(calm mysterious music) - Bring me another bottle
of Moët, would you, Antoine? Apparently the world is ending. Well, where is he? Sometimes I'm so goddamn beautiful it makes me want to throw up! Ugh, I'll get it myself. (calm dramatic piano music) (bath swishing) (knocking) Antoine? - There you are. - Ugh, it's this nerd again. Hey Doc, can you bring me
my smelling salts please? - I'll think about it. Have you watched my video yet? - (sighs) The one about the apocalypse? - No, Marie, it's not
about the apocalypse, it's about how to stop climate change. - You goddamn liberals
always want me to watch some video on YouTube where
some boring transsexual lectures me about social justice. Well, I can't stand that. - Well, why don't you watch a few minutes and then I'll bring you
your smelling salts? - This is extortion. You're sinking to this just to shove your liberal agenda down my throat. My God. You cucks will stop at nothing. - That's right, open wide. - No. No. No! - Welcome to the lab, the
lab of aesthetic climatology. Is it hot in here or is the
world just like this now? Imagine that this is the earth. This is what the earth would look like if you stabbed it with a giant knife. In 1976, a beta cuck named Al Gore led the first congressional
hearings on global warming. For the next several decades, he devoted much of his career
to raising public awareness about the grave predictions
of climate science, in particular, the disastrous
effects of global warming induced by industrial
carbon dioxide emissions. Gore's activism culminated in 2006, with the release of his
documentary "An Inconvenient Truth", but a month before its release, Comedy Central aired an
episode of South Park ridiculing Gore as a hysterical buffoon obsessed with warning the nation about a mythological
creature called ManBearPig. - It is half man, half bear, and half pig. - The episode portrays Gore as a narcissistic,
attention-seeking alarmist, an issue-haver, a care-about,
a sibilant moralf(bleep)g. I'm super cereal, you guys. (audience laughing hysterically) We all had a good laugh
at Gore's foolishness. After all, no one likes a
complainer, a critic, a moralist, a killjoy, a naysayer,
a bearer of bad news, and in fact a lot of us
probably remember ManBearPig better than we remember
"An Inconvenient Truth". A lot of this backlash
against Gore seems to fit a pattern described in
the brilliant video essay "Why Are You So Angry?" by Innuendo Studios. Part 2 of the essay describes a phenomenon I'll call the Angry Jack effect. It works like this: You're at a barbecue shoving
brisket into your front hole when you notice the
person seated next to you declines to eat any meat
because they're vegan. Your immediate instinctual
reaction is anger at the vegan, because even if they're
not really judging you, the mere fact that they are vegan means that they probably have
reasons for not eating meat, and that means there might be reasons why you shouldn't eat meat. So what you do is you
lash out at the vegan and you tell you them, "Oh, so you think you're
better than me, huh? "Well, I'll have you know that eating meat "is perfectly natural, and evolution, "and people who don't eat meat,
well, their bones fall out, "and besides, you're a hypocrite anyway "because more animals die
when they plow the fields "for your stupid fucking
vegetables, you moral jerk." Of course, this is not really a rational response to the situation. This is you subconsciously protecting your ego from potential guilt, from the potential accusation
that you're a bad person, and you're protecting the
lifestyle that you enjoy and are accustomed to
from a potential threat. And this is essentially how people have been reacting to Al Gore for decades. He's a fun-ruiner, criticizing our high-emission way of life, and instead of engaging
sincerely with the critique, we lash out at him so we
don't have to think about it. The problem is that,
scientifically speaking, climate change is in fact real, and Gore was right all along. Oopsy doopsy!
(descending horn music) So now it's current year, and the global temperature has risen one degree Celsius above
the pre-industrial average, which is on track with the projections presented in Gore's film. Now one degree doesn't sound like much, but to get a sense of scale, consider that the last ice age was only 4.5 degrees Celsius cooler than the 20th century norm. We are already at one degree warmer than the pre-industrial average, and current scientific
models put us on track for three degrees warmer
by the end of the century, an outcome that would,
among other catastrophes, completely flood Shanghai and Miami. Scientists have long recommended
that we limit warming to two degrees in order
to avert global cataclysm. But the latest report from the Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change warns that even two degrees of warming could result in an iceless arctic summer at least once a decade, the destruction of
nearly every coral reef, and a heightened frequency
of tropical cyclones, droughts, and famines around the world. The report therefore recommends we limit warming to 1.5 degrees, a goal that requires drastic
and unprecedented reduction in emissions within the next 12 years and net zero emissions by 2050. But even limiting warming to two degrees requires a significant
reduction in emissions. Otherwise we're on track
for three degrees of warming and possibly even four or more, a situation that could
be near apocalyptic-- - (exhales) Look, Doc. This is just the same
liberal media bullshit we've all heard for decades. Weather changes sometimes. You were just talking about the ice age. First it was cold, now
it's getting warmer. That's just nature. - Do you honestly think that all the world's leading climate scientists just forgot to take into account that the weather changes sometimes? - Isn't it obvious to you that this whole guilt-trip
about carbon emissions is just an attack on the
American way of life, another excuse for big government
to take away my freedom? - What freedom? Are you an oil company? - Well, what if I sexually
identify as an oil company? Isn't that what you liberals think? My identity is valid. - No, it isn't. - Bring me my smelling salts. - Watch the goddamn video. (key clicks) Imagine the year is 2100. I want you to picture the
earth as a human vagina and imagine you're a gynecologist and you're using a speculum to examine the inside of a watermelon. How does that make you feel, kids? I bet you wish your irresponsible
gas-guzzling parents had done something to stop this. So we may have a global
climate catastrophe fast approaching, but at least our political
leaders are responsible, rational, and scientifically
literate, right? - Is there climate change? Yeah. Will it go back like this? I mean, will it change back? Probably, that's what I think. I believe it goes this way. - Donald Trump has a consistent history of climate change denial, from his 2012 claim that global
warming is a Chinese hoax aimed at undermining American manufacturing to his tweet last week that
it's very cold outside, therefore, "Whatever
happened to Global Warming?" Of course the term global warming refers to the increase in the
global average temperature, temperature continuing to vary by region. In fact, global warming could cause some regions to become much colder, for instance, if the ocean current known as the Atlantic
conveyor belt is disrupted, chilling the North Atlantic and potentially making
European winters more severe. But Trump doesn't know or
care about any of that. He's kind of the anti-Al Gore, you know? A real man who takes what he
wants by any means necessary and won't be slowed down by any worries about what's factual or scientific or true or good or consensual or just or safe or legal or even possible. He's the kind of man who
Americans collectively want, on some sub-rational erotic level, to brutally dominate us like
an ancient Chinese god-emperor. Burn the scholars, build the wall. But the problem, at least for those of you
who don't actively enjoy civilization's plunge
into primeval darkness, is that the notion that there's any actual scientific controversy about the role of carbon emissions in global
warming is simply false. A 2013 analysis of the
scientific literature on climate change found that 97% of papers published on the subject
supported the conclusion that humans caused global warming, and the consensus has
only increased over time. Climate change denial is
considered an oddity in Europe, but is very common in America, largely as a result of a massive campaign of manufactured uncertainty
and misinformation that goes back to the early 1990s, when the Western Fuels
Association developed a strategy to quote, "reposition global
warming as theory, not fact," and spent half a million dollars researching the most effective way to promote that message
via a propaganda campaign. Climate denialist talking points promoted by organizations
in the subsequent decades have been statistically linked to funding from ExxonMobil and the Koch family, and denialism has been frequently pushed by Republican politicians, perhaps most vocally Senator James Inhofe, whose campaigns are financed
by oil and energy companies, and who's presented on the Senate floor such compelling arguments as throwing a snowball to own the libs. - So here, Mr. President, catch this. (sniffs) Mm-hmm. - Denialist talking
points have trickled down from the reptilian overlords to the ordinary YouTube comment goblins, where they provide ammunition
for the Angry Jack effect. Just like Al Gore or any messenger of
inconvenient information, climate scientists
themselves have for years been targets of endless harassment. Michael Mann, the original publisher of the hockey stick graph, has received thousands of hate messages, death threats, even
white powder in the mail. The mental health of
many climate scientists is actually suffering as
a result of harassment, denial, the bleak political situation, and the daily grind of
studying a cataclysmic future. It's likely that this video
will attract some deniers, and I therefore invite my audience to use the denialist debunking resource listed in the top comment
below to refute such claims as: "There's still scientific controversy "about the cause of climate change." There isn't. "What if the sun is getting hotter?" It's not, at least in
the relevant time frame. And, "science is a liar sometimes." (gong rings)
- Oh boy. - But even if you don't
believe in science, maybe you'll find it convincing that even many oil companies,
including ExxonMobil, now acknowledge climate change is real and caused by human activity. In fact, at the behest of oil companies, the state of Texas is now seeking at least $12 billion in public funds to build a 60-mile spine of
seawalls along the Gulf Coast, largely to protect oil refineries from rising tides and more
severe tropical storms. After Hurricane Harvey,
Texas lobbied Congress for $61 billion to quote,
"future-proof the state," despite the fact that many
of its top politicians are public climate change deniers. - You remember how it used
to be called global warming? And then magically the theory
changed to climate change? - Sure.
- The reason is, it wasn't warming. - Do not listen to the cant
of these sneering reptoids. The science is clear: Climate change is real
and humans are causing it. If even ExxonMobil says it's
real, it's probably real. There's really no point
in digging in your heels and refusing to look at the evidence just because you don't want it to be true. None of us want it to be true-- - Okay, fine. So maybe the world is
getting a teensy bit warmer. And maybe humans have
something to do with it. Now can you give me my smelling salts? - (sighs) Fine. - Look, Doc, I gotta say, maybe the scientists are
right, maybe it is happening. But to be honest with you, I'm having a hard time caring
about this, like, at all. - How can you not care about this? We're talking about the
future of the planet. - Well, I don't care about the planet. I care about me. - Well, don't you live on the planet? - Mm-hmm. - And don't you care about what happens to the planet you live on? - No. - Goddamn it. Watch the video. (key clicks) If you picture the earth as a watermelon, you can see there's the outer shell here that traps the Red Flesh. And if you leave it out
at midnight, the stalkers, the stalkers come for the Red Flesh. Before describing the details of our doom, let's take a moment to review
how we got where we are. The modern science of
anthropogenic climate change began in 1896 when a Swedish science jerk called Svante Arrhenius published a study titled, "On the Influence of
Carbonic Acid in the Air "Upon the Temperature of the
Earth," in which he predicted that industrial carbon dioxide production would eventually have a
warming effect on the planet. By 1960, scientists had demonstrated that the level of CO2 in the
atmosphere was in fact rising, and President fuckin' Johnson's
Science Advisory Committee warned that industrial CO2 emissions could have a greenhouse warming effect. The Stanford Research Institute warned the American
Petroleum Institute in 1968 that continued emissions would lead to Antarctic melting
and rising sea levels, but nothing was really
done about it until 1988, when NASA announced to the
U.S. Senate that the Earth was warmer than at any
time in modern history, that the warming could be attributed to human causes with 99% certainty, and that the warming was worsening heatwaves, storms, and droughts. That same year, the IPCC was
formed to provide world leaders with a summary of the
science on climate change and its political and economic impacts. So it started to seem like
something was going to change. But by the early 1990s, the oil and energy-funded
climatology denial industry was up and running in the United States, despite the fact that
oil companies had known climate change was happening for decades, and Republican politicians
became mouthpieces for the so-called "skeptic" cause. Meanwhile the Clinton administration signed the Kyoto Protocol,
pledging the United Sates to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, a pledge that the Bush administration then refused to make good on. The 2012 Republican platform stated against all scientific
consensus that quote, "the causes and long-range effects "of a phenomenon are uncertain," and opposed regulation of
greenhouse-gas emissions. Then finally, in 2015, things seemed to be
changing for the better. 195 nations, including China, India, and the United States under Obama became parties to the Paris Agreement, which established the goal
of limiting the increase in global temperature to well
below two degrees Celsius. But the very next year, Donald Trump was elected
president of the United States on a platform of outright
climate science denial. Trump has since begun withdrawing the United States from
the Paris Agreement, appointed a climate change denier the head of the Environmental
Protection Agency, and released his America
First Energy Plan, which encourages unregulated
burning of fossil fuels. So it's with a particular sense of doom that we now receive the
grim 2018 IPCC report, which informs us that the world has already warmed one degree Celsius, resulting in significant
melting of both polar ice caps, increased average temperatures, increased extreme weather events, and increased mosquito-born illnesses like malaria, dengue, and Zika. If drastic action is taken
to reduce carbon emissions 49% by 2030 and to net
zero carbon by 2050, global warming will still increase to 1.5 degrees above the
pre-industrial average, resulting in a doubling of populations exposed to water scarcity and drought, and an estimated $10 trillion in annual flood damage
losses from sea level rise. But with the current political situation, the goal of reducing
warming to 1.5 degrees is quickly slipping out of reach. By the end of the century, we're likely to see at least
two degrees of warming, which will lead to the
eventual displacement of 200 million people in coastal regions. Three degrees of warming will flood many of the world's major coastal cities, including Shanghai, Miami, Osaka, Rio de Janeiro, Alexandria, and Hong Kong. Four degrees of warming will
be close to the difference between early 20th century temperatures and the last ice age. A global crisis of hundreds
of millions of refugees from island and coastal
areas will be exacerbated by severe droughts and water scarcity, trillions of dollars of
damage to the economy, famines, starvation, terrorism and war. So it's not just the poor
polar bears and coral reefs. There are real human consequences to this. (key clicks) See, this is why you should care. It's not just about the planet. It's about the millions of people who are gonna die or lose their homes. - Oh, jeez, wow, that's, (sighs) gosh, that's really just too bad. - What kind of response is that? - Look, Doc. People die all the time. What I am supposed to do, cry about it? - No, you're supposed to
take political action. - Yeah, I guess I could do that, but this bath is very relaxing. - (sighs) Well, look, even if
you only care about yourself, you do realize that when
the coastal cities flood, we're gonna have to take in tens of millions of refugees, right? Are you gonna be okay with that? - No! - Well, then you'd better do something to reduce carbon emissions. - No!
- Well, then you'd better be ready to take in a lot of refugees. - No! - You do realize, right,
that in a hundred years everyone is going to look
back on people like you and they're gonna hate you so much for what you allowed to
happen to this planet. - (sighs) Well, those are future people. I'm alive now. And besides, if what
you're saying is true, then this is basically
the apocalypse anyway, so why not just party and
enjoy ourselves, right? - But it's not the apocalypse though. Calling it the apocalypse is literally just another form of denialism. Because we still have a little bit of time to fix the problem. Please, (scoffs) God,
please just try to focus on solving the problem
while we still have time. - So, you're saying the world is ending. Cheers to that. - (sighs) The world is not ending. It's just getting shittier. - Well, what am I supposed to do about it? - Let's watch an instructional
video to learn more. - (sighs) All right. Let me just re-up here. (sniffs deeply) - Ugh. - All right, Doc. Put it in me. - You are repulsive. - Well, I'm so sorry you're
offended by pleasure! - I'm not offended by, what? - This offends you, doesn't it? Are you triggered, liberal? Are you triggered? - No, I'm, (scoffs) I'm not, I'm not triggered. - Stop trying to pretend you're not owned. - You know, you really shouldn't be supporting the dairy industry. They cause massive carbon emissions. - Well, maybe you shouldn't be supporting the clothes industry, hypocrite. - What? - It's soymilk anyway, science nerd. How do you think I got so feminine? - There's nothing in
science to support that. - Just admit that you're offended. - Please just watch the video. (key clicks)
(uncanny music) (chewing) When I was a little girl, I used to sit on the
porch eating watermelon and I'd stare up at the stars and wonder where did they all come from, you know? What does this all mean? The cosmos, humanity, our
little time here on Earth? And that's why I became a scientist, so I could spend my life studying ...tropospheric trace gases. (depressed violin music) If you want to do your part
to stop climate change, there are some lifestyle
changes you can make. You can use LED light bulbs. You can drive a hybrid or electric car. You can use public transportation. You can try not to fly very often. You can eat less red meat. But the reality is just 100 companies are responsible for 71%
of global emissions, and the burden of stopping this can't really be placed
on individual consumers. The companies themselves do not care. Left to their own devices, they will only pursue short-term profit. They will ask the government
to build them sea walls while continuing to
emit greenhouse gasses. Climate change is exactly
the kind of problem that capitalism is really
ill-equipped to solve. The time frame involved is
short enough that scientists can predict total catastrophe
in the foreseeable future, but just long enough not to enter into the shareholder-pleasing
decision-making of corporations. So unless there's a drastic change in the next couple decades,
this is going to be capitalism's Great Chinese Famine moment, only potentially, it'll
be much, much worse. This is probably the most important issue facing humanity in the 21st century, so we kinda need to fix
it by any means necessary, beginning with rapid political change. If that means direct action,
it means direct action, for instance organizing, participating in, or supporting a massive general strike. You also should demand
that your politicians take a strong stance
against climate change and the companies that cause it. And if you're American, vote this monumental dingdong
out of the Oval Office in 2020 before the entire planet shrinks and transforms into a corn cob. (long beeping) - So let me get this straight. You want me to go vegan, drive
a Prius, and vote Democrat. You're basically asking
me to completely change who I am as a person and
become everything I hate. - Yeah, pretty much. But it's not about what I want. It's about what everyone has to do to preserve the survival of humanity. - Well, (sighs) electric cars, veganism, who can even afford that shit? - Maybe you could afford it
if you drank less champagne. (bottle clatters) - I shall do no such thing. - Well, maybe you could drink Prosecco. - I will not stoop to
drinking Italian dishwater. - You know, eating plant-based meals actually costs less than eating meat. - Oh okay, so just never again enjoy the morning aroma of bacon
sizzling on the skillet, barbecued ribs, fried chicken, corn dogs, spicy pork belly, lamb
chops, bloody steaks. Mmm. - Ew. Why do you want to eat all that
murdered animal flesh anyway when you could eat pure,
clean and natural foods, like lentils, barley, and sprouts? ♪ No, no, no, no, no, no ♪ - I'd rather eat human shit! - Well, that's what you're gonna be eating if the planet heats another few degrees. - How am I supposed to care
about rising sea levels when there's Muslims out there? And Mexicans. There could be Muslim
Mexicans, for all I know, and that's a risk--
- Why is racist paranoia so compelling to you, when
all the climate science in the world just bounces off
that thick skull of yours? - So first of all, you people
think everything is racist. And second, I guess I just
need a villain, you know? Who's the bad guy? Who am I afraid of? Who's the other team? Your climate story has no antagonist. - Is that really what it's gonna take? All right then. Why don't you take a long,
hard look out at the sea. - [Marie] Hi, mama. - [Doc] That's right, there she is. Now look right over there. - Hello, mankind. It is I, your dark mother, the sea. And you, my children, have been
an absolute disappointment. Every one of you is so pathetic. You make me want to throw up! Politicians, businessmen, and worst of all, environmentalists, ugh! The condescension of it all! You think you are capable of hurting me? Hah! I enjoy your so-called degradation. Your filthy air makes me hot. Your melting glaciers
fill me up deep inside. And when you spew your filth all over, oh, it only makes me fucking wet. Every year my heaving bosom encroaches farther on your shores, and as I spat you out, my children, I will swallow you whole. I will take every inch of you inside of me and I will suck you down into the deep black pit
of my wetness, you scum. And why? Because I am a slut. My progeny encompass the earth, and whatsoever I create, I shall destroy. For I, your deep, dark mother, am at once deliveress of your doom. And that's why I vote
Republican! (cackles) (waves roaring faintly) - You see that? We've got 20 years to
stop her, or we're fucked. (creaking) (roars) (upbeat electronic music) (fire crackling) (flames crackling)
I love this video too much -just because of this clip the thumbnail captures. haha
The Apocalypse is what happens when Contrapoints tackles a John Oliver-esque topic, but spiced up with jokes that John Oliver (or any of the late-night TV hosts, really) won't or can't tell on TV
Bring me my smelling salts
it’s honestly her most underrated imho! she employs a certain type of humor that’s very popular among like. 14-20 year olds, this surrealism and nihilism. not to mention her looks? her set? the socratic dialogue? impeccable.
There. Now I can sleep at night.
I'm so fucking proud I translated this one to Polish
I "gave" two views, last night. Now, three :3 Glad I don't need to give more for her to reach what she deserves 'XD
I don't watch many youtube videos on climate since most are dogshit at representing the science, but I'm very pleased with this one. It made me super happy when she noted that we're headed for 3C and not 4C+ because that's not the normal narrative, and it's actually where it comes from.
Only complaint I have is that xkcd with the hothouse earth, as that is not mainstream science.
Finally, it annoys me when the stuff that should have the most attention goes under the rug.
No shade to her later videos, but youd think apocalypse would take priority.