Airborne photo showing the rift in the Larsen C ice shelf in the Antarctic Peninsula, taken by John Sonntag/NASA.
Airborne photo showing the rift in the Larsen C ice shelf in the Antarctic Peninsula, taken by John Sonntag/NASA.

Get Real About Climate Change, with Seth Shostak

The rift in the Larsen C ice shelf in the Antarctic Peninsula. Credit: NASA/John Sonntag, via http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov
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About This Episode

Seth Shostak, SETI Institute Senior Astronomer, is back hosting StarTalk All-Stars as he welcomes co-host Eugene Mirman and Ken Caldeira, Climate Scientist at the Carnegie Institution of Science, to sharpen the discussion on climate change. Ken explains why there are better things to argue besides the well-established science proving climate change. Seth questions the consequences of the new rift in Antarctica’s Larsen C ice shelf, leading Eugene to develop a new appreciation for the movie Waterworld. You’ll get details on some of the plausible, and not so plausible, plans to combat climate change including reflecting sunlight away from the Earth, putting a sunshade satellite at the L1 point (the gravitationally neutral point between the Earth and Sun), carbon capture and storage, nuclear power, “awesome batteries,” freeway painting, and planting an insane amount of trees. Explore the difference between weather and climate. Find out what the U.S. will look like when the ice sheets melt, and what the biggest disaster was to ever happen to the Earth. You’ll also hear why human relocation because of climate change is like having Halloween without enough candy, and about the possibilities of a global electrical grid. All that plus, our panel answers fan-submitted Cosmic Queries about climate change like “What contributions to climate change are due to the Milankovitch cycles?” and “Are the number of massive hurricanes due to global warming or better record keeping?”

NOTE: All-Access subscribers can listen to this entire episode commercial-free here: Climate Change, with Seth Shostak

In This Episode

  • Host

    Seth Shostak

    Seth Shostak
    All-Stars Host, Senior Astronomer at the SETI Institute
  • Co-Host

    Eugene Mirman

    Eugene Mirman
    Comedian
  • Guest

    Ken Caldiera

    Ken Caldiera
    Climate Scientist at the Carnegie Institution for Science, Department of Global Ecology at Stanford University

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