Cosmic Queries – Climate Change at NASA with Chief Scientist Katherine Calvin

About This Episode

How does NASA combat climate change? On this episode, Neil deGrasse Tyson and comic co-host Chuck Nice answer questions about renewable energy, geoengineering, and how science is helping us battle the climate crisis with NASA Chief Scientist and Senior Climate Advisor, Katherine Calvin. 

What are NASA’s plans to combat climate change? Build huge air filtration towers? What about stratospheric aerosol injections? We discuss climate modeling, the impacts of trees, and the different effects of emission scenarios. Are we approaching “the point of no return”? What is it? We break down what effects of climate change are reversible and what might be nearly impossible to fix. 

We explore what keeps nuclear energy from going mainstream. Is nuclear the best scalable option? Discover the potential effects of terraforming Earth and how modeling helps us predict what will happen. Is it possible to have control of an entire planet? How do we save the trees and land ice? What can be attributed to Earth’s natural warming? 

Kate directs us to http://climate.nasa.gov where we can stay updated on NASA’s climate activities and track up to date climate change information from their satellites. How will NISAR be different from other Earth-observing satellites? What would the future look like if we stopped burning fossil fuels now? Plus, we also learn a little bit about the role of being NASA’s Chief Scientist and what the position entails. 

Thanks to our Patrons Marco Currin, Tyler Pitts, Jeffrey Bradley, Matthew Gottschalk, Austin Munson, Gabriela Dijkhoffz, David M, Sandra Pagliani, Brian Lacey, and Nalani Ritchie for supporting us this week.

NOTE: StarTalk+ Patrons can watch or listen to this entire episode commercial-free.