Climate Change: Simple, Serious, Solvable | James Rae | TEDxUniversityofStAndrews

In James Rae's dynamic talk he explores climate change, primarily considering how its science is simple, its impacts are serious and the problem itself is solvable. Consequently, encouraging human ingenuity and individual action in order to protect our world. Dr James Rae is a climate scientist in the School of Earth
and Environmental Sciences at the University of St Andrews.
His research uses the chemistry of sediments, ice, and
fossils to reconstruct past climate change. He’s particularly
interested in the drivers of the ice ages, the climates of the
dinosaurs, and reconstructing CO2 over geological time.
Before coming to St Andrews, James held a prestigious
NOAA Climate and Global Change fellowship at Caltech,
and studied at the Universities of Bristol and Oxford. In 2015,
James won the European Geosciences Union Outstanding
Young Scientist Award in Biogeochemistry, for his
contributions to understanding past climate change and its
causes. When not in his lab in the Purdie Building, you can
find him running, surfing, or biking in the Scottish great

[MeowPau]

I sure do love seeing all of the non-scientists "disproving" James' point, even though he is a scientist.

[moonettewolfsong]

‘Still still in the hunter gather stage for coal’ huh, never though about it that way. ‘we’re like a flock of birds.’ I’m really liking the imagery you are using.

[singingway]

James Rae, I'd like to suggest that you add a point most people don't "get, " that the CO2 we're adding, had been sequestered safely away. That's what makes it extra, additional CO2 in the atmosphere. Many people I talk to (and I interview two new people a week about what they think about climate change) -- they think that "carbon is natural, CO2 is not a toxin, we breathe it out, right?" they don't "get" that we've added to the atmosphere, what had been taken out of circulation for millions of years.

[henflins]

This is so simplistic that it should not be featured as a tedtalk. His "france crops" is so narrowly scoped. The food supply has skyrocketed recently. Look at the greening since the 1980s

[RadioNul]

agricultural revolution was driven by fossil fuels as well

[francismausley]

Peace, unity and global collaboration are vital to address climate change and all other global issues.“The well-being of mankind, its peace and security, are unattainable unless and until its unity is firmly established” ~ Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh

[tonypalliser]

We need to get the population down ASAP as well

[midbrew]

This is totally solvable. I'm working on one such solution myself. However, no solution will work without transitioning to a non-fossil global economy. But just to talk about ONE solution: if you position several satellites with large solar blankets at the L1 point (the point at which Earths gravity and the Suns gravity exactly cancel), then they can be positioned to reduce solar insolation on Earth's poles by maybe 10-30%. This has the subtle and temporary effect of cooling the Poles, reducing the threat of sea level rise, permafrost outgassing, and AMOC shutdown.

[thomassenbart]

I don't see the solvability portion. Fossil fuels currently are the only form of energy capable of maintaining human prosperity. Unless we are willing to go nuclear.

[montithered]

In all honesty, I started as a climate change denier until I started hearing just absolute nonsensical things from other denialists like Tony Heller.

I stopped paying attention to social media, pundits, bureaucrats, and politicians.

I started reading the actual research papers (not blogs, videos, or independent publishers).


Climate change is not difficult to understand. Like weather, there are limited factors which affect climate. Understanding what they are and how they interact isn’t difficult.

[janedimillo]

Thank You, James! Interesting, informative, enlightening.

[truthseeker]

Psalms 104... from verse 6 concerning the waters, gods sets their boundaries in verse 9 But thou hast set them a boundary which they shall not pass: they shall not return to cover the earth.
GNV
6 Thou coverest it with the [c]deep as with a garment: the [d]waters would stand above the mountains.

7 But at thy rebuke they flee: at the voice of thy thunder they haste away.

8 And the mountains ascend,  and the valleys descend to the place which thou hast established for them.

9 But thou hast set them a bound which they shall not pass: they shall not return to cover the earth.

[bennyobie]

How can you know all this and still have a kid?...

[bnielsen]

It's seriously concerning when a "scientist" misleads the general public by comparing the glacial and interglacial periods as if the change in CO2 was the cause, rather than mostly the result of the temperature change due to Milankovitch cycles (see NASA page for details). This is easy to prove mathematically because the greenhouse gas response to CO2 is logarithmic, and a change from 190 to 280ppm is ony 0.9 degC, while the change in average Earth temperature between glacial and interglacial periods is about 7 degC.

[msaville]

How much CO2 does producing, packaging and transporting the new LED lightbulbs produce? Plus the production, packaging and transport of the original still working lightbulbs which will just end up in the bin. How long before this is recouped?

Also what happens when we give everyone on earth the same number of lightbulbs as we have per person in the west?

[TheScatvegas]

There is a lot to say in 20 mins. U r going to have holes in ur talk as u address ur talk to different people.

[nealtauss]

Anything beyond surfeit can be a pollutant.... we're looking at a question of balance.... excess CO2 is not taken up by plants that are not allowed to exist.... and our current Agricultural and Industrial Methods are disruptive in the EXTREME.... for Natural Nurture FROM plant around the World. At the Same time we started hyper-injecting fossilized carbon into our atmosphere.... we began proliferating Iron Plow Tillage.... agriculturally disrupting photo-synthetic carbon sequestration.... effectively Doubling the Damage....at LEAST. We MIGHT be able to turn THAT around faster than anything else we CAN do.... EXPONENTIALLY increasing Soil Carbon Retention by adopting all-around no-till organic agricultural methods.... MANY beneficial Societal effects here... MO' Bettah Food&Health/Mo' Bettah Money (at the GROUND-level.... where LongGREENMoney makes Mo' Bettah Benefits in a bubble-UP ECOnomic model) & LESS+LESS money for the Manufacturers of Agri-Toxins.... where Mo' Money makes BUT Mo' Profit$forPoi$on$ and LITTLE el$e.... be$ide$ Profit$ for Political Power in Proliferation of Popular Pain AND Penury.... and THERE'$ your trouble.... NOW we know why it's so hard to even TALK about making beneficial changes much less understand root Need for So doing AND....Root Cau$e for NOT. Go ahead.... Wave your magic Wand.... even WITHOUT climate crisis.... these agri-poison$ cause Air/Water/Food AND Health Pollution.... so IF you should find yourselves mentally incapable of grasping a WIDER Scope for this Impending Horror... understand clearly NOW.... that carcinogenic and other-wise Toxic agri-chemical residues are CURRENTLY doing to your body&being what the manufacturers of those chemicals are doing to all Life IN and ON Earth. It is Time to Change.... not just how we generate and use our energy but how we grow the very food we eat....and in So doing we CAN.... in MOST likelihoods.... RESOLVE our Climate AND Pollution PROBLEMS.... in REAL Time.

[haikus]

I agree with everything he says except for an error at around 13:23 when he states that hunter gatherer mankind drives the wooly mammoth to extinction. That's just wrong. He was certainly taught that in school as was I, but we know that mankind in hunter gatherer configuration doesn't exploit animals to the point of extinction. That's a modern man thing. No the mammoths and all of the mega fauna that went extinct around the globe and the Clovis civilisation in America for example, were wiped out by a catastrophic astrological/geological event in the form of a meteor or comet collision that occurred 12600 years ago in the North American ice sheet and at least in the Greenland Ice sheet. This is well documented now with even very recent discovery of the impact crater under the ice in Greenland. It was cataclysmic. The mega fauna were not hunted out but perished along with most of humanity at the beginning of the Younger Dryass.

[rac]

James Rae's "science" is so simple only a simpleton could believe it.

[InvestingForTomorrow]

While driving in urban areas, try using the cruise control whenever possible. Driving carefully, my hybrid gets between 40 and 60 miles per gallon. Already agreed upon by manufacturers, there was going to be a stipulation to make 55 mpg standard on autos in 8 years, but our toxic Pres.Nit-wit overturned that. Also, if you're headed out to the steakhouse in your Silverado, and believe in facts, consider that 18% of global warming is generated from cows, including methane. Bon Appetit.