CO2: An Existential Threat? - Dr. William Happer, Princeton DSPod #208

Get your DEMYSTICON 2024 tickets here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/demysticon-2024-tickets-727054969987 William Happer is a Professor of Physics at Princeton University, where he has spent decades working out the details of atomics, spectroscopy, and adaptive optics that are used in telescope arrays around the world to counteract the distortions caused by atmospheric currents. Harper has also served the Bush and Clinton administrations as director of the Department of Energy’s Office of Science, where he was tasked with allocating DOE funds to promising research projects. More recently, he was appointed senior director of the National Security Council office for emerging technologies by the Trump administration - an position that was cut short due to disagreements within the administration about Happer’s strong stance on the relationship between CO2 and climate. Namely, that there is not a strong relationship between CO2 and warming, and that mitigation strategies that are being rolled out around the world will do more harm than good. On the podcast we talk about science as a refuge from social conflict, leading DOE science policy in the nineties, the questionable success of the Ozone hole story, the future of energy, and the disaster of making the wrong moves. Tell us what you think in the comments or on our Discord: https://discord.gg/MJzKT8CQub Sign up for a yearly Patreon membership for discounted conference tickets: https://bit.ly/3lcAasB (00:00)

Go! (00:00:18)

What drives Will Happer

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Science as refuge from social conflict

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Degradation of free inquiry

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Paying attention to paradoxes

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Threshold & the quantum of action

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Leading the DOE science

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The ozone hole controversy

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The energy future

(01:09:14)

The Sri Lanka disaster

(01:16:29)

Problems with the CO2 narrative

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Existential fear as motivator

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Reading the CO2 record from the distant past

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Hidden motivations

(02:13:54)

Public v private academics

(02:25:51)

Science 2.0

(02:37:12)

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