just 2:49 minutes so it won’t take up too much of your time.
The video simply shows that as we continue driving our cars and burning more fuel at factories and power plants, carbon dioxide gets released into the atmosphere as “blocks” that warm the planet (also known as the greenhouse effect). It also doesn’t help that we’re mowing down the forests that suck up this CO2.
And just like the video game, if we can’t clear these CO2 blocks, they’ll just build up faster and faster until it’s game over.
MORE: These Scientists Were Fed Up with Climate Change Deniers. Here’s What They Did About It.
“Ultimately it’s a game we are all stuck playing,” says narrator Joss Fong. “And unlike in Tetris, we won’t get a chance to start over and try again.”
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ALSO: Earth Day 2014: 5 Surprising Things That Harm the Planet (and 5 Simple Ways to Help Save It)