Climate Change

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The last i pc c report was a most recent one that weighed in on this issue. Itwas already some years ago, six or seven years ago, said that climate change is only one factor that weighs in on economic well being. A few degrees of warming is a few % impact at the end of the century. And if the economy is growing at two percent, as people expect for both us and the world, then four % impact is two years of growth. Economy quadrupling 70 years from now, going from present 20 million to 80 million, it would be something like 76 soe billion, 76 billion instead of 80 billion. So it's in the noise.

According to Steven Koonin, when it comes to climate change, the media, politicians, and other prominent voices have declared that “the science is settled.” Koonin avers that the long game of telephone from research to reports, to the popular media, is corrupted by misunderstanding and misinformation. Koonin says that core questions about the way the climate is responding to our influence, and what the impacts will be remain largely unanswered. Koonin acknowledges that the climate is changing, and he claims the whyand how aren’t as clear as you’ve probably been led to believe, and what the impacts will be remain largely unanswered.

In this engaging conversation Michael Shermer challenges Dr. Koonin with many of the most common critiques of his book, Unsettled: What Climate Science Tells Us, What It Doesn’t, and Why It Matters, and Steven Koonin responds by drawing upon his decades of experience — including as a top science advisor to the Obama administration.