The Joe Rogan Experience – Episode 1774
Steven E. Koonin is a theoretical physicist, professor, former Chief Scientist for the BP petroleum company, and former Under Secretary for Science at the US Department of Energy under the Obama administration. He's also the author of Unsettled: What Climate Science Tells Us, What It Doesn't, and Why It Matters.
This episode gets right to the point on climate change and there is little to no digression off the topic.
Even though Steven agrees that the climate is changing he has received criticism for not being alarmist about it. His book Unsettled: What Climate Science Tells Us, What it Doesn't, and Why It Matters sold tens of thousands of copies, yet the Failing New York Times snubbed it from the bestseller list! (Apparently you can't be a best selling author if you don't genuflect to the narrative!)
The first hour is a general overview of the so-called climate change "crisis."
It's immediately very clear why Steven E. Koonin is controversial. It's because he is a very effective communicator who can use analogies to get clear points across to the average person. He's likely one of a very small number of climate researchers who can speak to laymen. He is therefore completely dangerous to the regime.
The second hour takes a look at the long term economic impact of a changing climate versus the economic impact of a widescale energy transition. It's absolutely fascinating.
Above all, Steven E. Koonin manages to get us to care about the climate in a non-alarmist way, and look at how we can change gradually and gracefully to do something about it.
Timestamps:
6:05 Steven draws an interesting parallel between today's climate research and ancient data from the Egyptians.
9:00 What exactly is a climate scientist? What methodologies do they use?
16:55 Climate change is a problem but not an immediate threat and we have time to address it gracefully.
17:40 Steven addresses the criticisms against his book.
19:22 Who establishes the narrative on climate change?
21:07 A good analogy between the Reformation and the current climate debate (though I'm not sure Steven E. Koonin is up there in historical importance with the dude who translated the Bible into English - lol).
26:50 How manipulated data creates panic. (Charts and graphs FTW!)
33:20 A story about Steven being "fact checked" on the scientific data by a non-expert reporter with an agenda. In other words, what do activist "reporters" do to push the alarmist narrative?
40:20 Sea Level discussion. Are we going to lose Miami? How the UN projections are way out of touch with the data, and are much more extreme than anything we've seen in 100 years.
53:00 What are greenhouse gases and how much of these is the USA responsible for?
1:09:55 Steven breaks down the Earth life cycle and how this relates to CO2. There's something called the Global Leaf Area Index and I just think that's hilarious.
1:15:30 Steven gives some perspective about the size of the world and its population. For instance, are the goals of the Western world to stabilize the Earth's temperature a fantasy given the needs of the developing world?
1:28:30 How climate models are created.
1:32:45 What people mean when they say "the science is settled" in regards climate change.
1:50:00 Would there still be climate issues we'd have to deal with even if there was zero human influence on the climate?
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