In this video Bill Nye, the Science Guy, explains the fundamentals of climate science, which have been understood by scientists for decades. Just like the tobacco lobby did with the clear evidence linking smoking with health effects, the petroleum industry has been trying to cast doubt on the science of climate change. The tobacco lobby managed to delay government action for the sake of public health on their industry for 3 decades – how long will the petroleum lobby be successful in their campaign? If they manage to delay action for 3 decades, we will have lost the window to take effective action on climate change. It’s time to stop the debate and the denial, and move on to solutions. Take the time today to write or phone at least one (more is better!) of your elected officials to let them know you’re concerned about climate change, and you want them to take action.
More links:
Claiming Joy & Healing Amidst the Climate Emergency 
6 responses to “Climate Science 101”
Since the paired vertical thermostats were obviously outside of the jars when the one on the right showed a significant temperature rise versus the one of the left, (1:10 to 1:17 Min. of the 4:35 Min video) what heat source was applied to the one on the right?
LOL – I assume that you are disputing the physics of C02 being a heat-trapping molecule by focusing on the way this video was made (sounds like a red herring to me, but maybe you want to be taken seriously). I encourage you, and every reader out there, to replicate this experiment to your own satisfaction, in your own classroom and/or household. If you have an argument with the physics after that, I suggest you take it up with all the physicists out there!
Christie, please stick to the science. Again what was the heat source that drove it up? Does the Science Guy have lab notes that would indicate what was done it what sequence?
JZ – If you are confused about how the movie is shot, please talk to a documentary movie maker. If you are confused about the science (i.e. you have replicated this in your own lab/household and your results are different) please consult a physicist. The instructions are pretty clear – use one heat lamp on one jar, and another on the other. If this doesn’t make sense to you, you could stop by a high school physics class and they might be able to help you out.
Christine, you appear to be confused between fiction and reality. In CS101 the Science Guy did not conduct an experiment but instead was used as a prop in a phony video attempting to depict CO2 as the main driver of the earth’s temperature. Were you just as confused when Al Gore while discussing ice core data in his Inconvenient Truth video said something like “…wherever you see CO2 go up temperature goes up..” What he didn’t reveal was that temperature leads CO2 on the way up and down through the many glacial interglacial periods. How deceptive was he in that case and can one trust him now?
JZ – you are spreading petroleum propaganda, trying to position Global Warming as a theory rather than the scientific fact that it is. Reality is that Environment Canada, NASA, NOAA, and every single Academy of Science on the global supports the science of climate change, which tells us that humans spewing 90 million tons of CO2 into the air every day is endangering our stable climate, which has allowed civilization to flourish over the last 10,000 years. You are low on the credibility spectrum – that is, you aren’t a publishing scientist (heck, you don’t even seem to understand the basic principles of high school physics. You seem to think that legitimate scientific critique involves criticizing how a documentary movie about physics is made, rather than the physics itself!) – for more on the credibility spectrum you can go to my comments policy.
In the meantime, move along, your musings may be welcome some other place, here we are involved in discussing the causes and solutions to our current environmental crisis and building a better future for our children.