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Ep 95  |  Sir David King

Sir David King: “Global Heating: The Science and the Response”

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TGS95 Sir David King The Great Simplification

Show Summary

On this episode, Nate is joined by climate scientist and policy ambassador Sir David King to unpack the current situation regarding Earth’s climate system and human response (or lack thereof) to the accelerating heating of the atmosphere. While there are many uncertainties this field still grapples with, the fundamentals of the rising average global temperature as a response to increasing man-made greenhouse emissions are widely recognized by the global scientific community. Yet – especially in the United States – climate change remains a contentious issue, making it an even tougher political topic with no easy solutions. What is the basic science behind our understanding of the atmosphere? Will we resort to geoengineering to avert the worst climate outcomes – and which plans look the most promising? What are the implications of global heating for the coming decades and beyond?

About Sir. David King

Sir David King is an Emeritus Professor of Physical Chemistry at the University of Cambridge. He is the Chair of the Climate Crisis Advisory Group, Founder of the Centre for Climate Repair at Cambridge, and an Affiliate Partner of SYSTEMIQ Limited. He was the UK Government Chief Scientific Adviser from 2000-2007 and the Foreign Secretary’s Special Representative on Climate Change from 2013-2017. He also spearheaded a collaborative program called Mission Innovation, which involved 25 countries and the EU to create a publicly funded £23bn pa research and development international exercise aimed at delivering all technologies needed to complete the transition into a fossil-fuel-free world economy. He has been a Fellow of the Royal Society since 1991 and a Foreign Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences since 2002. Sir Dave was knighted in 2003 and made “Officier dans l’ordre national de la Légion d’Honneur” in 2009. Recently, he was also named The American Association for the Advancement of Science 2022 Hamburg Awardee for Science Diplomacy.

In French, we have a motto that says that a simple drawing is often better than a long explanation. Jean-Marc Jancovici Carbone 4 President

That’s very understandable because with left atmosphere thinking, one of the problems is that you see everything as a series of problems that must have solutions. Iain McGilchrist Neuroscientist and Philosopher

We can’t have hundreds and hundreds of real relationships that are healthy because that requires time and effort and full attention and awareness of being in real relationship and conversation with the other human. Nate Hagens Director of ISEOF

This is the crux of the whole problem. Individual parts of nature are more valuable than the biocomplexity of nature. Thomas Crowther Founder Restor

Show Notes & Links to Learn More

00:00 – Sir David King Works + Info

00:52 – TGS Episodes for Sian Sutherland, Robert Sapolsky, Luke Gromen, Chuck Watson

04:07 – Lord John Browne

07:44 – Joseph Fourier On the Temperatures of the Terrestrial Sphere and Interplanetary Space

09:34 – John Tyndall radiant heat apparatus

11:10 – Chemistry of Greenhouse Gasses

11:37 – Svante Arrhenius On the Influence of Carbonic Acid in the Air upon the Temperature of the Ground

14:06 – CO2 ppm over time, 420 ppm today + CO2 Equivalents

15:01 – Ideal Greenhouse ppm

16:15 – Climate Crisis Advisory Group

16:55 – British Antarctic Survey

17:42 – Carbon Dioxide analysis of ice cores and climate implications

18:14 – Climate science using ocean (sediment) cores

20:08 – Correlation between CO2 and temperature patterns

20:41 – Feedback Loops

21:09 – Snowball EarthGabrielle Walker

22:50 – Albedo Effect

23:38 – Arctic region heating up 4.3x faster than the rest of the Earth

24:02 – Tipping Points

24:25 – Greenland ice mass, if completely melted sea level will rise by 7.5 meters/24 feet

25:22 – Permafrost methane tipping point

26:37 – Methane emission sources

27:02 – Arctic jetstream disrupted by climate feedbacks

28:02 – 2021 heat wave on the west coast of the United States relations to the jet stream

29:48 – IPCC
30:25 – The Butterfly Effect

31:24 – Western/central Europe century long weather prediction made in 2002

32:40 – 2003 Central Europe Heatwave

33:01 – Record heat globally in 2023

35:58 – Humans can’t survive at a temperature of 45ºC

37:12 – Sea level rise impact on the UK

37:45 – Mekong Delta

37:59 – Vietnam is the 3rd largest rice exporter in the world

38:15 – Vietnam landmass submerged under sea water by 2050

38:37 – Salt water intrusion

38:55 – Research creating salt water resilient rice crops

39:16 – 2023 Extreme Weather events, El Niño

41:46 – Possible limits to heat absorption in the ocean

42:04 – [Correction: 2 billion years ago] Earth’s atmosphere was made predominantly of CO2

42:45 – Dolomite Hills

43:57 – Ocean acidification 

44:28 – Biodiversity risks

44:44 – Reality Roundtable #4 on Oceans

46:30 – United States Lobby system, most powerful interest groups

48:26 – Pew poll on global climate change views and polarization in English speaking countries

49:15 – The United States has emitted more CO2 than any other country in history

50:03 – Montreal Protocol

50:44 – Ecological Overshoot

52:17 – Extreme wealth inequality

54:27 – Ikaria, Blue Zone

56:36 – Tony Blair, Gordon Brown

57:41 – Britain’s lead on climate action in the early 2000s

58:03 – Bush administration’s stance on climate change and climate action

59:11 – Prime Minister Cameron

1:02:29 – CCAG 3 R’s for climate strategy

1:02:59 – 50 billion tons of greenhouse emissions per year globally

1:05:01 – James Hansen

1:06:35 – Center for Climate Repair

1:07:10 – Marine Biomass Regeneration

1:08:16 – Smetacek work on whale poop and carbon sequestration

1:11:25 – Blue whales at 1% of the population compared to 100 years ago

1:15:43 – Regenerative agriculture and increase soil carbon capacity

1:17:05 – Silting the Cold Sea

1:20:09 – Google maps shipping boat tracker

1:20:57 – Tonga GDP dependent on fishing exports

1:23:18 – UK incremental renewable energy mandate

1:24:52 – The cost Solar Voltaics has reduced by a factor of 100, and wind power has reduced in cost as well

1:26:10 – 2023 all time highs of coal extraction

1:26:54 – 32% of global electricity produced is from renewables

1:27:10 – Electricity is 20% of energy use

1:27:38 – It is cheaper in the UK to produce electricity with renewables than any fossil fuels

1:28:48 – China is producing more renewables, nuclear, and hydropower than the rest of the world

1:29:04 – CCAG COUNTRY REPORT | China

1:29:37 – Chinese percentage of EVs on the road is higher than anywhere else

1:30:10 – Chinese economic growth slowing

1:32:16 – Marine Brightening

1:32:56 – Geoengineering through sulfate aerosols into the stratosphere – risks

1:34:25 – Ozone layer

1:35:28 – Sulfur Dioxide and coalhealth issues in the lower atmosphere

1:39:03 – American Association for the Advancement of Science, Science Diplomacy Award

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