Climate Change: A Revised Prediction - Steven Chu | Endgame #162 (Luminaries)

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Nobelist, physicist, Stanford professor, Steven Chu talks about the updated story of climate change, the unheard story behind his Nobel Prize & time in public service, and how he thinks that meritocracy is at risk.

Professor Steven Chu is the William R. Kenan Jr. Professor at Stanford University, the 1997 Nobel Laureate in Physics for the "development of methods to cool and trap atoms with laser light," and the 12th US Secretary of Energy.

The host, Gita Wirjawan is an Indonesian educator and entrepreneur. He is currently teaching at Stanford as a visiting scholar at the university’s Walter H. Shorenstein Asia Pacific Research Center (APARC).

#Endgame #GitaWirjawan #StevenChu

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Chapters
0:00:00 - Intro
0:02:32 - Shaping a Nobel Laureate
0:14:21 - Progressive Scientists
0:35:47 - Public Service
0:42:33 - Climate Realism
1:00:25 - Net Zero Challenge
1:10:25 - Reversing the Threat
1:23:07 - Science Over Politics

[clivepierce]

A fascinating interview but, as a retired atmospheric scientist I cannot concur with Chu’s optimism regarding technological fixes for climate change. At +1.2 Celsius, climate impacts already pose an existential threat to ecosystems on land and in the sea, hence also to our food and water supplies. Furthermore, the cumulative environmental and socioeconomic impacts of every additional tenth of a degree will be markedly non-linear. We simply do not have the leeway to wait several decades for billion tonne scale, renewable energy powered CDR, and as our global food and water supplies falter it would be naive to assume the continued stability of the socioeconomic systems capable of delivering coordinated mitigating interventions.

[oktoharyanto]

Terimakasih pak gita, saya ayah 3 orang anak dengan kehidupan yg sangat sederhana. Banyak nonton podcast andgame saya jadi ngerti apa yg harus saya perbuat untuk ke tiga anak saya.

Dinegara ini untuk mendapatkan pendidikan yg berkualitas internasional harus bayar mahal, bagaimana mungkin anak2 saya atau anak2 yg orang tuanya dengan pendapatan umr bisa mencicipi pendidikan yg berkualitas karena biayanya yg sangat luar biasa besarnya.

Jalan satu2nya yg harus saya lakukan. membaca kembali buku2 fisika, matematika, kimia, biologi, sejarah, astornomi dan yg lainnya. lalu saya menceritakan kembali kepada mereka dengan harapan mereka cinta ilmu pengetahuan, mengasah critical thinking dan menjadikan literasi budaya dirumh.

Podcast andgame memberikan saya banyak inspirasi, terimakasih pak gita dan team.

[ernststravoblofeld]

People will choose convenience over existence if the threat looks like it's a few years off.

[ivandennysopit]

I appreciate the podcast, especially for featuring a Nobel laureate interview. It's rare for influencers to do so. This interview can be eye-opening for Indonesians, showcasing what a Nobel laureate is. President Obama's choice of Mr. Steven Chu as Secretary of Energy reflects the U.S.'s trust in science to solve problems. Lastly, I would like to introduce myself to Pak Gita and all members, I'm Ivan, currently living in New York City and studying Carbon Management. If you find yourself in NYC, let's grab coffee and chat.

[richdiana]

Once you reach human overshoot, you're screwed and we have and we are.

[Eye_Exist]

it's incredible how much they are able to talk about it without anyone ever mentioning the obvious fact that the handful of international companies and governments who control the production and trade could stop it today *_if they wanted_*

[amosbatto]

Listening to Steven Chu, you would never know that he was Minister of Energy under an administration that literally doubled natural gas and petroleum extraction in the US, because they chose to not crack down on pollution from fracking. They also chose to allow mountain top removal for coal to continue. They chose to not use the power that congress gave them to investigate the environmental problems with fracking. When Chu was serving, Obama came out with his "all of the above" energy policy during his first term that encouraged more fracking.

Chu should have used the independence that Obama gave him to recommend that the Clean Power Plan and the stream protection rule be implemented immediately, rather than waiting till the end of the second term, when Trump could easily cancel them. Chu should have told Obama, carbon capture and storage is hogwash, so don't fund it. Then his moralizing about what is he going to tell his grandchildren is total BS. When did Chu tell Obama that he can't take the politically expedient path when dealing with climate change. After the Deepwater Horizon incident, Chu should have been pushing Obama to ban all future deep water drilling permits and to not authorize a single new pipeline in the US and not authorize new hydrocarbon extraction on federal lands. Chu could have recommended many policies that didn't require approval from congress. Chu could have pushed for heavy fines for BP, but instead he talks about how he had a good working relationship with the company in solving the crisis. Maybe if the American oil/gas majors had been pushed during the Obama years, they would now be investing in solar, wind and charging stations like the European majors.

This interviewer should have pushed Chu on all these issues, yet instead we got Chu moralizing about what the youth should tell their grandparents. Really disgusting to watch this interview, once you know what actually happened under Chu's watch.

[kkob]

I'm just gutted such a brilliant man understands climate and solutions so poorly. The problem is not the economics... MMT. It's not the economics... Commons. And the resources don't exist for these things and, now, more importantly, neither does the time.

How do they not know this? Ah... that's right... they know nothing of regenerative systems and can't conceive of lower consumption because that feels like failure to them when it would be correcting mistakes we made long ago.

So unfortunate.

[simplyme]

One of the best interviews I have listened to so far! We need more scientists in politics and more public funding for the sciences.

[shamskitz]

Re: GMOs. It's a bit disingenuous to claim that people who are against GMO crops are "afraid of science." That's a straw man. Ecology IS a science and one of its fundamental tenets is that natural ecosystems are far more complex than we can ever hope to fully understand. We have a terrible track record for assuming that we can predict the consequences of interfering with nature.

[herial]

Seharusnya seperti itu, , Orang-orang yg memimpin sesuai dengan kompetensi nya, , bukan karena nepotisme nya. Pemilihan apapun itu, , mulia dari pemilihan kepala sekolah, kepala desa, kepala daerah, sampe padaa kepala negara, , semuanya harus sesuai kompetensi nya, , bukan karena banyaknya uang untuk menyogok. Hanya sebagian manusia masih belum memahami makna "inklusi dan berkelanjutan" Dalam pembangunan suatu negara.

[Spacemonkeymojo]

Being from Australia I've never heard of Professor Chu until today. What an inspirational human being!

[martin]

Due to "scientists" declaring different theories I now have a lot of trouble believing any of them.

[leofeliz]

Dr. Chu States, We are 1.2 C Global Average temperature above Pre-Industrial levels. Major Scientific entities State 1.4 to 1.6 above Pre-Industrial level. Several Climate Scientist state we are already at or past 2C. We are at irreversible climate change. No one will change and what ever change is done is going to require the emission of energy, hence continue heating of the planet. Forget about Sea level rise, there will be massive droughts, massive migration, Extinctions, lack of food, more wars, Millions of people also dying from diseases etc. With all due respect to the charming Dr. Chu.

[gregmckenzie]

Why do so many scientists accept the concept of "energy demand" without question? Who, exactly, is "demanding" the energy? What is it being used for now? Do we "need" all of that exterior lighting? (Think about Las Vegas and large cities around the world.). Does every family "need" to have three or four cars to drive one person in each car? Do we "need" all of the stuff that the corporations are advertising? Is the corporate energy sector so powerful that they can claim an energy "demand" that will require us to poison the planet so that the corporate and energy captains can become even more ridiculously wealthy? Why do we "need" for those people to have 90 percent of our global wealth?
Scientists who do NOT ask these questions are not working for the benefit of us or the Earth's ecosphere. We should get rid of the "energy bosses" (and the scientists who do their bidding) and establish a democracy that can actually serve the people and all of the life forms that all of us are absolutely dependent upon.

[pcuimac]

Will be much more than +3°C and it will be unstopable, even if we did something that had an impact.

[sixvee]

“I accepted to come to this meeting to have a sober and mature conversation. I’m not in any way signing up to any discussion that is alarmist. There is no science out there, or no scenario out there, that says that the phase-out of fossil fuel is what’s going to achieve 1.5C.”
- Sultan Al Jaber, President of COP 28, also CEO of Abu Dhabi National Oil Company

Mukhtar Babayev will be the president for COP 29; he is also a former executive of the State Oil Company of Azerbaijian Republic.

Seems more and more likely, scenario SSP5-8.5 of the IPCC assessment may come to fruition (or at least the higher end of the spectrum). I say enjoy what you can, while you still can; pity the generations to come.

[monkeyfist.]

Fluctuations... a nice way to describe "depopulation events." Which is what we as humans, will face in time. Insurance companies have stated that once we see 100, 000 people die from a climate event, high risk and medium risk insurance will not be available. Medium risk from climate events, describes most of the places humans live now. That is in the near future.

It is nice to be optimistic but it is important to be realistic. Understand that what is demanded of us, is far beyond our abilities. That is not to say don't try! Try hard and never stop. Our future, for the next couple hundred years, will be a battle at every turn. One might concern themselves with where they live. It might be a matter of survival. Everyone needs to take their situation very seriously, especially those in high risk areas.
Good luck everyone 🍀

[ndavies]

This podcast confirmed everything I feared. We are headed towards a drastically complex future.

[DSAK]

Once Ronnie Raygun was elected, the game was over. Everything since has just been "Smoke & Mirrors"