Carl Sagan testifying before Congress in 1985 on climate change

The address Carl Sagan made in 1985 is well worth watching for those who remember those times and especially for those who weren't alive back then [0] People knew about this before you were born and decided their best interests were more important and they acted in wilful disregard for your life and the lives of everyone on this planet. They weren't ignorant. No facts were hidden from them that they could be forgiven for being misinformed. They knew with certainty what the science was revealing and spent money to discredit the science, cut funding to their own researchers, bought politicians, funded PR campaigns, and continued building their fossil fuel empires. Everything Carl Sagan said in that address has come to pass. It's wild to watch. [0] ▶ this video

Time to watch Carl Sagan, almost 50 years ago, explain how our coal usage would be a big problem: ▶ this video A slow train wreck that was avoidable.

A quick google search gives us plenty of past published projections and how they fared: link You can also watch Carl Sagan break it down in front of congress back in 1985 for just 15 minutes of your time ▶ this video

Look at how many details this guy (Carl Sagan) conveyed in his 15' speech: ▶ this video in a way that potentially everyone understood. I wonder if every explanation was like his, if nuance wouldn't be well communicated, even to large groups.

>If doomers were good at predicting these events and how it will play out they'd all be rich as hell, but no, they are for the most part a bunch of broke whiners. Oh, the classic "if you're so smart then why aren't you rich" non argument. I'm sure Carl Sagan was a just whiny loser because he didn't figure out how to become a billionaire from knowing how physics works. His prediction that the planet would warm several degrees by the mid to late 21st century failed to reward him what he was owed. By the way we haven't even gotten halfway there yet, so your "shifting goalposts" thesis is null. People who push dangerous neoliberal propaganda like carbon capture or "infinite growth on a finite planet is possible" on the other hand do get very rich, and they don't even need to make good predictions. Such is the planet governed by pedophiles. ▶ this video

We’ve had 40 years and we’re still burning all the coal Carl Sagan warned us about. ▶ this video So, after 40 years I’m a little tired of hearing it takes too long to build nuclear power plants. On the bright side, we’ve almost reached peak coal: link

40 years ago Carl Sagan said to stop burning coal and make sure India and China don’t use all their reserves. Imagine how much more time we would have if we’d have listened. ▶ this video We should be very close to peak coal sometime this decade.

How have we done in the last 40 years dealing with climate change? Peak fossil fuels Real Soon Now I’d say Carl Sagan nailed it: ▶ this video

“Gotta start somewhere” We’re about 40 years into “getting started”. One of the main problems was identified in 1985. ▶ this video

That's Al Gore at 11:28. ▶ this video If you watch the entire video, you'll see he's actively involved on this committee presentation, arguments and deliberation. link

We were warned about the coal problem in China/India 40 years ago. ▶ this video We were also warned that even if the United States solved the problem that it wasn’t enough. People think they can convince several billion people to give up meat but replacing several thousand coal power plants is too hard… “Local governments in China approved more new coal power in the first three months of 2023 than in the whole of 2021, according to official documents” link

Here is Carl Sagan's original essay on climate change in 1980 where he warned specifically about global cooling based on deforestation: link 5 years later he testified to Congress about the dangers of excess CO2 emissions causing runaway warming : ▶ this video On the surface these two messages may seem contradictory but underlying both is a consistent message that excessive man-made changes to a delicate highly non-linear system are dangerous to our survival as a species.