Nick Miller presents: An Inconvenient Truth

01:55:33
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_mr9EqJg18

Zusammenfassung

TLDRNicholas Miller, un empresari destacat en el sector tecnològic i defensor del medi ambient, presenta una anàlisi detallada sobre el canvi climàtic i les seves conseqüències. Format per Al Gore, destaca la importància de prendre mesures urgents per mitigar el canvi climàtic, incloent l'adopció de tecnologies més ecològiques, millorar l'eficiència energètica i adaptar-se als efectes inevitables. Utilitza imatges impactants per mostrar el retrocés de glaciars i l'augment del nivell del mar. Miller assenyala les implicacions econòmiques i fa una crida a l'acció individual i col·lectiva, afirmant que tots som responsables d'implementar el canvi necessari.

Mitbringsel

  • 🌍 El canvi climàtic és un problema urgent i global que necessita atenció immediata.
  • 🧊 Els glaciars estan retrocedint ràpidament a causa de l'escalfament global.
  • 📈 Les emissions de carboni han augmentat fins a nivells sense precedents.
  • 💡 La tecnologia actual pot ajudar-nos a mitigar el canvi climàtic.
  • 💼 Hi ha oportunitats econòmiques en una economia verda.
  • ♻️ Podem reduir les nostres emissions personals amb accions senzilles.
  • 🗳️ També és crucial prendre accions polítiques i votar per líders compromesos.
  • 🌿 Les energies renovables han de ser una prioritat.
  • 🧠 La consciència pública i l'educació són claus per al canvi.
  • 🤝 Es necessita cooperació internacional per abordar efectivament el canvi climàtic.

Zeitleiste

  • 00:00:00 - 00:05:00

    Nicholas Miller és presentat com un emprenedor innovador del sector tecnològic que promou accions contra el canvi climàtic, havent estat format per Al Gore per donar xerrades sobre el tema. Ell explica com es va unir al Climate Project després de veure el documental d'Al Gore 'An Inconvenient Truth'.

  • 00:05:00 - 00:10:00

    Nicholas relata la seva experiència amb el Climate Project als Estats Units, i la formació a Mont-real on va ser seleccionat per donar conferències sobre canvi climàtic, destacant les oportunitats de parlar directament amb Al Gore.

  • 00:10:00 - 00:15:00

    Nicholas comença la presentació mostrant imatges emblemàtiques de la Terra des de l'espai, destacant la seva fragilitat i la importància de la consciència ambiental, relacionant-ho amb el moviment mediambiental nascut després de les missions Apol·lo.

  • 00:15:00 - 00:20:00

    Descriu el procés de cerca d'evidències científiques per comprendre el canvi climàtic, incloent-hi el descobriment de la deriva continental, i critica la certesa en les falses creences, relacionant-ho amb el desconeixement actual sobre l'escalfament global.

  • 00:20:00 - 00:25:00

    Introducció de la ciència bàsica de l'escalfament global, comparant Venus i la Terra i la influència de l'atmosfera en la temperatura planetària. S'explica com els humans afecten les emissions de CO2.

  • 00:25:00 - 00:30:00

    Explica la història i la significança de la corba de Keeling i com els nivells de CO2 han anat augmentant constantment a causa de les activitats humanes, relacionant-ho amb el treball d'Al Gore i la seva motivació per actuar.

  • 00:30:00 - 00:35:00

    S'enfoca en la fusió de les glaceres i la pèrdua de gels, mostrant fotografies comparatives històriques per evidenciar els efectes del canvi climàtic, i discuteix les conseqüències per a l'abastament d'aigua.

  • 00:35:00 - 00:40:00

    Continua exposant la rapidesa de la fusió de gel a diversos llocs del món i les conseqüències del desglossament de gelterres en el nivell del mar, també parla dels impactes anticipats en les poblacions humanes.

  • 00:40:00 - 00:45:00

    Tracta les variacions històriques de temperatura i CO2, explicant les dades dels nuclis de gel i la preocupació pel ràpid increment actual en les concentracions de CO2, advertint sobre les conseqüències devastadores si no es prenen mesures.

  • 00:45:00 - 00:50:00

    Reflexiona sobre els canvis de temperatura recents i l'increment en l'ocurrència d'esdeveniments climàtics extrems com huracans i onades de calor, relacionant-los amb l'escalfament global.

  • 00:50:00 - 00:55:00

    Detalla les tendències en l'augment de la intensitat i freqüència de tempestes i huracans, i critica la inactivitat política enfront dels desastres naturals causats per canvi climàtic.

  • 00:55:00 - 01:00:00

    Il·lustra els impactes econòmics del canvi climàtic en indústries com les assegurances i l'agricultura, i l'augment en aquestes catàstrofes naturals en diverses regions, destacant el canvi en els patrons de precipitació mundial.

  • 01:00:00 - 01:05:00

    Esmenta les conseqüències socials i econòmiques del canvi climàtic, incloent la migració massiva causant conflictes, i discuteix les lluites polítiques internacionals relacionades amb l'adopció de mesures contra el canvi climàtic.

  • 01:05:00 - 01:10:00

    Es centra en la disminució del gel Àrtic, mostrant dades i imatges sobre la velocitat de la pèrdua de gel i discutint les implicacions per a la fauna àrtica com els óssos polars.

  • 01:10:00 - 01:15:00

    Explica l'efecte de bucles de retroalimentació al desglaç a l'Àrtic i l'impacte potencial del canvi en els corrents oceànics globals, alertant sobre la gravetat de les projeccions climàtiques futures.

  • 01:15:00 - 01:20:00

    Comparteix exemples dels efectes del canvi climàtic en ecosistemes específics, com el desequilibri entre la migració d'ocells i la disponibilitat de preses a causa del canvi en les estacions.

  • 01:20:00 - 01:25:00

    Parla sobre espècies invasores com l'escarabat del pi i d'altres plagues, explicant els efectes de la desforestació i interconnectant-ho amb l'alliberament de carboni i espècies en perill d'extinció.

  • 01:25:00 - 01:30:00

    Discutir l'escalfament a l'Antàrtida i el trencament de les plataformes de gel, alertant sobre el potencial increment del nivell del mar si aquests processos continuen, explicant els mecanismes darrere del desglaç.

  • 01:30:00 - 01:35:00

    Relaciona el desglaç a l'Antàrtida amb el potencial augment del nivell del mar global, mostrant gràfics i dades sobre l'impacte del gel terrestre que cau als oceans.

  • 01:35:00 - 01:40:00

    Desenvolupa com aquestes alteracions afectaran les comunitats del Pacífic, i com les pròximes dècades podrien veure una massiva desestabilització pel canvi climàtic, connectant a temes de justícia climàtica i impactes socials.

  • 01:40:00 - 01:45:00

    Proposa solucions tecnològiques i polítiques, com l'economia verda i energies renovables, per mitigar el canvi climàtic, destacant que ja es disposa de tecnologia per fer front als problemes.

  • 01:45:00 - 01:50:00

    Elabora sobre les accions individuals que es poden prendre per reduir l'impacte personal sobre el clima, com fer servir electrodomèstics més eficients, utilitzar transport públic i canviar hàbits de consum.

  • 01:50:00 - 01:55:33

    Insisteix en la necessitat d'acció política i individual per afrontar el canvi climàtic, animant al públic a ser un catalitzador de canvi i a escollir dirigents compromesos amb polítiques climàtiques sostenibles.

Mehr anzeigen

Mind Map

Mind Map

Häufig gestellte Fragen

  • Qui és Nicholas Miller?

    Nicholas Miller és un emprenedor innovador que ha fundat diverses empreses d'alta tecnologia i és conegut com a expert i comunicador en la indústria tecnològica.

  • Quina és la preocupació principal de Nicholas Miller?

    La seva preocupació principal és el canvi climàtic i les accions necessàries per abordar-ne les causes i efectes.

  • Com està vinculat Nicholas Miller amb Al Gore?

    Nicholas ha estat format per Al Gore per presentar una versió actualitzada del seu documental "Una veritat incòmoda".

  • Per què és important la fotografia "Earthrise"?

    La fotografia "Earthrise" és important perquè va inspirar el naixement del moviment ambientalista, mostrant la Terra des de l'espai i ressaltant la seva fragilitat.

  • Quin impacte té el canvi climàtic sobre els glaciars?

    El canvi climàtic està causant la retirada massiva i fusió dels glaciars, afectant l'alimentació d'aigua dolça i contribuint a l'augment del nivell del mar.

  • Com afecta el canvi climàtic els patrons meteorològics?

    El canvi climàtic està augmentant la temperatura del mar, afectant els corrents oceànics i provocant fenòmens meteorològics extrems com huracans i inundacions.

  • Què passa amb les espècies a causa del canvi climàtic?

    El canvi climàtic està causant l'extinció d'espècies i alterant els ecosistemes, com els esculls de corall, a causa dels canvis de temperatura i química oceànica.

  • Quins són els efectes del canvi climàtic en les regions polars?

    En les regions polars, el canvi climàtic està fonent el gel àrtic i antàrtic, provocant l'augment del nivell del mar i afectant la vida silvestre com els óssos polars.

  • Quines mesures poden prendre els individus per combatre el canvi climàtic?

    Els individus poden reduir el seu ús d'energia, canviar a vehicles més eficients, utilitzar energies renovables i votar per polítics que prenguin accions decidides contra el canvi climàtic.

  • Com es pot utilitzar un sistema de comerç d'emissions?

    El sistema de comerç d'emissions permet que les empreses que redueixen les seves emissions venguin crèdits a aquelles que en necessiten, creant un incentiu econòmic per disminuir la contaminació.

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Automatisches Blättern:
  • 00:00:08
    so I'm going to introduce Nick Miller
  • 00:00:10
    this is our presenter for the day uh
  • 00:00:13
    Nicholas is an Innovative career
  • 00:00:15
    entrepreneur who has founded a number of
  • 00:00:17
    successful high technology companies in
  • 00:00:18
    the US and Canada in the software
  • 00:00:20
    wireless security and internet sectors
  • 00:00:23
    Nicholas is a well-known Authority and
  • 00:00:25
    Communicator in the high technology
  • 00:00:26
    industry and frequently speaks at
  • 00:00:28
    technology and business events
  • 00:00:30
    throughout the world Nicholas is a
  • 00:00:32
    strong advocate for Action to address
  • 00:00:33
    the causes and effects of climate change
  • 00:00:36
    and has been trained by Al Gore to
  • 00:00:37
    deliver an updated version of his
  • 00:00:39
    Inconvenient Truth to Canadian audiences
  • 00:00:43
    Nicholas was born and educated in
  • 00:00:44
    Britain and is married with one son who
  • 00:00:46
    is currently studying political science
  • 00:00:49
    at SFU so here we are giving back thank
  • 00:00:51
    you very much Nick for presenting for us
  • 00:00:53
    not surprisingly my son's absent today
  • 00:00:57
    so but um well thanks everybody very
  • 00:01:00
    much for coming and uh thanks to SFU and
  • 00:01:03
    all the sponsors for uh organizing this
  • 00:01:06
    event so as Kaa said uh I was trained by
  • 00:01:10
    Al Gore uh earlier this year in Montreal
  • 00:01:13
    uh the climate project is an
  • 00:01:14
    organization that uh was put together
  • 00:01:18
    right after the movie was made um I told
  • 00:01:20
    a story on um on I don't know if any of
  • 00:01:22
    you heard the interview I did on the
  • 00:01:24
    radio at SFU here but um my wife and I
  • 00:01:27
    went to see the movie The Inconvenient
  • 00:01:28
    Truth movie and I was obviously as we
  • 00:01:31
    all were I was very very impressed by
  • 00:01:33
    the movie and I'm I'm driving home with
  • 00:01:34
    my wife and I said you know uh you know
  • 00:01:37
    what he needs to do is get a bunch of
  • 00:01:38
    guys like me who stand up selling stuff
  • 00:01:41
    doing PowerPoints all day long to
  • 00:01:42
    actually do this presentation so he
  • 00:01:44
    could sort of Clone himself and I
  • 00:01:45
    thought this was a really clever idea
  • 00:01:47
    and got home went on the web and
  • 00:01:49
    immediately discovered that they'd
  • 00:01:50
    already thought of that needless to say
  • 00:01:52
    and um in fact they had put together a
  • 00:01:54
    program called the the climate project
  • 00:01:56
    in the US and they were recruiting uh
  • 00:01:59
    people uh to volunteer their time like
  • 00:02:02
    me um Al anybody I mean everything from
  • 00:02:05
    people who actually know something about
  • 00:02:06
    climate science to people who are not
  • 00:02:08
    climate experts I'm not certainly not a
  • 00:02:10
    global warming or climate science expert
  • 00:02:12
    but I'm a you know I do a lot of
  • 00:02:13
    communicating for a living so um uh I
  • 00:02:17
    applied and it turned out that they
  • 00:02:19
    weren't looking for Canadians at the
  • 00:02:20
    time they they actually did um recruit I
  • 00:02:23
    think four or five people from Canada uh
  • 00:02:27
    who went to Nashville and were trained
  • 00:02:28
    and then later on uh they decided that
  • 00:02:31
    uh what they wanted to do was do the
  • 00:02:32
    same thing in Canada that they had done
  • 00:02:34
    in the US and so uh earlier this year
  • 00:02:37
    and I think it was April in Montreal uh
  • 00:02:39
    they they organized um they actually
  • 00:02:41
    sent me an email and said are you still
  • 00:02:42
    interested I said well yeah sure I'm I'm
  • 00:02:44
    definitely interested and so a number of
  • 00:02:46
    us were selected um apparently lots and
  • 00:02:49
    lots of people applied and for some
  • 00:02:51
    bizarre reason I got chosen um and went
  • 00:02:54
    and got trained and um and it was a
  • 00:02:56
    really fascinating time to to spend the
  • 00:02:59
    whole week weekend with Al Gore and get
  • 00:03:02
    to speak to him and get his take on uh I
  • 00:03:05
    mean it was great because he was able to
  • 00:03:07
    say what he really wanted to say you
  • 00:03:08
    know a lot of times he can't say
  • 00:03:10
    publicly because he's a political figure
  • 00:03:11
    what he'd really like to say but he was
  • 00:03:13
    really forthright and and uh and went
  • 00:03:16
    through the presentation and so uh now
  • 00:03:18
    whenever I have some time and whenever
  • 00:03:20
    everybody wants me to do it I I'll go
  • 00:03:22
    and give an updated version of the
  • 00:03:24
    presentation which I'm going to do now
  • 00:03:25
    and I hope you I hope you all enjoy it
  • 00:03:28
    later on uh one of my other co-
  • 00:03:31
    presenters Ambert church is going to be
  • 00:03:34
    here she's actually studying at SFU she
  • 00:03:36
    teaches actually at SFU and she's
  • 00:03:37
    studying glacial erosion and she is a
  • 00:03:40
    climate change expert and she's going to
  • 00:03:41
    be here later on for the Q&A session um
  • 00:03:44
    and U so Amber and I will both take
  • 00:03:47
    questions at the end so getting into the
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    uh presentation let me just see if this
  • 00:03:53
    is going to work here we
  • 00:03:56
    go so this is um this is a great shot
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    this was um one of the first pictures
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    that most of us ever saw of the Earth
  • 00:04:03
    from space and I remember this quite
  • 00:04:06
    well I was a child at the time it was
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    the Apollo 8 mission it was a very very
  • 00:04:11
    exciting time because we were getting
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    ready to uh go to the go to the moon and
  • 00:04:16
    uh the story of this shot is that the
  • 00:04:18
    spacecraft uh this was the first time
  • 00:04:20
    that actually gone around the back of
  • 00:04:22
    the moon so it was the first they didn't
  • 00:04:24
    actually land on the moon in Apollo 8
  • 00:04:26
    but they went all the way to the Moon
  • 00:04:27
    went around the back of the Moon and
  • 00:04:28
    then just came back I think they did a
  • 00:04:29
    few orbits and then came back but it was
  • 00:04:32
    very very exciting because of course
  • 00:04:33
    nobody had seen the back of the Moon and
  • 00:04:35
    we didn't you know you didn't really
  • 00:04:36
    know if there were dragons back there or
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    what was going on so it was very very
  • 00:04:40
    exciting the spacecraft went behind the
  • 00:04:42
    moon and as it went behind the Moon it
  • 00:04:43
    lost radio contact with uh Houston with
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    Earth and it was a time of great tension
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    and are they going to come out the other
  • 00:04:51
    side and what's going to happen and of
  • 00:04:52
    course needless to say at the appointed
  • 00:04:54
    time they did come around the back of
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    the Moon and came back into radio
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    contact and just as they did uh they saw
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    this wonderful uh image of the Moon and
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    a rookie astronaut Bill Anders uh took
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    out a camera and snaap this shot this
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    shot became known as
  • 00:05:11
    earthrise uh and uh really sort of
  • 00:05:14
    imprinted on the human consciousness and
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    within 18 months of this picture
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    appearing the environmental movement was
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    born so this is a really seminal event
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    and it was a just a wonderful
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    shot this picture uh is another shot
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    that um we're all very very familiar
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    with uh this picture was actually taken
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    on Apollo uh 17 which was and it was
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    actually the last picture that a human
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    being ever took of the Earth from space
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    the full Earth from space other than the
  • 00:05:45
    shots that the astronauts in the space
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    shuttle do and what's really cool about
  • 00:05:49
    this picture is that it was a sort of a
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    rare situation where the sun was
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    directly behind the spacecraft so the
  • 00:05:55
    full dis of the Earth was uh displayed
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    uh and it's a it's a really wonderful
  • 00:06:01
    shot it's actually the most popular
  • 00:06:03
    picture ever in human history so this
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    has been published more than any other
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    picture so whenever you see a washing
  • 00:06:08
    machine ad with a picture of the Earth
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    it's this shot and it's a it's a really
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    wonderful uh shot um this is an
  • 00:06:16
    interesting uh time lapse shot uh this
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    was actually taken by the Galileo
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    spacecraft just as it was leaving
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    Earth's gravity and Carl San who was
  • 00:06:25
    running the show at that time uh
  • 00:06:27
    commanded the spacecraft to turn its
  • 00:06:29
    cameras back to Earth and they took a
  • 00:06:32
    series of images I think about over a
  • 00:06:34
    24-hour period they took a series of
  • 00:06:36
    images and then made it into a into one
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    an image for every second an an hour
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    every second so this is a 24 second
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    image it shows a complete rotation of
  • 00:06:46
    the
  • 00:06:47
    earth uh this shot is a uh a very
  • 00:06:50
    interesting shot it's a composite
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    picture it's an actual real picture of
  • 00:06:53
    the Earth but it's made up of 3,000
  • 00:06:56
    composite shots it was done by a fellow
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    called Tom Van Sant and he managed to
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    assemble a bunch of shots that were
  • 00:07:04
    taken of the whole earth when there were
  • 00:07:05
    no clouds in the way obviously you know
  • 00:07:07
    so it's the Earth minus the weather and
  • 00:07:10
    um it's a really uh fascinating image
  • 00:07:14
    actually because you get to see the
  • 00:07:17
    whole
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    earth and then this is the same image of
  • 00:07:21
    course made into a m projection
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    flattened out and Al Gore tells a story
  • 00:07:26
    about this when he gives the
  • 00:07:28
    presentation uh about um uh being in a
  • 00:07:31
    in sixth grade with a classmate who he
  • 00:07:33
    had a teacher who would pull down a
  • 00:07:35
    picture of the earth like this in front
  • 00:07:37
    of the class it's a roller blind thing
  • 00:07:39
    and uh one one of his classmates stuck
  • 00:07:41
    his hand up and and said you know didn't
  • 00:07:44
    uh these two countries once fit together
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    it looks like they just sort of fit
  • 00:07:48
    together and the teacher said well
  • 00:07:50
    that's what a ridiculous thing to say
  • 00:07:51
    that's the most ridiculous thing I've
  • 00:07:52
    ever heard of course they didn't ever
  • 00:07:54
    fit together well it turns out that uh
  • 00:07:57
    he was completely wrong and we now know
  • 00:07:59
    that they do fit together or they did at
  • 00:08:01
    one point in time uh so the point here
  • 00:08:04
    that we're making is that the teacher
  • 00:08:05
    was sure of his facts at the time and he
  • 00:08:08
    was actually correct the prevailing
  • 00:08:09
    science at the time didn't know anything
  • 00:08:11
    about continental drift and they thought
  • 00:08:12
    well it's ridiculous of course the
  • 00:08:14
    continents don't move around but it
  • 00:08:16
    turns out that uh he was wrong and
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    there's a great saying by uh Mark Twain
  • 00:08:20
    that says what gets us into trouble is
  • 00:08:22
    not what we don't know it's what we know
  • 00:08:23
    for sure just ain't so and it's uh
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    that's really the situation that we're
  • 00:08:29
    in
  • 00:08:30
    with global warming so it's it's there
  • 00:08:32
    are a lot of people out there who are
  • 00:08:34
    quite sure that there's not a problem a
  • 00:08:36
    diminishing number uh but they don't
  • 00:08:38
    have a lot of the data uh it turns out
  • 00:08:41
    that the Earth's atmosphere is
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    incredibly thin uh relative to the globe
  • 00:08:46
    and Carl Sean once said that if you took
  • 00:08:49
    a globe a normal Globe like you might
  • 00:08:51
    have in your living room and varnished
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    it the thickness of the atmosphere is
  • 00:08:55
    about the same as the thickness of the
  • 00:08:56
    varnish on the globe so it's very very
  • 00:08:59
    very thin and it turns out that in fact
  • 00:09:02
    we can impact on that atmosphere it's
  • 00:09:04
    not uh it's not something that we we can
  • 00:09:07
    have no impact on at all which really
  • 00:09:09
    brings us to the science of global
  • 00:09:11
    warming and I'm not going to spend a lot
  • 00:09:12
    of time on this because I know that you
  • 00:09:13
    all uh are probably familiar with this
  • 00:09:16
    but the basic science is pretty simple
  • 00:09:18
    uh solar radiation from the Sun in the
  • 00:09:20
    form of light waves hits the Earth it
  • 00:09:23
    passes through this a very thin
  • 00:09:26
    atmosphere uh some of it gets tra TR by
  • 00:09:29
    the atmosphere and it warms the Earth up
  • 00:09:31
    which is a good thing and some of it is
  • 00:09:34
    radiated back the the low frequency
  • 00:09:36
    radiation is R radiated back into space
  • 00:09:38
    in in the form of infrared radiation
  • 00:09:41
    again with some being trapped uh by the
  • 00:09:43
    atmosphere and this is what keeps the
  • 00:09:46
    Earth nice and warm and comfortable and
  • 00:09:49
    livable for human beings it turns out
  • 00:09:52
    that uh another way to look at this this
  • 00:09:54
    is a sort of tale of two planets if you
  • 00:09:56
    look at Venus and Earth both Venus and
  • 00:09:58
    Earth have a approximately the same
  • 00:10:00
    carbon composition the difference
  • 00:10:03
    between the two is that on Earth
  • 00:10:05
    biological processes have sucked a lot
  • 00:10:07
    of the carbon carbon dioxide out of the
  • 00:10:10
    atmosphere so Earth has a relatively uh
  • 00:10:14
    thin uh atmosphere Venus on the other
  • 00:10:17
    hand has an extremely thick atmosphere
  • 00:10:20
    now if you compare a reasonable average
  • 00:10:22
    day on Earth it's 15° Centigrade uh a
  • 00:10:26
    typical day on Venus is Toasty 4507 de
  • 00:10:30
    Centigrade now some people might say
  • 00:10:32
    well that's because Venus is closer to
  • 00:10:33
    the Sun you know it's got nothing to do
  • 00:10:35
    with the atmosphere well it turns out
  • 00:10:37
    that mercury is even closer to the Sun
  • 00:10:39
    than Venus it has a very very thin
  • 00:10:42
    atmosphere and it's cooler than Venus so
  • 00:10:45
    we actually know that the thickness of
  • 00:10:47
    the atmosphere has a is is really what
  • 00:10:49
    causes um global
  • 00:10:52
    warming and uh of course now we're
  • 00:10:56
    impacting on it massively by pumping
  • 00:10:58
    huge amounts of carbon dioxide into the
  • 00:11:01
    atmosphere and what's really happening
  • 00:11:03
    as a result of this is that this
  • 00:11:05
    atmosphere here is starting to thicken
  • 00:11:07
    up you can't really see it in the slide
  • 00:11:09
    and that's causing more radiation sorry
  • 00:11:14
    to be to be reflected back in uh and so
  • 00:11:17
    the Earth is uh is heating up so as this
  • 00:11:19
    atmosphere thickens it's just like
  • 00:11:21
    having a thicker comforter on your bed
  • 00:11:22
    you just get hotter and and that's
  • 00:11:24
    exactly what's happening to the Earth
  • 00:11:27
    well this uh is a sort of a graphic that
  • 00:11:29
    illustrates really a curve and I'll talk
  • 00:11:32
    about it at more length in a minute it's
  • 00:11:34
    actually the keing curve and this is
  • 00:11:35
    what really inspired Al Gore to get
  • 00:11:37
    involved uh with with the whole sort of
  • 00:11:39
    climate change movement and it was uh
  • 00:11:42
    invented or discovered if you like by
  • 00:11:44
    one of his professors Roger
  • 00:11:46
    Rell and uh what he did was they they
  • 00:11:50
    started to launch in 1957
  • 00:11:53
    balloons um into the atmosphere in the
  • 00:11:55
    middle of the Pacific way way out into
  • 00:11:58
    an area where you know they knew it
  • 00:11:59
    would be uh not affected by uh pollution
  • 00:12:03
    from the land from from countries and
  • 00:12:05
    what they discovered was that the CO2 as
  • 00:12:08
    they measured it seasonally went up and
  • 00:12:10
    down but they started to notice that it
  • 00:12:12
    was just increasing over time well it
  • 00:12:15
    turns out that the reason for this uh is
  • 00:12:17
    simply because of the following if you
  • 00:12:20
    look at a map of the Earth there's a lot
  • 00:12:21
    more land in the north than there is in
  • 00:12:23
    the
  • 00:12:24
    South and the process that's going on
  • 00:12:27
    really is is pretty simple but perhaps
  • 00:12:29
    not all that obvious as the Earth tilts
  • 00:12:32
    towards the Sun as the Northern
  • 00:12:34
    Hemisphere tilts towards the sun in the
  • 00:12:36
    summer um it it gets warm the plants all
  • 00:12:39
    come out and carbon dioxide is absorbed
  • 00:12:43
    by the plants and it has a net lowering
  • 00:12:46
    effect of CO2 in the atmosphere now
  • 00:12:48
    obviously in the southern hemisphere the
  • 00:12:51
    opposite is happening when it when it
  • 00:12:53
    tilts towards the sun in in their summer
  • 00:12:56
    in our winter the same thing occurs but
  • 00:12:59
    because there's less land there's less
  • 00:13:01
    vegetation so there's less CO2 absorbed
  • 00:13:03
    so what happens is the earth tips as the
  • 00:13:06
    southern the Northern Hemisphere tips
  • 00:13:08
    towards the sun in the summer there's a
  • 00:13:10
    big absorption of uh of carbon dioxide
  • 00:13:13
    and there's a small smaller release of
  • 00:13:16
    carbon dioxide in the South as it tips
  • 00:13:18
    the other way there's a a
  • 00:13:19
    correspondingly smaller absorption of
  • 00:13:22
    carbon dioxide and a larger release of
  • 00:13:24
    carbon dioxide in the north so the net
  • 00:13:27
    result is that the the pl Planet sort of
  • 00:13:29
    breathes in and out seasonally so sort
  • 00:13:32
    of each year as it tilts there's more
  • 00:13:36
    carbon dioxide then less then more then
  • 00:13:39
    less and that's really what caused the
  • 00:13:41
    keing curve to occur now Al Gore spent a
  • 00:13:45
    lot of time um over his entire term uh
  • 00:13:48
    in office uh trying to do things like
  • 00:13:50
    getting a Clean Air Act uh implemented
  • 00:13:54
    uh he eventually uh ran for president
  • 00:13:56
    didn't wasn't elected uh finally got
  • 00:13:58
    into the White House enacted the Clean
  • 00:14:01
    Air Act with Bill Clinton all this time
  • 00:14:04
    the Earth was breathing in and out and
  • 00:14:07
    the level of carbon dioxide was going up
  • 00:14:09
    and up and up in the atmosphere this
  • 00:14:11
    curve unfortunately this slide was made
  • 00:14:13
    for Al Gore who is from the south and
  • 00:14:16
    speaks much more slowly than me so it
  • 00:14:18
    has a has a sort of a timing issue with
  • 00:14:20
    it but um you'll see that it just goes
  • 00:14:23
    on and on and on and the atmosphere each
  • 00:14:26
    year is getting thicker and thicker and
  • 00:14:28
    thicker in and out in and out uh up to
  • 00:14:31
    the present day and the result of this
  • 00:14:34
    has essentially been uh melting of
  • 00:14:36
    glaciers and later on Amber church is
  • 00:14:38
    going to be here who's a co-presenter of
  • 00:14:40
    mine and she's studying melting glaciers
  • 00:14:42
    in northern BC and she can really talk
  • 00:14:44
    about that a lot but this is what's been
  • 00:14:47
    going on uh this is what the helm
  • 00:14:48
    Glacier looked like in
  • 00:14:51
    1929 this is what it's like was was like
  • 00:14:54
    in 2002 it's even worse
  • 00:14:57
    today similarly the IL silhou Glacier in
  • 00:15:00
    northern BC 1898 nice big Glacier today
  • 00:15:05
    it's gone and you can see how it's
  • 00:15:08
    receded year by
  • 00:15:10
    year in fact if you look at a a graph of
  • 00:15:13
    um uh receding glacies in
  • 00:15:16
    Canada uh it's just a dramatic uh uh
  • 00:15:22
    reduction in in these glaciers over time
  • 00:15:24
    and it's just getting worse and worse
  • 00:15:26
    and worse more examples I'll skip
  • 00:15:28
    through these quickly uh in Alaska then
  • 00:15:33
    now uh again here the Columbia
  • 00:15:38
    Glacier and what's happening is that
  • 00:15:40
    these Glaciers are
  • 00:15:43
    carving off uh pieces of them and it's
  • 00:15:47
    falling into the uh water and draining
  • 00:15:50
    out into the
  • 00:15:55
    sea we'll talk about this a little more
  • 00:15:57
    later on but this is what's causing
  • 00:15:59
    ocean levels to rise it's when landbased
  • 00:16:01
    ice melts and falls into the sea it
  • 00:16:03
    obviously makes the sea go up and this
  • 00:16:05
    is a another problem that we'll talk
  • 00:16:07
    about a bit later on more examples
  • 00:16:18
    here this just a glaci in
  • 00:16:22
    Peru here's the this is a really
  • 00:16:24
    striking shot this is the alala glacier
  • 00:16:26
    in Argentina in 1928
  • 00:16:29
    now it's a
  • 00:16:33
    lake laaz Bolivia this is a huge problem
  • 00:16:36
    what's happening in Bolivia is that in
  • 00:16:38
    laaz uh most of about a third of their
  • 00:16:41
    drinking water actually comes from
  • 00:16:43
    Glacier melt so melting glaciers is
  • 00:16:47
    actually causing huge problems in laas
  • 00:16:50
    because as these glaciers melt there's
  • 00:16:52
    not going to be any runoff and they
  • 00:16:53
    won't have any drinking their drinking
  • 00:16:55
    water supply will be dramatically
  • 00:16:57
    reduced here's a great old postcard shot
  • 00:17:00
    of the hotel beler on the Rome Glacier
  • 00:17:02
    and this is what it looks like now not
  • 00:17:04
    quite such a nice
  • 00:17:07
    view this is a great shot uh this is a
  • 00:17:10
    uh a 5,000 year old man that appeared
  • 00:17:12
    out of a glacier in 1992 when David
  • 00:17:15
    Suzuki when we were at the training in
  • 00:17:16
    the in Montreal saw this shot he said
  • 00:17:18
    our ancestors are coming back to tell us
  • 00:17:20
    to do something about this
  • 00:17:24
    problem more shots the same story I'll
  • 00:17:28
    just skip through these quickly because
  • 00:17:29
    it's just the same story all over the
  • 00:17:32
    world in the Himalayas it's again a very
  • 00:17:36
    very serious problem it turns out that
  • 00:17:39
    um a huge portion of the world uh
  • 00:17:42
    depends on on the Himalayan glacia melt
  • 00:17:45
    for their drinking water you can see the
  • 00:17:47
    Hindus the Ganges River rutra river the
  • 00:17:51
    Salen River the Mong River and the Yi
  • 00:17:54
    River into China the Yellow
  • 00:17:57
    River and and what's happening is that
  • 00:18:00
    these Glaciers are again receding 40% of
  • 00:18:05
    the world's population depends on uh
  • 00:18:07
    water that's running off from these
  • 00:18:09
    glaciers in the Himalayas and as they
  • 00:18:11
    receip this is going to cause an
  • 00:18:13
    enormous uh water shortage uh problem in
  • 00:18:16
    Asia and ironically it's going to cause
  • 00:18:19
    a lot of people who live in Asia to not
  • 00:18:21
    have enough water and it's also going to
  • 00:18:23
    cause a lot of them to be underwater as
  • 00:18:25
    ocean levels rise as a result of this so
  • 00:18:27
    it's a it's a very very serious and
  • 00:18:30
    striking problem here's a great shot of
  • 00:18:32
    kjaro in Africa I was actually there
  • 00:18:34
    around this time and that's what it
  • 00:18:36
    looked like uh this is what it looks
  • 00:18:38
    like looked like in 2000 and then
  • 00:18:40
    recently in 2005 you can see the the
  • 00:18:43
    Snows of kjaro are almost completely
  • 00:18:45
    gone in fact this is a a guy called
  • 00:18:48
    Lonnie Thompson who's a friend of Alor
  • 00:18:50
    that was the only piece of ice he found
  • 00:18:51
    the Spear of ice on on the top of
  • 00:18:53
    kilamanjaro that was all that was
  • 00:18:55
    left uh and here he is um Lonnie
  • 00:18:57
    Thompson has spent a lot of spends a lot
  • 00:18:59
    of his time uh studying uh glaciers and
  • 00:19:02
    drilling ice cores into
  • 00:19:04
    glaciers and uh all over the world Harry
  • 00:19:07
    is doing it in Peru and what they're
  • 00:19:10
    able to do is when they drill these ice
  • 00:19:12
    cores they can actually look at uh the
  • 00:19:15
    The Ice down Through the Ages almost
  • 00:19:17
    like rings in a tree and Al Gore said
  • 00:19:20
    that when he he was shown an ice cor by
  • 00:19:22
    Lonnie Thompson and he could actually
  • 00:19:23
    see with the naked eye when the US
  • 00:19:26
    enacted the Clean Air Act he could
  • 00:19:28
    actually see it with the naked eye in
  • 00:19:29
    the ice core that's how dramatic it was
  • 00:19:32
    and what they're able to do is um
  • 00:19:34
    essentially look uh into these ice cores
  • 00:19:36
    here's another shot of a sort of a side
  • 00:19:38
    view that they they were able to drill
  • 00:19:40
    down you can see that each year it's
  • 00:19:41
    like rings in a tree and they can
  • 00:19:43
    actually look at the comp the
  • 00:19:45
    composition of the little air bubbles in
  • 00:19:47
    these uh in these um ice cores and they
  • 00:19:50
    can determine exactly how much CO2 was
  • 00:19:52
    in the atmosphere at at a particular
  • 00:19:55
    moment in time they can do it very
  • 00:19:56
    accurately and by comparing and I don't
  • 00:19:59
    fully understand this Amber can explain
  • 00:20:01
    it to you better later on but by
  • 00:20:02
    comparing a couple of isotopes of oxygen
  • 00:20:04
    in that little bubble they can actually
  • 00:20:06
    determine the temperature the prevailing
  • 00:20:08
    average temperature at the time so we
  • 00:20:10
    can determine very accurately uh What uh
  • 00:20:13
    temperatures look like and and this is
  • 00:20:16
    essentially what you see here's a
  • 00:20:18
    thermometer and um here's where we are
  • 00:20:22
    now and you can see there's been
  • 00:20:24
    dramatic increases now Skeptics will
  • 00:20:26
    always talk about a warming period in
  • 00:20:28
    the Middle Ages and they're right it's
  • 00:20:31
    right back here but you can see here
  • 00:20:34
    rather it's nothing like what we're
  • 00:20:35
    dealing with
  • 00:20:42
    now the other thing that you see is when
  • 00:20:45
    you track temperature and carbon dioxide
  • 00:20:48
    over a period you see that they match
  • 00:20:50
    almost exactly again it's like the two
  • 00:20:52
    continents example that uh Alor pal
  • 00:20:55
    mentioned in in grade six
  • 00:20:59
    so we've started to do the same thing
  • 00:21:00
    now in the uh Antarctic and in the
  • 00:21:02
    Antarctic we're able to go back uh this
  • 00:21:05
    slide actually goes back 600,000 years
  • 00:21:08
    they can now go back almost a million
  • 00:21:10
    years in
  • 00:21:11
    time um and this is what we see um
  • 00:21:15
    variations fluctuations in uh in CO2
  • 00:21:19
    concentrations and a similar matching
  • 00:21:22
    fluctuation in temperature and there are
  • 00:21:25
    seven ice ages you can count them all
  • 00:21:27
    the way back uh from now you can see
  • 00:21:30
    them and incidentally the difference
  • 00:21:33
    between this and this is a mile of ice
  • 00:21:36
    over your head so this is a there's a
  • 00:21:38
    huge
  • 00:21:40
    difference unfortunately here's where we
  • 00:21:43
    are
  • 00:21:45
    today so we're at almost 400 parts per
  • 00:21:50
    million it's never been higher than
  • 00:21:53
    about
  • 00:21:54
    290 or so parts per million we're now at
  • 00:21:58
    almost 400 parts per million so we're
  • 00:22:01
    almost almost 50% higher than we've ever
  • 00:22:04
    been in recorded
  • 00:22:07
    history and this is an enormous problem
  • 00:22:10
    but it gets worse unfortunately
  • 00:22:13
    because if we carry on the way we are
  • 00:22:15
    after 40 more use years of use of energy
  • 00:22:19
    in the current method this is where
  • 00:22:20
    we're going to be now again you know if
  • 00:22:23
    this is a mile of ice over your head on
  • 00:22:27
    the cold side
  • 00:22:29
    imagine what that is on the hot side and
  • 00:22:31
    imagine what that would be I need Al
  • 00:22:33
    Gore's lifter machine to do this but
  • 00:22:35
    imagine what that would be on the hot
  • 00:22:37
    side it's really it's pretty obvious and
  • 00:22:39
    I have to say that when I saw this graph
  • 00:22:41
    in the movie this was what galvanized me
  • 00:22:43
    I thought this is a big problem I mean
  • 00:22:45
    this is not rocket science when you look
  • 00:22:47
    at it it's really obvious and it's
  • 00:22:50
    really clear that we need to do
  • 00:22:51
    something about
  • 00:22:53
    it this is really what inspired me to
  • 00:22:55
    get involved and and in fact if you if
  • 00:22:57
    you now look at what's happened the 10
  • 00:23:00
    hottest years on
  • 00:23:02
    record uh have occurred within the last
  • 00:23:06
    few years nine of them have occurred
  • 00:23:08
    within the last 10
  • 00:23:12
    years and this is causing um tremendous
  • 00:23:15
    heat waves 50° Centigrade I don't know
  • 00:23:18
    if any of you have ever experienced
  • 00:23:19
    anything like that I was in Las Vegas
  • 00:23:21
    once when it was uh I think 114 which is
  • 00:23:24
    nothing like 15 50° cenate 50° CRA temp
  • 00:23:28
    which is half the boiling point of water
  • 00:23:30
    in
  • 00:23:31
    India 1,400 people died in Pakistan uh
  • 00:23:35
    the same sort of thing 52° temperature
  • 00:23:38
    rises and we're predicting uh annual
  • 00:23:41
    temperature changes in Canada uh to be
  • 00:23:43
    pretty significant and you can see I'm
  • 00:23:45
    going to get Amber to explain this
  • 00:23:46
    because this is a sort of a scientific
  • 00:23:48
    chart that's a little bit cryptic but
  • 00:23:50
    they they tend to measure the they tend
  • 00:23:52
    to measure uh temperature in um uh sort
  • 00:23:56
    of 30e blocks
  • 00:23:58
    uh it's a bit although in the second
  • 00:24:00
    case we haven't we we're talking about a
  • 00:24:02
    20-year block but they're essentially
  • 00:24:03
    saying that uh there's going to be
  • 00:24:06
    tremendous uh changes in
  • 00:24:08
    temperature um in the sort of in this
  • 00:24:11
    area here anywhere that's this these
  • 00:24:13
    sort of colors so you can see what's
  • 00:24:15
    what's going to be going on
  • 00:24:19
    here this is also affecting the ocean uh
  • 00:24:22
    this is a a u this is what you would
  • 00:24:24
    normally expect the ocean temperatures
  • 00:24:27
    to be
  • 00:24:29
    um based on you know normal fluctuations
  • 00:24:32
    that you would expect in ocean
  • 00:24:34
    temperatures uh this is what scientists
  • 00:24:37
    using computer models uh are predicted
  • 00:24:40
    uh that the ocean temperatures could uh
  • 00:24:42
    change to due to human causes and this
  • 00:24:45
    is what's actually
  • 00:24:48
    happened so a a tremendous uh rise uh in
  • 00:24:52
    ocean
  • 00:24:54
    temperatures and this is causing um uh
  • 00:24:56
    tremendous weather events hurricanes
  • 00:24:59
    it's not an accident that we're seeing a
  • 00:25:00
    lot more hurricanes and a lot bigger
  • 00:25:02
    hurricanes the the hurricane this year
  • 00:25:04
    that hit Houston was not particularly
  • 00:25:06
    powerful but it was massively wide
  • 00:25:08
    hundreds of miles wide it was an
  • 00:25:09
    enormous
  • 00:25:10
    storm and uh these storms that caused
  • 00:25:13
    essentially weather is driven by ocean
  • 00:25:16
    currents and ocean temperature so these
  • 00:25:18
    storms are really created uh as a result
  • 00:25:22
    of this I'll skip through this fairly
  • 00:25:23
    quickly because I don't want to use a
  • 00:25:24
    lot of time on this but you can we're
  • 00:25:26
    all familiar with them
  • 00:25:29
    these various uh enormous hurricanes uh
  • 00:25:32
    new record set for typhoons in
  • 00:25:38
    Japan they they you know they never
  • 00:25:40
    thought that we could get hurricanes in
  • 00:25:42
    the South Atlantic well we got one in
  • 00:25:44
    2004 it's also increasing the incidence
  • 00:25:46
    of tornadoes in the United States uh a
  • 00:25:49
    new record in 2004 really devastating
  • 00:25:53
    consequences and we're seeing this more
  • 00:25:54
    and more and more almost every year this
  • 00:25:56
    is occurring
  • 00:25:59
    uh multiple tropical storms in the
  • 00:26:01
    summer of 2005 in the uh South Atlantic
  • 00:26:04
    in in the North Atlantic
  • 00:26:06
    rather hurricane Emily here
  • 00:26:10
    Dennis huge
  • 00:26:12
    Devastation this is what the largest oil
  • 00:26:15
    platform in the world the BP Thunder
  • 00:26:16
    horse platform was completely toppled uh
  • 00:26:19
    they never thought that could
  • 00:26:21
    happen another oil platform washed up on
  • 00:26:23
    the
  • 00:26:25
    beach these people S standing on the
  • 00:26:27
    bank thinking what the that's not
  • 00:26:29
    supposed to be there what the hell's
  • 00:26:30
    going on stuck under a
  • 00:26:39
    bridge so as the oceans heat up
  • 00:26:42
    Hurricane intensity
  • 00:26:44
    grows um wind shear grows and more
  • 00:26:49
    moisture is evaporated uh out of the U
  • 00:26:52
    out of the ocean which causes more
  • 00:26:55
    precipitation and then of course uh in
  • 00:26:59
    2005 we had
  • 00:27:00
    Katrina uh which this is a great
  • 00:27:02
    animation you see it starting just to
  • 00:27:04
    the south of Florida as it crosses the
  • 00:27:06
    Florida Panhandle and comes into the
  • 00:27:08
    Gulf it hits really really warm
  • 00:27:10
    temperatures look at the size of the eye
  • 00:27:12
    of that hurricane so what happened was
  • 00:27:13
    is the as the eye came over as the storm
  • 00:27:16
    came into the Gulf of Mexico the
  • 00:27:18
    extremely hot I was looking at a a Noah
  • 00:27:21
    uh chart I I wish I had it showing uh
  • 00:27:23
    typical surface temperatures ocean
  • 00:27:26
    temperatures in the Gulf it's in it's
  • 00:27:28
    like bath water it's it can get really
  • 00:27:30
    really hot and so as soon as the
  • 00:27:33
    hurricane hit that water it really
  • 00:27:34
    spooled it up and uh the results were
  • 00:27:37
    absolutely devastating as we all know
  • 00:27:39
    and again I'm not going to beat this to
  • 00:27:41
    death we all know everybody remembers
  • 00:27:42
    what happened it was a horrendous
  • 00:27:44
    horrendous event that America was
  • 00:27:46
    completely unprepared for and then
  • 00:27:49
    completely bungled uh the response to so
  • 00:27:53
    this is a great phrase that uh one of my
  • 00:27:55
    favorite people Winston Churchill said
  • 00:27:57
    the era of procrastin ation of half
  • 00:27:59
    measures of soothing and baffling
  • 00:28:01
    experience uh of delays is coming to a
  • 00:28:04
    close and its place we uring a period of
  • 00:28:06
    consequences he was of course talking
  • 00:28:08
    about Germany at the time and the rise
  • 00:28:11
    of the Nazis but we're in a similar sort
  • 00:28:14
    of a situation now where we've you know
  • 00:28:16
    we really need to act we've got to do
  • 00:28:19
    something um this is not something that
  • 00:28:21
    we can uh continue to just uh ignore and
  • 00:28:25
    I'll skip through these slides again
  • 00:28:27
    really quickly because I want to get to
  • 00:28:29
    um uh the meat of the presentation
  • 00:28:36
    here they ran out of uh letters you know
  • 00:28:40
    they Nam these storms with people's
  • 00:28:42
    names uh in 2005 they ran out of
  • 00:28:44
    people's names they got to zed and had
  • 00:28:46
    to start with the Greek alphabet that's
  • 00:28:47
    how bad it was that doesn't happen very
  • 00:28:50
    often so we got to
  • 00:28:53
    Delta Epsilon went all the way to Zeta
  • 00:28:58
    and the insurance industry has noticed
  • 00:29:00
    this there have been tremendous losses
  • 00:29:03
    as a result of this um and here in
  • 00:29:06
    Canada the same thing um year by year uh
  • 00:29:10
    weather related disasters and losses
  • 00:29:12
    have increased we remember the ice
  • 00:29:14
    storms in Quebec in the late 90s um this
  • 00:29:18
    is an interesting slide because it shows
  • 00:29:19
    you what's going to happen to us so here
  • 00:29:23
    in the Pacific Northwest and in Atlantic
  • 00:29:25
    Canada we're going to get a lot more
  • 00:29:27
    pacific
  • 00:29:29
    itation but basically the precipitation
  • 00:29:31
    patterns are going to change all over
  • 00:29:33
    the world what this sh doesn't slide
  • 00:29:35
    doesn't show so well is that the the
  • 00:29:38
    deserts are actually going to move and
  • 00:29:41
    uh as we get more precipitation uh in
  • 00:29:43
    the north what happens is in in the uh
  • 00:29:46
    in the belts um above and below uh the
  • 00:29:49
    deserts uh above the the Sahara Desert
  • 00:29:53
    for example that's going to actually
  • 00:29:54
    move up so a lot of the um Mediterranean
  • 00:29:57
    areas is are going to have a lot less
  • 00:30:00
    precipitation uh in the north of Africa
  • 00:30:03
    and in the central United States I went
  • 00:30:05
    to a talk by Gwen D earlier this year at
  • 00:30:09
    the Ki Center in North Vancouver in west
  • 00:30:11
    Vancouver and I turned up expecting him
  • 00:30:13
    to talk about conflict in the Middle
  • 00:30:14
    East and so on and uh it turned out the
  • 00:30:17
    whole presentation was about climate
  • 00:30:19
    change and he's just written a great
  • 00:30:21
    book which I'm just starting to read
  • 00:30:24
    called climate Wars he thinks that
  • 00:30:25
    climate change is going to be the
  • 00:30:26
    greatest creator of conflict uh in this
  • 00:30:30
    century and it's a really really serious
  • 00:30:32
    problem as countries become unable to
  • 00:30:34
    feed their populations uh and uh uh
  • 00:30:37
    other place Parts in the world get
  • 00:30:39
    inundated with water uh there's going to
  • 00:30:42
    be a tremendous amount of movement of
  • 00:30:44
    population and that's going to cause a
  • 00:30:45
    lot of friction he thinks so there are
  • 00:30:48
    there are a lot of other effects as well
  • 00:30:51
    uh this is a slide that we did for
  • 00:30:52
    Atlantic Canada there's been a
  • 00:30:53
    tremendous amount of uh uh Rising a
  • 00:30:56
    noticeable rising of ocean levels in
  • 00:30:58
    Atlantic Canada I'm going to skip
  • 00:31:01
    through some of these slides here again
  • 00:31:03
    uh all over the world the same thing's
  • 00:31:05
    happening in Japan huge uh
  • 00:31:09
    rainfall and in uh as Al Gore says it's
  • 00:31:12
    like a uh nature walk through the Book
  • 00:31:14
    of Revelations in Europe these days and
  • 00:31:17
    uh talking to my mom and dad over in
  • 00:31:18
    England they've had a lot more rain and
  • 00:31:20
    a lot more precipitation um than that
  • 00:31:23
    they used to have in the old days
  • 00:31:25
    there's a chap out for a walk in
  • 00:31:26
    Switzerland
  • 00:31:29
    um same thing all over the world so this
  • 00:31:33
    is a pretty obvious pattern it's pretty
  • 00:31:37
    clear what's going
  • 00:31:40
    on in India uh they've had enormous uh
  • 00:31:44
    rainfall uh like they've never had
  • 00:31:47
    before this is Russia in uh
  • 00:31:52
    Mumbai 90% of the city underwater just a
  • 00:31:56
    horrendous situ
  • 00:32:00
    ation in Indonesia the same thing
  • 00:32:09
    Ghana here we are in Mexico same
  • 00:32:18
    thing really all over the world um just
  • 00:32:21
    locally down the road in the chahalis
  • 00:32:24
    Washington there's the
  • 00:32:26
    Walmart mercifully under water but
  • 00:32:31
    anyway Ontario the same thing this is
  • 00:32:34
    you don't want to see this when you're
  • 00:32:36
    uh pushing back to the
  • 00:32:38
    runway doesn't Inspire
  • 00:32:41
    [Laughter]
  • 00:32:44
    confidence apparently these fellows were
  • 00:32:47
    actually recovering license plates for
  • 00:32:48
    some reason in uh in China we don't but
  • 00:32:51
    again tremendous flooding and Sichuan
  • 00:32:55
    look at that poor little chap in the
  • 00:32:58
    being pushed
  • 00:33:00
    along but it can also cause drying uh as
  • 00:33:03
    well so uh as the Earth heats up we get
  • 00:33:06
    a lot more precipitation in some areas
  • 00:33:08
    but we actually get uh drying in other
  • 00:33:11
    areas and um essentially this is what's
  • 00:33:14
    happening is as we get uh uh warmer
  • 00:33:17
    temperatures the ocean uh evaporates but
  • 00:33:20
    also moisture is sucked out of the land
  • 00:33:23
    uh and in Africa this has had
  • 00:33:25
    devastating consequences
  • 00:33:28
    in the Lake Chad uh which was an
  • 00:33:30
    enormous Lake in the 70s when I was in
  • 00:33:33
    Africa uh in the Niger darur region now
  • 00:33:36
    it's basically completely
  • 00:33:39
    evaporated uh removing a very very
  • 00:33:42
    important uh source of water for the
  • 00:33:45
    people and
  • 00:33:47
    fish and it's just a a dried up uh lake
  • 00:33:52
    bed
  • 00:33:53
    now this was a big river in Australia
  • 00:33:55
    now a girl can jump over it
  • 00:33:58
    this was an interesting slide and if you
  • 00:34:00
    looked at all of the water in the world
  • 00:34:03
    that's how big it would be so you know
  • 00:34:04
    when we look at this this is sort of
  • 00:34:05
    obvious really but when you look at the
  • 00:34:07
    Earth it's all blue you know and you
  • 00:34:09
    think well there's loads of water well
  • 00:34:10
    the water is not very thick it's only
  • 00:34:12
    it's it's there's no depth to it
  • 00:34:14
    relative to the size of the Earth so
  • 00:34:16
    there's not really that much water to
  • 00:34:18
    start with in the
  • 00:34:20
    world and that's that's relatively
  • 00:34:22
    speaking how much there
  • 00:34:26
    is which brings us really to the first
  • 00:34:28
    Canary in the coal mine and uh it's the
  • 00:34:32
    Arctic and uh this is the ward hunt ice
  • 00:34:36
    shelf uh in the Arctic um which broke up
  • 00:34:40
    in 2002 it cracked in
  • 00:34:43
    half um here's a a shot of U what are
  • 00:34:47
    called drunken trees in Alaska what's
  • 00:34:49
    happening is the permafrost is melting
  • 00:34:51
    and as a result the trees just fall
  • 00:34:54
    Every Witch Way and uh even graveyards
  • 00:34:57
    all the tombstones are falling over um
  • 00:35:01
    building here collapsed again the
  • 00:35:02
    melting of the building was built on the
  • 00:35:04
    permafrost that ground the Perma Frost
  • 00:35:06
    melted the building
  • 00:35:07
    collapsed um roads are getting heaved up
  • 00:35:10
    as a result of this as well making um uh
  • 00:35:14
    Transit of them difficult uh this is a
  • 00:35:16
    shot of U actually Northern Russia where
  • 00:35:19
    they use ice roads to transport um uh
  • 00:35:24
    goods and um uh and uh equipment for
  • 00:35:27
    their oil uh uh fields and other things
  • 00:35:31
    what's happening is these uh trucks are
  • 00:35:33
    all getting stuck because the ice roads
  • 00:35:34
    are
  • 00:35:35
    melting and it's causing same thing's
  • 00:35:37
    happening in Alaska
  • 00:35:40
    incidentally so what's really going on
  • 00:35:42
    here is that the ice is diminishing in
  • 00:35:45
    the Arctic and this is a a great shot of
  • 00:35:47
    a US nuclear submarine surfacing through
  • 00:35:50
    the ice it turns out that uh the US has
  • 00:35:53
    been studying uh the thickness of ice in
  • 00:35:56
    the Arctic for many many years ever
  • 00:35:58
    pretty much ever since they've had
  • 00:35:59
    nuclear submarines going underneath them
  • 00:36:01
    and the reason for they that they've
  • 00:36:02
    done it is they they can only surface if
  • 00:36:05
    the ice is less than a meter thick so
  • 00:36:07
    they needed to keep track of exactly how
  • 00:36:09
    thick the ice was everywhere so they
  • 00:36:10
    knew where they could poke the Corning
  • 00:36:12
    Tower up through the ice uh all of this
  • 00:36:15
    information was classified and kept
  • 00:36:17
    secret Al Gore actually got to go on a
  • 00:36:19
    nuclear submarine and eventually
  • 00:36:21
    convinced them to release the data and
  • 00:36:23
    the results were really horrendous I
  • 00:36:26
    don't have the graph here I don't think
  • 00:36:27
    but uh again it's a sort of precipitous
  • 00:36:30
    drop off of uh of ice that they've known
  • 00:36:32
    about for a long time but have not told
  • 00:36:34
    anybody about and in fact if you compare
  • 00:36:37
    1980 that that was what the ice extent
  • 00:36:40
    looked like in 1980 in the Arctic this
  • 00:36:43
    is what it looked like in the summer in
  • 00:36:48
    2007 again uh this is the average
  • 00:36:51
    September ice extent in the
  • 00:36:54
    Arctic there was a record low in 2005
  • 00:36:57
    and some people are now saying that they
  • 00:36:59
    think that the ice is going to be
  • 00:37:01
    completely gone in the Arctic within 5
  • 00:37:04
    years so if you want to go to the North
  • 00:37:06
    Pole you'll need a
  • 00:37:09
    boat here's some comparisons that uh are
  • 00:37:13
    interesting unfortunately we don't have
  • 00:37:14
    one of Canada but uh that's just so you
  • 00:37:16
    can sort of bigle in a bread box compare
  • 00:37:18
    it to stuff that you might know that's
  • 00:37:20
    what it looked like in 1980 which is
  • 00:37:22
    equivalent to that much of
  • 00:37:25
    Europe uh this is what it was like in 20
  • 00:37:27
    2005 which was equivalent to all of
  • 00:37:30
    England Spain France Germany Switzerland
  • 00:37:33
    Belgium all of that gone a huge amount
  • 00:37:36
    of ice
  • 00:37:39
    gone here's the chart uh I was wondering
  • 00:37:43
    if I had that and you can see there's
  • 00:37:44
    been a precipitous drop off in 2005 and
  • 00:37:47
    it's actually just going south at a high
  • 00:37:48
    rate of knots it's um um now uh in 2007
  • 00:37:55
    there's been a precipitous almost an
  • 00:37:56
    exponential drop
  • 00:37:59
    off I'll skip through this and get to
  • 00:38:05
    uh here's the als's ice shelf collapsing
  • 00:38:08
    in 2005 at elmir
  • 00:38:10
    Island this is a huge ice shelf so
  • 00:38:12
    what's going on really is the reason
  • 00:38:14
    it's sort of exponential is is the
  • 00:38:16
    following uh the Arctic it really acts
  • 00:38:19
    like a big mirror and most of the uh
  • 00:38:22
    solar radiation that hits it gets
  • 00:38:24
    reflected but as it starts to melt due
  • 00:38:26
    to global warming
  • 00:38:28
    and gets smaller less of the solar
  • 00:38:31
    radiation is reflected actually 90% of
  • 00:38:33
    the solar radiation that hits ice is
  • 00:38:35
    reflected 90% of the solar radiation
  • 00:38:38
    that hits the ocean is absorbed so what
  • 00:38:41
    happens is you get a sort of a feedback
  • 00:38:43
    loop and a runaway effect as the ice
  • 00:38:45
    starts to melt it gets smaller the ocean
  • 00:38:47
    starts to warm up the warmed ocean melts
  • 00:38:50
    the ice faster there's even less of it
  • 00:38:52
    you've got more warm oce and and the
  • 00:38:54
    thing literally sort of runs away which
  • 00:38:56
    is why we think think we're seeing this
  • 00:38:58
    precipitous drop off in Arctic
  • 00:39:01
    ice and of course this is having
  • 00:39:03
    devastating effects on polar bears in
  • 00:39:05
    the
  • 00:39:06
    Arctic um many of them are being found
  • 00:39:08
    at Sea drowned unable to find ice to
  • 00:39:11
    swim
  • 00:39:18
    to this is a great but sad
  • 00:39:24
    shot so it turns out that um
  • 00:39:28
    again you can see the graphic here it
  • 00:39:30
    starts to shrink slowly and then and
  • 00:39:32
    then as the as the ice pack diminishes
  • 00:39:36
    less solar energy is reflected more is
  • 00:39:38
    absorbed by the ocean and it actually
  • 00:39:40
    becomes a a hot spot in fact there's
  • 00:39:44
    more uh heating of the oceans happening
  • 00:39:46
    at the poles than anywhere else on the
  • 00:39:49
    planet and you know this is going to
  • 00:39:51
    have a huge impact uh on uh on our
  • 00:39:54
    climat and on our weather and so on and
  • 00:39:56
    so forth and we'll talk about this a
  • 00:39:57
    little more in a second here it turns
  • 00:40:00
    out the climate is a nonlinear system uh
  • 00:40:02
    this is essentially what's going
  • 00:40:05
    on uh the the when as the globe heats up
  • 00:40:11
    um heat is really transferred from the
  • 00:40:14
    equatorial regions to the pole that's
  • 00:40:17
    how that's how the heat is dissipated
  • 00:40:19
    and this transfer of heat really creates
  • 00:40:22
    ocean
  • 00:40:23
    currents so the it's really the Delta
  • 00:40:26
    the difference in between the
  • 00:40:27
    temperature at the equator and the
  • 00:40:29
    temperature at the pole that's really
  • 00:40:30
    the pump if you like that's driving uh
  • 00:40:33
    these ocean currents well in 2000 uh the
  • 00:40:37
    average temperature of the Earth in 2006
  • 00:40:39
    was 15° Centigrade if we had a 3° uh
  • 00:40:43
    rise in global temperatures this
  • 00:40:46
    actually translates into a one degree
  • 00:40:49
    rise at the pole at at the equator
  • 00:40:52
    excuse me and a 7 degree rise at the
  • 00:40:54
    pole it's not evenly distributed now
  • 00:40:57
    that's a huge difference that's a
  • 00:40:59
    massive Delta and what's going to happen
  • 00:41:02
    as a result of this is really uh sort of
  • 00:41:05
    unknown I'll give you a little demo here
  • 00:41:07
    this is where my presentation can go
  • 00:41:09
    horribly wrong actually but this is this
  • 00:41:11
    is this is an idea so what happens is if
  • 00:41:14
    you imagine the currents is sort of
  • 00:41:16
    being sort of going like this when you
  • 00:41:18
    get that big a change they start they go
  • 00:41:21
    they'll suddenly flip they can just go
  • 00:41:23
    like this so we really have no idea uh a
  • 00:41:27
    of this magnitude we have absolutely no
  • 00:41:30
    idea uh what's going to happen it's not
  • 00:41:34
    really very well understood uh how the
  • 00:41:36
    ocean currents uh go where they do
  • 00:41:39
    anyway uh but what we do know is that
  • 00:41:42
    it's driven by this change in
  • 00:41:43
    temperature and if that changes that
  • 00:41:46
    dramatically um it's difficult to know
  • 00:41:48
    what's going to happen it's not going to
  • 00:41:50
    be good though that's pretty
  • 00:41:52
    obvious and one of the things that this
  • 00:41:54
    is affecting is uh a shift in the season
  • 00:41:58
    so um this was a study done in the
  • 00:42:01
    Netherlands you can see in April uh 25
  • 00:42:05
    uh that's Peak bird arrival time in June
  • 00:42:07
    3rd that also coincides with the peak uh
  • 00:42:11
    bird hatching and the caterpillar season
  • 00:42:14
    well what happened was that uh as as
  • 00:42:16
    things started to warm up uh the the
  • 00:42:20
    there was actually a
  • 00:42:21
    shift in the caterpillars started to
  • 00:42:24
    come earlier because it was warmer the
  • 00:42:26
    birds tried to catch up but couldn't so
  • 00:42:30
    now the bird populations are in Peril
  • 00:42:31
    because there's not there aren't enough
  • 00:42:33
    caterpillars uh to feed them they're
  • 00:42:34
    coming too late the caterpillars have
  • 00:42:36
    already
  • 00:42:37
    gone so these sorts of effects are
  • 00:42:40
    really um causing enormous problems and
  • 00:42:43
    it's resulting in a um in a really a
  • 00:42:46
    change in invasive species and a a
  • 00:42:50
    classical example of that right here in
  • 00:42:52
    BC is Western pine beetle damage I don't
  • 00:42:53
    know how many of you have driven to
  • 00:42:54
    Colona recently but I drove I hadn't
  • 00:42:56
    been there for a while I drove drove
  • 00:42:58
    there a couple of weeks ago I was
  • 00:42:59
    absolutely horrified just from the
  • 00:43:01
    highway you can see the devastation
  • 00:43:03
    that's been done by Western pine beetle
  • 00:43:05
    and I'm told that if you fly over
  • 00:43:07
    Northern British Columbia it's much
  • 00:43:08
    worse it's absolutely horrendous now
  • 00:43:10
    what's really bad about this is that not
  • 00:43:13
    only is it killing the pine trees which
  • 00:43:15
    that's bad enough but it turns out that
  • 00:43:17
    the pine trees when they're absorbing
  • 00:43:19
    carbon dioxide that carbon is stored in
  • 00:43:21
    the tree when you kill the tree all that
  • 00:43:23
    carbon gets released so it's a double
  • 00:43:25
    jeopardy situation so not only are these
  • 00:43:27
    trees being killed by the pine beetle
  • 00:43:29
    not sucking up CO2 anymore they've now
  • 00:43:32
    flipped and all the CO2 that they had
  • 00:43:34
    sucked up is now being released so it's
  • 00:43:37
    a it's a really horrendous uh
  • 00:43:40
    situation uh it's also causing species
  • 00:43:43
    Extinction the the yellow frog um is uh
  • 00:43:46
    going extinct it may very well result in
  • 00:43:49
    Canada's first uh species major species
  • 00:43:52
    Extinction the Perry Caribou is likely
  • 00:43:54
    to go extinct here in Canada
  • 00:43:58
    so it turns out that these changes are
  • 00:44:00
    actually causing a massive uh species
  • 00:44:03
    loss we're actually in the middle of an
  • 00:44:04
    Extinction event that's as bad as when
  • 00:44:06
    the dinosaurs died out 65 million years
  • 00:44:09
    ago so there's a massive you can see the
  • 00:44:10
    way this curve has gone a massive uh
  • 00:44:14
    impact on uh uh on species coral reefs
  • 00:44:17
    are being badly affected the thing that
  • 00:44:19
    makes coral reefs colorful is is a is a
  • 00:44:22
    um a creature called Zeus aneli I hope I
  • 00:44:24
    said that correctly but there are they
  • 00:44:27
    actually uh uh sort of cling to the uh
  • 00:44:31
    coral reefs and give it its color what's
  • 00:44:33
    happening now is because of changes in
  • 00:44:35
    ocean temperature and ocean chemistry
  • 00:44:37
    they're being killed and the the reefs
  • 00:44:39
    are getting bleached out uh which and
  • 00:44:42
    which is obviously impacting on
  • 00:44:43
    fisheries and local economies and so on
  • 00:44:46
    and so forth we're also seeing enormous
  • 00:44:47
    algae blooms because of changes in ocean
  • 00:44:50
    temperature uh it turns out that there
  • 00:44:52
    are some massive jellyfish that are
  • 00:44:54
    being seen in Japan that were never seen
  • 00:44:56
    before uh that like the change in Ocean
  • 00:44:58
    chemistry so they're doing very very
  • 00:45:00
    well but they're eating all all the fish
  • 00:45:03
    they're damaging the
  • 00:45:04
    Fisheries
  • 00:45:07
    um vectors for emerging infectious
  • 00:45:10
    diseases um all sorts of things um uh I
  • 00:45:15
    remember visiting Nairobi U many years
  • 00:45:17
    ago in Kenya which was has been
  • 00:45:19
    specifically placed so it's just above
  • 00:45:21
    the mosquito line so you don't get
  • 00:45:23
    bitten by mozzies in Nairobi because
  • 00:45:24
    it's at I think 5,500 feet well now you
  • 00:45:27
    do because everything these these
  • 00:45:30
    everything's warmed up the mosquitoes
  • 00:45:32
    have come up uh and so so a lot of
  • 00:45:35
    cities that have been specifically
  • 00:45:37
    placed so that people won't get bitten
  • 00:45:39
    by mosquitoes now they're in the they're
  • 00:45:41
    not it doesn't work anymore people are
  • 00:45:43
    getting bitten by mosquitoes it's
  • 00:45:44
    causing death and disease and so on
  • 00:45:49
    um we're seeing the emergence of many
  • 00:45:52
    many new diseases since
  • 00:45:55
    1976 and again I go through them because
  • 00:45:57
    we've got a lot to do cram cram in in an
  • 00:45:59
    hour here um the West Nile Virus um
  • 00:46:04
    really unknown in North America uh it's
  • 00:46:07
    now moved right across the
  • 00:46:10
    continent um so that it's extending now
  • 00:46:14
    all the way from uh the east coast of
  • 00:46:17
    the United States right out ahead of
  • 00:46:21
    Vancouver something that we never had
  • 00:46:25
    before so this brings us us to the other
  • 00:46:27
    canaran the coal mine which is the
  • 00:46:30
    Antarctic um again we're seeing the same
  • 00:46:33
    sort of thing a tremendous warming in
  • 00:46:35
    the Antarctic impacting on
  • 00:46:38
    Penguins uh here's a something that
  • 00:46:41
    merer said um turns out this is
  • 00:46:45
    happening um we're seeing a tremendous
  • 00:46:48
    breakup of the ice shelves uh in the
  • 00:46:51
    Antarctic in particular the um in this
  • 00:46:55
    peninsula up here
  • 00:46:58
    uh the Lassen B ey shelf in particular
  • 00:47:01
    um uh was just collapsed a few years ago
  • 00:47:07
    um and it really mystified scientists
  • 00:47:10
    because it happened so quickly uh you
  • 00:47:12
    can see these little black uh spots here
  • 00:47:15
    they look like um we're seeing through
  • 00:47:17
    the ice we actually not they're little
  • 00:47:19
    melt pools that um people observed they
  • 00:47:22
    The sests observed in the ice and what
  • 00:47:24
    happened was the ice all all of a sudden
  • 00:47:27
    started to break up now these uh if you
  • 00:47:31
    were to look at these uh uh ice shelves
  • 00:47:33
    this is what they would look like they
  • 00:47:35
    stick 700 ft out of the ocean and if you
  • 00:47:38
    were to fly over it in a helicopter this
  • 00:47:41
    is what you'd see these Majestic uh ice
  • 00:47:45
    shelves this is what's starting to break
  • 00:47:47
    up and melt so this isn't like a skating
  • 00:47:49
    rink this is this is uh the bit that you
  • 00:47:51
    see above the water is 700 ft high and
  • 00:47:54
    then the piece below these are thousands
  • 00:47:56
    of fet thick massive massive ice shelves
  • 00:48:00
    now these ice shelves are floating but
  • 00:48:03
    if you look behind about 25 uh
  • 00:48:06
    kilometers Behind These ice shelves at
  • 00:48:08
    the mountains back here these ice
  • 00:48:10
    shelves are holding landbased
  • 00:48:13
    ice on these uh back on these mountains
  • 00:48:17
    now when the ice shelves melt it doesn't
  • 00:48:19
    make the water go up it's a problem but
  • 00:48:20
    it doesn't make the ocean go up but as
  • 00:48:22
    the ice shelves move away and this land
  • 00:48:24
    base ice starts to fall into the sea
  • 00:48:27
    that's going to uh cause a problem and
  • 00:48:29
    again we'll talk about that a bit more
  • 00:48:30
    later this was the breakup of the lass
  • 00:48:32
    and ice shelf which in a period of just
  • 00:48:34
    a you know about 30 days just completely
  • 00:48:37
    went away and scientists uh thought at
  • 00:48:39
    the time that this ice shelf would take
  • 00:48:41
    at least 100 years to break up uh even
  • 00:48:44
    with global
  • 00:48:46
    warming uh the same thing on the other
  • 00:48:48
    side of the peninsula the Wilkins eyce
  • 00:48:50
    shelf earlier this year hereis some
  • 00:48:52
    great shots done taken by the BBC it
  • 00:48:54
    looks like pieces of Styrofoam but again
  • 00:48:56
    these are 7even or 800 feet high and
  • 00:48:58
    extending almost a th000 feet thick
  • 00:49:01
    Wilkins ice shelf just uh broke up and
  • 00:49:05
    we got a little animation here that you
  • 00:49:06
    can see a shot from the
  • 00:49:10
    air this is a really really great shot
  • 00:49:14
    and
  • 00:49:14
    again again these are 700 ft above the
  • 00:49:18
    water but thousands of feet thick you'll
  • 00:49:21
    see some pieces um on their side in a
  • 00:49:23
    minute and you can see the blue bit
  • 00:49:25
    there uh this bit bit is the bit that's
  • 00:49:27
    below the water this is the bit that
  • 00:49:29
    you're seeing sticking up so these are
  • 00:49:32
    enormous enormous ice shelves that are
  • 00:49:35
    breaking
  • 00:49:40
    up again I'm going to skip through this
  • 00:49:42
    because um we're running short on
  • 00:49:46
    time and again as these ice shelves
  • 00:49:49
    break up land Bas
  • 00:49:51
    ice eventually can start to fall into
  • 00:49:54
    the sea and this is a problem it's going
  • 00:49:57
    to cause a rise potentially in in ocean
  • 00:49:59
    temperatures um obviously this is a sort
  • 00:50:01
    of graphic that explains what's going on
  • 00:50:03
    if if if a cube of ice melts in a glass
  • 00:50:05
    the water level doesn't go up Archimedes
  • 00:50:07
    principle but if you have stacked Ice uh
  • 00:50:10
    sitting on the bottom that's supported
  • 00:50:11
    by something other than the water when
  • 00:50:13
    that melts the water level goes up and
  • 00:50:15
    it's impacting uh Pacific communities
  • 00:50:18
    that are being
  • 00:50:19
    inundated uh the malds and so
  • 00:50:22
    on this is a great shot here this is the
  • 00:50:25
    south of England England where from is
  • 00:50:27
    not supposed to be like that this is a
  • 00:50:28
    train running along the the
  • 00:50:32
    beach in Alaska we're getting a rosion
  • 00:50:34
    as a result and in Atlantic Canada uh
  • 00:50:37
    Coastal erosion is starting to occur
  • 00:50:39
    which is causing all sorts of
  • 00:50:43
    problems again in uh in London the Tams
  • 00:50:46
    barrier has been raised uh more times uh
  • 00:50:49
    you can see this graph I mean it's
  • 00:50:51
    really horrendous this is a ma a very
  • 00:50:53
    obvious and major increase
  • 00:50:58
    now it turns out that the area that
  • 00:51:00
    we're worried about is this area
  • 00:51:02
    here it turns out that if that area
  • 00:51:05
    would
  • 00:51:07
    go the West Antarctic ice sheet what
  • 00:51:11
    would happen is ocean levels would go up
  • 00:51:14
    worldwide 3
  • 00:51:17
    m and unfortunately we're starting to
  • 00:51:20
    see problems much of this
  • 00:51:22
    ice is U some of it is is partially
  • 00:51:26
    orted some of it is floating some of it
  • 00:51:30
    is actually on land and some of it is
  • 00:51:32
    sort of a little in between it's sort of
  • 00:51:34
    floating but it's stuck on the top of of
  • 00:51:36
    sea mounts under under that are under
  • 00:51:38
    the ocean so the water the ocean can
  • 00:51:40
    actually flow underneath it and we're
  • 00:51:41
    starting to see uh extensive snow melt
  • 00:51:44
    uh
  • 00:51:46
    happening and it's a it's an area the
  • 00:51:48
    size of the State of California this is
  • 00:51:50
    a big big big
  • 00:51:53
    area it turns out there's another area
  • 00:51:56
    that's just about as big Greenland and
  • 00:51:59
    that has similar problems as well if if
  • 00:52:03
    Greenland would have melt again ocean
  • 00:52:05
    temp ocean levels got 20 feet three 20
  • 00:52:09
    feet 6 meters I'm sorry I think I
  • 00:52:10
    misspoke earlier if the West Antarctic
  • 00:52:12
    ice sheet melts they go again 6 M if
  • 00:52:16
    half of each melted we're looking at a
  • 00:52:18
    six meter rise so this is a very very
  • 00:52:19
    serious uh
  • 00:52:24
    issue I'm going to skip forward here a
  • 00:52:26
    little bit so I know we're running short
  • 00:52:29
    of time uh what we're seeing in um let
  • 00:52:32
    me just skip through this I'm sorry
  • 00:52:34
    because we I know we're going to be
  • 00:52:35
    short of time this is a just a graphic
  • 00:52:37
    that explains the uh the ice melt and
  • 00:52:39
    the process that's going on essentially
  • 00:52:41
    what happens is pools of water uh appear
  • 00:52:45
    on the ice and remember what I was
  • 00:52:46
    saying earlier when uh the sun rays
  • 00:52:49
    strike water 90% of the energy is
  • 00:52:51
    absorbed so as soon as you get a little
  • 00:52:52
    pool started it sort of start it runs
  • 00:52:54
    away and gets bigger and then these
  • 00:52:56
    pools melt and actually tunnel down
  • 00:52:59
    through the ice and in Greenland they
  • 00:53:01
    call what they create what are call
  • 00:53:02
    Mullins which are these huge tunnels
  • 00:53:04
    going right down to the uh the bottom of
  • 00:53:06
    the ice and they in effect um undermine
  • 00:53:10
    and lubricate if you like uh the uh the
  • 00:53:14
    ice Mass that's sitting on the Bedrock
  • 00:53:17
    uh causing it to break and eventually
  • 00:53:19
    slip off and potentially fall into the
  • 00:53:24
    ocean and we're seeing a a a tremendous
  • 00:53:27
    increase in glacial earthquakes in
  • 00:53:28
    Greenland uh as a result of this doubled
  • 00:53:32
    in in the period 1993 to 1999 and then
  • 00:53:35
    much worse doubled again more recently
  • 00:53:38
    so Greenland is starting to
  • 00:53:43
    melt and this is really graphic and
  • 00:53:50
    obvious it's affecting Canada of course
  • 00:53:53
    um uh both at Sea I ice packs are
  • 00:53:57
    breaking up this is a great graphic this
  • 00:53:59
    would this shows you what would happen
  • 00:54:01
    um with a uh 6 meter rise in Vancouver
  • 00:54:05
    not surprisingly Richmond and ladar
  • 00:54:07
    completely
  • 00:54:08
    underwater uh right up into the valley
  • 00:54:10
    completely underwater so it would cause
  • 00:54:12
    tremendous problems in Vancouver we'd
  • 00:54:14
    have to build a new airport for
  • 00:54:18
    starters and this is what would happen
  • 00:54:20
    in
  • 00:54:23
    Florida much of Florida would be
  • 00:54:25
    inundated again uh in uh other parts of
  • 00:54:29
    the world Beijing the same sort of
  • 00:54:36
    thing Shanghai
  • 00:54:40
    similarly now this is going to cause
  • 00:54:42
    immense dislocation of
  • 00:54:45
    populations and this is sort of you know
  • 00:54:47
    this is the sort of stuff that's
  • 00:54:48
    starting to worry people like
  • 00:54:50
    gwind in
  • 00:54:53
    Kolkata many you know the people they
  • 00:54:55
    got enough problem already with they're
  • 00:54:57
    impoverished and so forth they're going
  • 00:54:58
    to be
  • 00:54:59
    inundated Bangladesh the same sort of
  • 00:55:03
    thing and this is what's going to happen
  • 00:55:05
    to populations and literally hundreds
  • 00:55:07
    and hundreds of millions of people are
  • 00:55:08
    going to be
  • 00:55:10
    displaced so there are really three
  • 00:55:13
    factors causing this problem the
  • 00:55:15
    population explosion the scientific and
  • 00:55:17
    technological Revolution and our way of
  • 00:55:19
    thinking now the population explosion um
  • 00:55:24
    is is is pretty obvious but it's it's
  • 00:55:26
    really within one generation we've had
  • 00:55:29
    uh this sort of change a massive massive
  • 00:55:32
    change in in the earth's
  • 00:55:34
    population I'm going to slip through the
  • 00:55:36
    slide quickly this is what Sarah Palin
  • 00:55:38
    calls the first modern humans
  • 00:55:41
    but and uh there we go 250 million years
  • 00:55:45
    ago in the Middle Ages that's where we
  • 00:55:47
    were in the 1776 in the in the war
  • 00:55:51
    second world war 2.3 billion so just
  • 00:55:54
    within uh I was born in 1951 so just in
  • 00:55:58
    my lifetime it's gone from you know
  • 00:56:01
    about 3 billion to 9 billion it's
  • 00:56:05
    tripled and it's all happening of course
  • 00:56:07
    in the in developing nations
  • 00:56:11
    predominantly and they're going to
  • 00:56:13
    suffer the most from climate
  • 00:56:20
    change food demand is going to go up
  • 00:56:22
    Gwen diet talked a lot about this this
  • 00:56:24
    is an enormous problem uh as count
  • 00:56:26
    become unable to feed their populations
  • 00:56:28
    it's going to cause tremendous stress uh
  • 00:56:31
    and uh water demands and so
  • 00:56:35
    forth um here's where where energy is
  • 00:56:39
    being produced
  • 00:56:40
    currently and again I want to skip
  • 00:56:42
    through this fairly quickly um very
  • 00:56:44
    little renewable energy uh little bit of
  • 00:56:47
    hydro um a lot of gas a little bit of
  • 00:56:51
    nuclear a lot of oil and a lot of coal
  • 00:56:54
    we need to change this because this is
  • 00:56:56
    this is not a good scheme this is uh
  • 00:56:58
    this is causing a tremendous amount of
  • 00:57:00
    pollution um it's also causing forests
  • 00:57:03
    to be devastated and cut down this is a
  • 00:57:07
    great shot this is the Dominican uh
  • 00:57:09
    Republic um um uh it's actually the
  • 00:57:12
    border between Haiti and the Dominican
  • 00:57:14
    Republic so you can see what a
  • 00:57:15
    difference uh political policies make so
  • 00:57:19
    on the one side they've allowed
  • 00:57:20
    everything to be chopped down on the
  • 00:57:21
    other they haven't it's a striking
  • 00:57:24
    difference uh he Brazil in
  • 00:57:29
    1975 um here's what it looked like in
  • 00:57:35
    2001 this is a sort of a shot that just
  • 00:57:37
    shows the impact that the the impact of
  • 00:57:40
    animals and farming on the
  • 00:57:43
    land um
  • 00:58:14
    so that was Bolivia same sort of thing
  • 00:58:16
    happening forests are being burned
  • 00:58:17
    causing
  • 00:58:20
    pollution again in Brazil tremendous
  • 00:58:24
    Devastation trying to find more land to
  • 00:58:26
    feed to plant crops to feed people and
  • 00:58:29
    then of course we've had tremendous
  • 00:58:31
    wildfires in North America and we all
  • 00:58:32
    know about what happened in Colona where
  • 00:58:35
    we had tremendous wildfires started by a
  • 00:58:37
    lightning
  • 00:58:38
    strike
  • 00:58:40
    um but fueled by a constant wind much
  • 00:58:44
    stronger wind than than we normally
  • 00:58:45
    would have expected and and a very very
  • 00:58:47
    dry summer um a series of dry Summers
  • 00:58:50
    over the decade pre preceding this
  • 00:58:52
    similarly in uh Georgia and Florida
  • 00:58:55
    again I'll skip through this La huge
  • 00:58:57
    fires just recently again huge fires in
  • 00:58:59
    LA in Malibu uh these fires were caused
  • 00:59:02
    by high tension wires being blown
  • 00:59:03
    together by the Santa Ana winds that
  • 00:59:05
    were much stronger than usual and caused
  • 00:59:07
    the wires to Arc that's happened again
  • 00:59:09
    this year this is a great shot that I'm
  • 00:59:12
    going to show you this is a a composite
  • 00:59:14
    image created by the US Air Force um
  • 00:59:17
    taken at night uh the red spots are
  • 00:59:21
    actually here in Africa are actually
  • 00:59:23
    cooking fires which is really
  • 00:59:25
    fascinating
  • 00:59:27
    uh the white spots are light street
  • 00:59:30
    lights uh these yellow spots are
  • 00:59:32
    actually gas flares from oil uh wells in
  • 00:59:35
    Northern Russia and these blue dots here
  • 00:59:37
    are the lights from the fishing fleet in
  • 00:59:40
    the uh off the coast of Asia there it's
  • 00:59:43
    a it's a wonderful shot here's a gas
  • 00:59:47
    platform in um northern Russia you can
  • 00:59:49
    see that's what you're seeing from the
  • 00:59:52
    air so the second Point scientific and
  • 00:59:55
    technological Revolution obviously
  • 00:59:57
    science is great and it's done a lot for
  • 01:00:00
    us um but uh there's a problem when you
  • 01:00:04
    combine old habits with old technology
  • 01:00:07
    you get predictable
  • 01:00:09
    consequences when you combine old habits
  • 01:00:11
    with new
  • 01:00:13
    technology you get dramatically altered
  • 01:00:17
    consequences so again you know in the
  • 01:00:19
    old days when people went at each other
  • 01:00:20
    with Spears and so forth the result was
  • 01:00:23
    fairly predictable gruesome but somewhat
  • 01:00:26
    predictable it's the Battle of aen cor
  • 01:00:29
    World War
  • 01:00:38
    II little different when you start using
  • 01:00:41
    new
  • 01:00:42
    technology again uh food and agriculture
  • 01:00:45
    it's the same sort of problem in the old
  • 01:00:47
    days with traditional farming methods uh
  • 01:00:50
    you know we got good use out of the land
  • 01:00:52
    but we didn't really rape it in the old
  • 01:00:54
    days this is what a looked like um today
  • 01:00:59
    this is what it looks like so um and and
  • 01:01:03
    this is the late even bigger this is at
  • 01:01:05
    the tar Sands I believe in Fort McMurray
  • 01:01:08
    massive shovels that are causing
  • 01:01:10
    tremendous Devastation and
  • 01:01:13
    Mining fishing uh again you know long
  • 01:01:17
    liner fishing nets have devastating
  • 01:01:19
    consequences and especially when these
  • 01:01:21
    Nets become break or become loose
  • 01:01:24
    they're drifting around the sea
  • 01:01:26
    untethered to anything just catching
  • 01:01:28
    stuff constantly it causes tremendous uh
  • 01:01:31
    Devastation of the Fisheries of the
  • 01:01:32
    ocean life this is a a great a graphic
  • 01:01:35
    that shows you uh um how Fisheries have
  • 01:01:40
    just devastated this is insane I mean
  • 01:01:42
    we've completely devastated the
  • 01:01:45
    Fisheries all over the world by over
  • 01:01:49
    fishing again an enormous uh problem
  • 01:01:52
    irrigation is a great thing but when you
  • 01:01:54
    overdo it it puts tremendous demands on
  • 01:01:57
    the water
  • 01:01:58
    supply Colorado River then Colorado
  • 01:02:02
    River
  • 01:02:03
    now this is the ARL Sea in Russia um
  • 01:02:06
    Russia was uh this sea was formerly fed
  • 01:02:09
    by Two Rivers uh that the Soviet Union
  • 01:02:12
    decided to to divert to uh for
  • 01:02:15
    irrigation for cotton crops and the the
  • 01:02:19
    Aral Sea which was the I think the
  • 01:02:21
    second or third largest Inland sea in
  • 01:02:23
    the world dried up and as the shoreline
  • 01:02:26
    receded the fishermen dug this canal
  • 01:02:29
    desperately to try and be able to get
  • 01:02:30
    their boats back to port and back out to
  • 01:02:33
    the Sea and eventually uh they lost the
  • 01:02:35
    battle so you have this bizarre uh shot
  • 01:02:38
    of ships in an apparent desert uh which
  • 01:02:42
    was once a great sea again with um in
  • 01:02:46
    the old days this is how we used
  • 01:02:48
    fire uh this is what we're doing
  • 01:02:52
    today there's a great story about this
  • 01:02:54
    shop we were looking at this in the
  • 01:02:55
    presentation and one of our
  • 01:02:57
    co-presenters Peter Corbin saw this shot
  • 01:02:59
    and he said that looks familiar to me
  • 01:03:01
    and then he realized that he actually
  • 01:03:02
    used to live in one of these houses and
  • 01:03:05
    his father actually helped build these
  • 01:03:07
    uh plants apparently he's now moved on
  • 01:03:09
    to Nuclear So
  • 01:03:11
    Peter little embarrassed about it but uh
  • 01:03:14
    this is at Celler fields in Britain it's
  • 01:03:16
    a huge Coal Fired power
  • 01:03:20
    station and this is again a great night
  • 01:03:22
    shot you can see what's going on at
  • 01:03:24
    night how many lights have being lit
  • 01:03:26
    tremendous amount of energy being used
  • 01:03:28
    to uh light all these lights up every
  • 01:03:32
    night this is a great slide this
  • 01:03:34
    actually shows you it's a sort of
  • 01:03:36
    computer generated slide where we've
  • 01:03:38
    expanded I'll play it over again we've
  • 01:03:40
    expanded the uh continents to show their
  • 01:03:44
    relative impact on global warming so of
  • 01:03:47
    course not
  • 01:03:48
    surprisingly uh the US is uh is a bad
  • 01:03:52
    culprit um this is what it looks like
  • 01:03:56
    per
  • 01:03:58
    region in terms of carbon dioxide
  • 01:04:00
    emissions the US of course is the
  • 01:04:03
    greatest um but we really shouldn't feel
  • 01:04:06
    smug in Canada because uh when you look
  • 01:04:08
    at it on a per person
  • 01:04:10
    basis this is what it looks like and in
  • 01:04:15
    Canada we're actually just as bad as the
  • 01:04:19
    us so we really need to do something
  • 01:04:22
    about this in Canada
  • 01:04:27
    that's the average for the world so
  • 01:04:28
    we're way way way above
  • 01:04:30
    average again this is a a great slide
  • 01:04:33
    that shows Regional greenhouse gas gas
  • 01:04:35
    emissions by province I was a bit this
  • 01:04:37
    is a projected growth so this isn't an
  • 01:04:40
    absolute number this is the projected
  • 01:04:42
    growth of greenhouse gas emissions by
  • 01:04:44
    province and I was surprised to see that
  • 01:04:47
    BC uh has as high a projected growth as
  • 01:04:49
    it does but it's apparently because of
  • 01:04:51
    oil and the various other things and of
  • 01:04:53
    course you know now with the uh the pine
  • 01:04:55
    be
  • 01:04:56
    uh um it's actually could even be worse
  • 01:04:59
    than
  • 01:05:02
    that Canada increasing 26% it's just not
  • 01:05:05
    good enough I mean the Kyoto targets
  • 01:05:07
    were measly to start with and we're not
  • 01:05:08
    even Meeting those and I'll talk a
  • 01:05:11
    little bit about that in a minute um
  • 01:05:14
    grass emissions by province of course
  • 01:05:16
    Alberta is the worst and the biggest
  • 01:05:18
    offender of course is the tarand project
  • 01:05:21
    now when we were being trained with Al
  • 01:05:23
    Gore he was he was much more
  • 01:05:26
    open about this issue in private than he
  • 01:05:28
    would would be in public because it's a
  • 01:05:30
    it's a bad it's a political uh issue but
  • 01:05:33
    the tarand is a disgraceful uh you we
  • 01:05:36
    can't put in any other way it's a
  • 01:05:37
    disgraceful
  • 01:05:38
    exploitation uh uh of uh of uh of the uh
  • 01:05:43
    of the resource and uh they're
  • 01:05:45
    disgracefully damaging the environment
  • 01:05:48
    in Alberta and something really needs to
  • 01:05:49
    be stopped here are some s taran's facts
  • 01:05:52
    that I dug up I'm just in the middle of
  • 01:05:53
    reading a great book uh by Andrew Nicor
  • 01:05:57
    that I'll show you later about the
  • 01:05:58
    tarand but um one barrel of oil or its
  • 01:06:01
    equivalent produces 20 to 60 barrels of
  • 01:06:04
    conventional oil in the tar Sands it
  • 01:06:08
    only produces four to five barrels of
  • 01:06:10
    bitumin so the tarand is a highly highly
  • 01:06:13
    inefficient way of trying to get
  • 01:06:15
    oil uh here's a Sy the syr mine in in
  • 01:06:19
    Alberta uh every barrel of Taran bitumin
  • 01:06:22
    creates three times as much carbon
  • 01:06:24
    dioxide as it convention Barrel a barrel
  • 01:06:26
    of conventional
  • 01:06:29
    oil and it uses three barrels of water
  • 01:06:32
    which ends up in tailor ponds it
  • 01:06:33
    actually uses about 13 barrels of water
  • 01:06:36
    from the Athabasca river which is one of
  • 01:06:37
    the greatest watersheds and most
  • 01:06:39
    important watersheds in the in the world
  • 01:06:41
    we're draining 13 barrels of water out
  • 01:06:43
    of it to make every single barrel uh of
  • 01:06:47
    uh of of oil of ban and three of those
  • 01:06:51
    barrels end up getting dumped in these
  • 01:06:53
    horrendous tailing ponds that are so big
  • 01:06:55
    that you can actually see them from
  • 01:06:57
    space um and there was recently a um a
  • 01:07:00
    situation where a flight of ducks
  • 01:07:02
    because they can't tell the difference
  • 01:07:03
    landing on the tailing spawns 500 Ducks
  • 01:07:05
    died and in fact every year thousands
  • 01:07:07
    and thousands of ducks and um and water
  • 01:07:10
    foul die by accidentally landing on
  • 01:07:13
    these uh tailing sponds thinking they're
  • 01:07:15
    Lakes um just a few more facts uh oil
  • 01:07:19
    and gas destined for the US accounted
  • 01:07:22
    for a third of our increase in
  • 01:07:24
    greenhouse gas
  • 01:07:26
    uh this was from Canada's environment
  • 01:07:29
    commissioner now that's approximately
  • 01:07:32
    the same amount by which Canada failed
  • 01:07:34
    to meet its Kyoto targets so this oil
  • 01:07:36
    and gas that we're digging up damaging
  • 01:07:38
    the environment ruining our ability to
  • 01:07:41
    meet kyot targets we're not even using
  • 01:07:43
    it we're actually importing oil and gas
  • 01:07:46
    uh it's going to the United States now
  • 01:07:48
    when youan gelinas wrote a fairly
  • 01:07:51
    scaling report on this of course she was
  • 01:07:53
    immediately fired uh as you would expect
  • 01:07:57
    and uh that was the end of her so you
  • 01:08:00
    know this is what a tailing pond looks
  • 01:08:02
    like it's absolutely horrific it's
  • 01:08:04
    horrendous these things are miles wide
  • 01:08:07
    uh they originally thought that the clay
  • 01:08:09
    would settle out fairly quickly that the
  • 01:08:11
    mixt they put a mixture sort of clay and
  • 01:08:14
    oil and heavy metals and general nasty
  • 01:08:16
    Gunk into the pond they originally
  • 01:08:18
    thought that the clay would settle out
  • 01:08:19
    and they'd be able to clean it all up uh
  • 01:08:21
    they've now concluded that they were
  • 01:08:23
    wrong and they think it's going to take
  • 01:08:24
    a thousand years for the clay to settle
  • 01:08:27
    out of these tailing ponds so these are
  • 01:08:28
    just at
  • 01:08:29
    carbunkle uh uh on the face of a
  • 01:08:32
    landscape in Alberta what's even worse
  • 01:08:34
    is they're digging up Pete bogs and
  • 01:08:37
    boreal forests which are huge carbon
  • 01:08:40
    sinks and absorbers of carbon and
  • 01:08:42
    replacing them with h this so it's just
  • 01:08:45
    a it's got to stop I mean it's just a
  • 01:08:47
    disgraceful uh situation uh the Alberta
  • 01:08:50
    Government is completely out of control
  • 01:08:52
    on this issue they're holding security
  • 01:08:54
    deposits of $5,000 an acre uh uh for
  • 01:08:57
    from people if they want to if they want
  • 01:08:59
    to mine the tar Sands uh the only area
  • 01:09:01
    that's ever been cleaned up and it
  • 01:09:04
    didn't even have a tailings pond cost
  • 01:09:06
    46,000 bucks an acre so you can see
  • 01:09:08
    where this is going uh you know also you
  • 01:09:11
    know we're burning huge amounts of
  • 01:09:13
    natural gas I mean this is what's so
  • 01:09:15
    nutty some people say it's like burning
  • 01:09:16
    a Picasso to heat your house they're
  • 01:09:18
    burning huge amounts of natural gas to
  • 01:09:20
    get this very very dirty oil out of the
  • 01:09:23
    ground we know that there isn't enough
  • 01:09:25
    natural gas available we have used up
  • 01:09:28
    all the natural gas long time before all
  • 01:09:29
    the oil sands have been dug up out of
  • 01:09:31
    the ground so now they're saying oh well
  • 01:09:32
    no problem we'll just put a bunch of
  • 01:09:33
    nuclear plants up there you know to
  • 01:09:36
    solve the problem so this has got to
  • 01:09:37
    stop it's completely uh completely out
  • 01:09:39
    of control and it's a disgrace for
  • 01:09:42
    Canada so we really need to change our
  • 01:09:44
    way of thinking and this is a great
  • 01:09:46
    graphic that Al Gore used in the movie
  • 01:09:48
    here's the Frog turns out if a frog
  • 01:09:51
    jumps into a pot of boiling water he
  • 01:09:53
    immediately jumps out again
  • 01:09:56
    but if you put that frog into a pot of
  • 01:09:58
    cool water and heat it up he sits there
  • 01:10:01
    and waits and waits and waits and waits
  • 01:10:04
    and
  • 01:10:06
    waits until he's rescued because you
  • 01:10:09
    have to look after the Frog there he
  • 01:10:12
    is so here are some misconceptions um is
  • 01:10:16
    there disagreement among scientists
  • 01:10:17
    about whether the problem is real or not
  • 01:10:19
    no there is not uh uh there is not uh
  • 01:10:24
    the debate's completely completely over
  • 01:10:26
    uh everybody agrees that this is a
  • 01:10:28
    problem even George Bush laterally
  • 01:10:31
    agreed that this was finally an issue
  • 01:10:32
    and I was running out of time in in
  • 01:10:34
    office uh it's the strongest consensus
  • 01:10:37
    that's ever
  • 01:10:39
    developed uh you know we've badly
  • 01:10:41
    underestimated the degree of damage from
  • 01:10:43
    the risks of climate
  • 01:10:45
    change um and everybody has to do
  • 01:10:47
    something about this particularly in
  • 01:10:49
    Canada we really really need to get on
  • 01:10:51
    the on the case here in Canada and deal
  • 01:10:53
    with
  • 01:10:54
    this has a great stat the number of
  • 01:10:56
    scientific studies dealing with climate
  • 01:10:58
    change uh published in scientific
  • 01:11:00
    journals over the previous 10 years it's
  • 01:11:01
    more than that now this was from uh
  • 01:11:04
    2004 um the number
  • 01:11:07
    disagreeing uh they did a sample the
  • 01:11:09
    number that disagreed with the global
  • 01:11:12
    consensus that greenhouse gas pollution
  • 01:11:14
    has caused most of the global warming
  • 01:11:16
    zero not one so there's this is not
  • 01:11:20
    something that's in dispute there are
  • 01:11:22
    some great sites on the internet so if
  • 01:11:24
    any of you run into skep ICS who say
  • 01:11:26
    well yeah what about this and what about
  • 01:11:28
    that I won get maybe we can get into if
  • 01:11:29
    we have time for questions but there are
  • 01:11:31
    some great sites on the internet that go
  • 01:11:33
    through hi Amber I can see at the back
  • 01:11:35
    there that go through uh some of these
  • 01:11:38
    things and uh you can find out a lot of
  • 01:11:40
    the answers to those
  • 01:11:42
    questions um this was a great uh uh uh
  • 01:11:46
    of course this is L thankfully we're
  • 01:11:48
    hoping with Barack Obama in the White
  • 01:11:50
    House this is all going to become
  • 01:11:51
    something we don't need to worry about
  • 01:11:53
    but uh the Bush Administration as we we
  • 01:11:55
    all know behav disgracefully on this
  • 01:11:57
    whole issue and this was something that
  • 01:11:59
    the uh tobacco industry did more doctors
  • 01:12:02
    smok camels so uh when you listen to
  • 01:12:04
    guys like James enoff the ridiculous
  • 01:12:07
    senator from I'm not sure where he's
  • 01:12:09
    from talking about global warming these
  • 01:12:10
    guys are dinosaurs and uh luckily I
  • 01:12:13
    think they're all going to be gone
  • 01:12:14
    mostly gone or at least out of power
  • 01:12:16
    fairly soon so in fact what's happening
  • 01:12:19
    is that what the Bush Administration was
  • 01:12:20
    doing is they were going from the old
  • 01:12:21
    tobacco industry Playbook and uh uh they
  • 01:12:25
    were actually fairly successful again uh
  • 01:12:29
    number of reviewed scientific articles
  • 01:12:30
    number that said there was a doubt zero
  • 01:12:34
    but if you look at the
  • 01:12:35
    media you know when you get CNN saying
  • 01:12:38
    we've got somebody for we've got
  • 01:12:39
    somebody against it's almost uh evenly
  • 01:12:42
    divided so the media is very good at
  • 01:12:45
    taking a ridiculous position and a
  • 01:12:47
    sensible position a ridiculous position
  • 01:12:49
    that almost nobody believes in a
  • 01:12:51
    sensible position that almost everybody
  • 01:12:52
    believes in and they put two people and
  • 01:12:54
    give them equal time well the public see
  • 01:12:56
    this and they think well this is this
  • 01:12:58
    seems like sort of even you know so
  • 01:12:59
    maybe you do maybe you don't Point
  • 01:13:01
    Counterpoint well you know and it's
  • 01:13:03
    really misled uh the
  • 01:13:06
    public uh when they're interviewed so
  • 01:13:08
    it's no wonder that people are confused
  • 01:13:10
    by this this is a great saying by Upton
  • 01:13:12
    Sinclair it's difficult to get a man to
  • 01:13:14
    understand something when his salary
  • 01:13:15
    depends upon his not understanding it
  • 01:13:17
    you know George Bush put a former oil
  • 01:13:20
    lobbyist in charge of the environment I
  • 01:13:22
    mean how ridiculous it's it's an insult
  • 01:13:24
    to to everybody's
  • 01:13:26
    intelligence um do we have to choose
  • 01:13:29
    between the economy and the environment
  • 01:13:30
    of course we don't uh this is a great
  • 01:13:33
    slide from the Geniuses at the uh press
  • 01:13:35
    office in the white house uh this slide
  • 01:13:37
    down here in particular uh from a press
  • 01:13:39
    briefing it's sort of a funny one and Al
  • 01:13:41
    Gore talks about it in the movie where
  • 01:13:43
    they've got this uh balance you know
  • 01:13:45
    with gold bars on one side and the
  • 01:13:47
    planet you know it's pretty tricky
  • 01:13:49
    decision here we need somebody with a
  • 01:13:51
    clipboard to figure it all out and take
  • 01:13:53
    notes it's a ridiculous uh argument of
  • 01:13:56
    course it's a completely ridiculous
  • 01:13:57
    argument and in fact as we're now
  • 01:13:59
    discovering uh you know the green
  • 01:14:01
    economy is really where we need to go um
  • 01:14:04
    you know we're all hearing a lot on the
  • 01:14:06
    uh news right now about General Motors
  • 01:14:08
    and Ford and the big three automakers
  • 01:14:09
    going bust um this is part of the
  • 01:14:12
    problem right here here are the few
  • 01:14:15
    economy standards uh around the world
  • 01:14:18
    there's Canada here's the US pathetic
  • 01:14:21
    you know these and this is driving the
  • 01:14:22
    car companies this is the oil Lobby
  • 01:14:24
    causing the
  • 01:14:26
    California uh tried to enact an
  • 01:14:30
    amendment uh this is China
  • 01:14:32
    incidentally
  • 01:14:34
    uh to increase uh the uh mile per gallon
  • 01:14:40
    requirements of cars the oil companies
  • 01:14:42
    fought this in court because it was
  • 01:14:44
    obviously they said a completely
  • 01:14:45
    ridiculously high uh objective that uh
  • 01:14:49
    you know we would have to Within by 2016
  • 01:14:52
    make cars that are not quite as good as
  • 01:14:54
    the cars that China makes today
  • 01:14:56
    obviously that's completely ridiculous
  • 01:14:58
    and unachievable well it it's absurd I
  • 01:15:01
    mean uh GM were talking recently I mean
  • 01:15:05
    as recently as a few years ago the the
  • 01:15:07
    president of GM was saying that he
  • 01:15:08
    thought hybrid cars were a silly idea
  • 01:15:10
    you know um this has got to stop and the
  • 01:15:14
    result is it's going to the market
  • 01:15:15
    forces are going to take care of it
  • 01:15:17
    because um these companies are simply
  • 01:15:18
    going to go out of business if they
  • 01:15:20
    don't change their
  • 01:15:23
    ways and you know generally speaking
  • 01:15:26
    we'll skip through these but generally
  • 01:15:28
    speaking U the CEOs and chairmans of big
  • 01:15:31
    companies are getting it they're now
  • 01:15:32
    starting to realize that uh you know a
  • 01:15:34
    green economy actually is a good thing
  • 01:15:37
    and uh uh you know it's going to be
  • 01:15:40
    something that we have to do I think
  • 01:15:41
    it's probably going to be the creator of
  • 01:15:43
    the the biggest creator of jobs um in
  • 01:15:45
    the latter part of this
  • 01:15:47
    Century so the other problem that people
  • 01:15:49
    say is well oh you this is so big I
  • 01:15:51
    don't think we can even fix this anyway
  • 01:15:53
    so uh it's just disaster well it turns
  • 01:15:56
    out that's completely wrong the good
  • 01:15:59
    news about this whole problem is that we
  • 01:16:01
    already have all of the technology that
  • 01:16:03
    we need to fix this problem today we can
  • 01:16:06
    do we have everything that we need uh
  • 01:16:08
    with the wind farms uh with
  • 01:16:11
    solar uh Al Gore used a came up with a
  • 01:16:14
    great stat that I thought was really
  • 01:16:17
    really really wonderful he said that if
  • 01:16:18
    you uh if you made a solar Field 100
  • 01:16:21
    miles by 100 miles and stuck it in the
  • 01:16:23
    desert somewhere where the the sunshines
  • 01:16:26
    that would create enough electricity to
  • 01:16:28
    power
  • 01:16:29
    America so that's not very big you know
  • 01:16:31
    I often fly down to LA and Las Vegas for
  • 01:16:34
    trade shows and so forth and when you
  • 01:16:35
    look out of the window of the airplane
  • 01:16:37
    you can see vast
  • 01:16:39
    areas uh of gravel where the Sun's
  • 01:16:41
    shining all day long with no people in
  • 01:16:43
    them so if we were to start building
  • 01:16:45
    these solar Fields um it would we could
  • 01:16:48
    fix the problem we have the and it would
  • 01:16:50
    create huge numbers of jobs so this is
  • 01:16:53
    this again is not rocket science we
  • 01:16:54
    don't need to invent uh uh nuclear
  • 01:16:58
    fusion or or cold fusion or anything
  • 01:17:00
    like that we can do it this way I mean
  • 01:17:02
    and we've got all the technology to do
  • 01:17:03
    it we can create jobs doing it uh and
  • 01:17:06
    it's it's absolutely
  • 01:17:08
    flexible so this is uh this is where we
  • 01:17:11
    need to get
  • 01:17:12
    to again this slide is pretty
  • 01:17:14
    self-explanatory it's the Renewable
  • 01:17:16
    Energy Future and you can see that um uh
  • 01:17:19
    this is where we're at
  • 01:17:22
    today um
  • 01:17:25
    here's how we can reduce it by uh having
  • 01:17:29
    some uh electricity end use efficiency
  • 01:17:31
    things like little things like turning
  • 01:17:33
    your thermostat down a bit if you have
  • 01:17:35
    electric heat unplugging appliances that
  • 01:17:38
    are drawing power a lot of appliances
  • 01:17:41
    TVs for example anything with a remote
  • 01:17:43
    control draws electricity all the time
  • 01:17:45
    even when it's turned off so if you
  • 01:17:46
    start unplugging those or stick them in
  • 01:17:48
    a power bar and just switch them off
  • 01:17:49
    when you're not using them uh
  • 01:17:51
    transmission if we changed out swapped
  • 01:17:53
    out the transmission grid to to more
  • 01:17:55
    efficient transmission lines we could
  • 01:17:56
    get a tremendous amount of uh efficiency
  • 01:17:58
    increased efficiency uh in in
  • 01:18:01
    electricity and
  • 01:18:03
    use uh we can reduce it this much uh
  • 01:18:07
    going to better passenger vehicles just
  • 01:18:10
    you can still have gas powered cars but
  • 01:18:12
    make them be little cars instead of big
  • 01:18:14
    cars something you really notice in
  • 01:18:16
    Europe is everybody drives smaller cars
  • 01:18:18
    even here in Canada you really see it
  • 01:18:20
    everybody's driving around in little
  • 01:18:21
    tiny cars in in in Europe a lot of them
  • 01:18:24
    I stood on the street corner where my
  • 01:18:26
    mom and dad live in Southern England I
  • 01:18:27
    was watching the cars go by and it
  • 01:18:30
    seemed like about a third of the cars
  • 01:18:32
    were not only little they were diesel
  • 01:18:34
    powered where you get double the fuel
  • 01:18:35
    economy so we need to just start doing
  • 01:18:37
    that sort of thing more particularly in
  • 01:18:39
    America in the US they need to do it
  • 01:18:41
    again the other Transportation
  • 01:18:44
    efficiencies uh renewable energy of
  • 01:18:46
    course solar wind uh geothermal and so
  • 01:18:49
    on and we're back down to where we need
  • 01:18:51
    to be we're back down here when we were
  • 01:18:53
    in the 70s so we can EAS get there just
  • 01:18:55
    by doing these things and if we did some
  • 01:18:58
    grander things like the solar field idea
  • 01:19:00
    it would make a massive massive
  • 01:19:02
    difference carbon capture and
  • 01:19:04
    sequestration and Supply efficiencies
  • 01:19:06
    even more there are some issues around
  • 01:19:08
    carbon capture and sequestration that we
  • 01:19:09
    can talk about later it's not quite as
  • 01:19:11
    clear that uh it's as benign as some
  • 01:19:14
    people might think so but still there
  • 01:19:16
    are things that can be
  • 01:19:18
    done so now the question is uh you know
  • 01:19:21
    what can you do well there's here's a
  • 01:19:22
    bunch of
  • 01:19:23
    ideas and you can can save energy at
  • 01:19:25
    home um you can switch to uh energy
  • 01:19:28
    efficient light bulbs uh we did our
  • 01:19:30
    whole house in westbound with these
  • 01:19:32
    bulbs and it's it's great the new ones
  • 01:19:34
    have exactly the same light quality as a
  • 01:19:36
    regular the old you know when they first
  • 01:19:38
    came out it you looked like you were in
  • 01:19:39
    a sort of La laundromat you know when
  • 01:19:42
    you put them on the new ones aren't like
  • 01:19:44
    that they're actually really quite good
  • 01:19:45
    so you can you can switch off the lights
  • 01:19:48
    when you leave the room that's a real
  • 01:19:49
    simple solution uh trying to get that
  • 01:19:51
    done in our house is a little tricky but
  • 01:19:53
    uh uh I now go around I just I'm
  • 01:19:56
    constantly turning the lights off
  • 01:19:57
    because we've got lights burning in all
  • 01:19:58
    sorts of rooms with no people in them
  • 01:20:00
    you know so that's a really simple thing
  • 01:20:02
    that you can do and it'll make a big
  • 01:20:03
    difference um you can um take shorter
  • 01:20:07
    showers something I'm learning learning
  • 01:20:10
    to do with my my wife's insistance you
  • 01:20:13
    can if you want to if you're really
  • 01:20:14
    fancy you can buy one of these new uh
  • 01:20:16
    fancy shower heads where less water
  • 01:20:18
    squirts up but you still get a decent
  • 01:20:20
    shower um again um simple things you can
  • 01:20:24
    buy energy star appliances so whenever
  • 01:20:26
    you buy a fridge or dishwasher make sure
  • 01:20:28
    it's an energy star Appliance we're just
  • 01:20:30
    in the process of switching out our
  • 01:20:31
    furnace at home we've got an Old Furnace
  • 01:20:33
    that isn't actually broken but I want to
  • 01:20:36
    get a new one and we're going to switch
  • 01:20:37
    it to a new energy star efficient
  • 01:20:38
    furnace and it's it's I'm told it's
  • 01:20:40
    going to be almost 40% more efficient
  • 01:20:42
    than the original furnace because our
  • 01:20:44
    furnace is about 20 years old so that's
  • 01:20:46
    something it's expensive but it's
  • 01:20:47
    something that you you can do and it'll
  • 01:20:48
    make a big difference if you have a
  • 01:20:50
    house um uh other things that you can do
  • 01:20:53
    I talked about this you can reduce
  • 01:20:55
    standby power waste unplug those things
  • 01:20:57
    that anything that has a remote when
  • 01:20:59
    it's off it's still on so you need to to
  • 01:21:02
    to some extent so you need to unplug
  • 01:21:04
    them to reduce standby power waste uh
  • 01:21:06
    you can buy a more efficient vehicle um
  • 01:21:09
    you know if you can't afford to do that
  • 01:21:11
    you can just buy a Caron offset for the
  • 01:21:13
    one you've already got I've done that on
  • 01:21:15
    my car I drive a mini and my wife
  • 01:21:17
    unfortunately drives a much larger car
  • 01:21:19
    she'd rather have a she wants a hybrid
  • 01:21:20
    but we can't afford it right now but
  • 01:21:22
    what I have done is I've offset all the
  • 01:21:23
    cars
  • 01:21:25
    um so you can actually go to a place
  • 01:21:26
    called Terra pass and you buy an offset
  • 01:21:30
    where you actually you actually pay
  • 01:21:31
    money you go to the website and it asks
  • 01:21:33
    you how what sort of car you have and
  • 01:21:35
    how many miles you you drive a year and
  • 01:21:37
    it calculates the amount of gas that you
  • 01:21:39
    would use and then you can actually buy
  • 01:21:41
    uh a carbon offset uh for that car uh I
  • 01:21:44
    think this is a really really great idea
  • 01:21:46
    because if you just sell your car and
  • 01:21:49
    buy a more efficient one that car is not
  • 01:21:51
    going to go into a scrap Heap unless
  • 01:21:53
    it's a really old car somebody else is
  • 01:21:54
    going to just start driving it just like
  • 01:21:56
    you were so I I think there's a lot to
  • 01:21:59
    be said for not selling the car and and
  • 01:22:04
    buying a h and buying a hybrid it's
  • 01:22:06
    expensive to do anyway hybrids are great
  • 01:22:07
    don't get me wrong but it's expensive to
  • 01:22:09
    do that there's a lot to be sent for
  • 01:22:11
    just offsetting the car that you already
  • 01:22:12
    have make sure it's maintained properly
  • 01:22:14
    pump the tires up a little bit more uh
  • 01:22:17
    you know everybody laughed at marack
  • 01:22:18
    Obama at least the Republicans did when
  • 01:22:20
    he told people to pump their tires up
  • 01:22:21
    well it turns out it makes a it does
  • 01:22:22
    make a difference and if everybody did
  • 01:22:24
    it it would would make a difference it's
  • 01:22:25
    it's good science so there are things
  • 01:22:27
    that you can do these Terra pass things
  • 01:22:30
    are surprisingly inexpensive I think my
  • 01:22:33
    mini was like 60 bucks for the whole
  • 01:22:36
    year or something so and essentially
  • 01:22:38
    what happens is when you buy the carbon
  • 01:22:40
    uh uh crit the carbon offset um that
  • 01:22:44
    money goes to uh uh renewable energy
  • 01:22:47
    planting trees and so on so you're still
  • 01:22:49
    creating the carbon dioxide but you've
  • 01:22:51
    actually paid money to offset it so I
  • 01:22:53
    think it's a really great thing to
  • 01:22:55
    consider um obviously use mass transit
  • 01:22:59
    you know the mass transit is getting
  • 01:23:00
    better and better now in Vancouver with
  • 01:23:02
    the new line to the airport and um in a
  • 01:23:04
    lot of cities in the world where I come
  • 01:23:06
    from in London everybody uses mass
  • 01:23:08
    transit all the time I mean you know uh
  • 01:23:10
    I I have a pal in New York I was talking
  • 01:23:12
    to him about cars and his eyes were
  • 01:23:14
    glazing
  • 01:23:15
    over and uh and he said to me well
  • 01:23:17
    actually I don't drive and I I thought
  • 01:23:20
    what and he said well I've never I just
  • 01:23:23
    never bothered you know and a lot of
  • 01:23:25
    people you don't so you know use public
  • 01:23:27
    he just used public transit all his life
  • 01:23:31
    um so that's something that can be done
  • 01:23:33
    uh fly less flying is a night I fly far
  • 01:23:36
    more than I would like I'm flying a lot
  • 01:23:38
    less now um you know and I I say to I
  • 01:23:41
    say to guys who are in business like me
  • 01:23:43
    you know everybody's quick to jump on a
  • 01:23:45
    plane and fly across hell's off acre to
  • 01:23:47
    do a meeting often times if you just do
  • 01:23:50
    a conference call you can use Free
  • 01:23:51
    Conference it's even free you can use a
  • 01:23:54
    you you don't need to go you know if you
  • 01:23:56
    get yourself a good conference phone
  • 01:23:58
    eliminate the flight it's less wear and
  • 01:24:00
    tear on you and much less wear and tear
  • 01:24:01
    on the
  • 01:24:02
    environment uh frivolous flying is I got
  • 01:24:05
    a real problem with I won't get into it
  • 01:24:07
    now but I call it frivolous flying where
  • 01:24:09
    people are just flying all over the
  • 01:24:10
    place uh there's so much to see just
  • 01:24:14
    right here in BC you really don't need
  • 01:24:15
    to go anywhere I you know I know a lot
  • 01:24:17
    of people do want to travel and I did
  • 01:24:19
    when I was in my 20s too but there's so
  • 01:24:22
    much to see just around here so try fly
  • 01:24:24
    less uh and it's really all about this
  • 01:24:27
    uh I talked about buying offsets already
  • 01:24:29
    another this is a this is actually my
  • 01:24:31
    grandfather's Kettle so my mother says
  • 01:24:35
    this is a good English saying she says
  • 01:24:37
    buite cheap and you'll buy twice so buy
  • 01:24:40
    stuff that's good and make it last this
  • 01:24:43
    Kettle was actually his father's Kettle
  • 01:24:46
    and for a while it was buried in the
  • 01:24:47
    garden and used it as an antenna for his
  • 01:24:49
    radio right and it still works and I
  • 01:24:53
    polish it we have't front of our
  • 01:24:54
    fireplace but it actually works
  • 01:24:55
    perfectly so if you buy something of
  • 01:24:57
    quality it it it just buy less stuff buy
  • 01:25:00
    good stuff so it'll last you and you
  • 01:25:03
    know this renew just constantly buying
  • 01:25:05
    stuff and chucking it out and buying
  • 01:25:06
    again chucking it out buying again don't
  • 01:25:09
    do that this is a much better
  • 01:25:11
    idea uh actually uh eat less meat it
  • 01:25:14
    turns out that um uh creating protein in
  • 01:25:18
    animals uses creates way way more damage
  • 01:25:21
    on the environment than if you ate
  • 01:25:23
    vegetables so we're not saying don't eat
  • 01:25:24
    eat meat we're not saying everybody
  • 01:25:25
    become a vegan or a vegetarian but just
  • 01:25:28
    eat a little bit less meat and more
  • 01:25:30
    vegetables and that's good for the
  • 01:25:32
    environment U buy Goods that are made
  • 01:25:34
    locally as well you know again uh buy BC
  • 01:25:39
    cucumbers not the ones that are made
  • 01:25:40
    that come from Mexico because there's a
  • 01:25:42
    huge amount of fuel used so just take a
  • 01:25:44
    little bit of time when you're in the
  • 01:25:45
    shops and just say Okay I want to buy
  • 01:25:47
    it's good for our economy and it's good
  • 01:25:49
    for the
  • 01:25:51
    environment composting we've got one of
  • 01:25:53
    these in our garden is great to do I
  • 01:25:55
    don't don't know if any of you have
  • 01:25:56
    Gardens but composting is a great thing
  • 01:25:58
    to do it's great for the garden and it's
  • 01:25:59
    uh less stress on
  • 01:26:03
    landfills having said all of that if we
  • 01:26:05
    do everything that we can do we can
  • 01:26:07
    really only impact on about a third of
  • 01:26:09
    the problem as individuals and as Al
  • 01:26:11
    Gore says big problems uh need big
  • 01:26:13
    Solutions so really the most important
  • 01:26:16
    thing uh is we have to make sure that
  • 01:26:18
    people we electing to government are
  • 01:26:20
    doing the right thing because they have
  • 01:26:21
    the biggest impact U on what we do um
  • 01:26:24
    and it's just essential um that we uh
  • 01:26:28
    are individually each one of us is
  • 01:26:30
    really a catalyst for change um part of
  • 01:26:32
    the reason that I'm here doing this
  • 01:26:33
    talking to you I'm hoping you'll go and
  • 01:26:35
    talk to other people and I'm hoping that
  • 01:26:37
    some of you maybe will even know another
  • 01:26:39
    group that you can get me a gig to go
  • 01:26:41
    and talk to as well everybody needs to
  • 01:26:43
    talk to everybody else and and just get
  • 01:26:45
    the awareness up that's what this
  • 01:26:47
    presentation is really all about it's
  • 01:26:48
    just raising people's level of awareness
  • 01:26:51
    uh to the problem you've got to take
  • 01:26:53
    political action
  • 01:26:54
    we've got to have people running this
  • 01:26:56
    country who get it and the current group
  • 01:26:58
    don't get it they they're Rel I mean I
  • 01:27:00
    think with Barack Obama being elected
  • 01:27:02
    into the US they're starting to have to
  • 01:27:03
    move a little bit more his way and I
  • 01:27:05
    think he's going to do the right thing
  • 01:27:07
    but the current gang don't get it the
  • 01:27:09
    Alberta taran's project is a is a a
  • 01:27:12
    stark example of how badly they don't
  • 01:27:14
    get it so uh we need to make sure that
  • 01:27:17
    um people that you should
  • 01:27:20
    vote for people who are going to do the
  • 01:27:22
    right thing but you also need to speak
  • 01:27:23
    out and get other people voting for
  • 01:27:25
    people who are going to do the right
  • 01:27:26
    thing uh here's everybody who ratified
  • 01:27:28
    Kyoto and Steven Harper was even talking
  • 01:27:31
    at one point in time about
  • 01:27:33
    unratified it although we've made a
  • 01:27:35
    pathetic attempt at trying to meet our
  • 01:27:37
    targets uh was not ratified by the US
  • 01:27:40
    and Australia Australia had an election
  • 01:27:44
    uh they're on board and now it looks
  • 01:27:46
    like the us is going to hopefully get on
  • 01:27:49
    board as well with Barack Obama in
  • 01:27:51
    charge we can only hope we need to make
  • 01:27:52
    sure that we do our part though and
  • 01:27:54
    Canada uh locally we're doing pretty
  • 01:27:57
    well with all of these municipalities on
  • 01:27:59
    board uh federally not so good but
  • 01:28:02
    locally the will is
  • 01:28:06
    there you know so and I won't again we
  • 01:28:09
    won't belab this but the point here is
  • 01:28:10
    this is supposed to be a sort of an
  • 01:28:12
    inspirational slide where we're saying
  • 01:28:13
    look we've done all this other stuff
  • 01:28:15
    let's fix this problem and it absolutely
  • 01:28:17
    is something that we can
  • 01:28:19
    fix
  • 01:28:21
    um it's just an issue of will it's not
  • 01:28:23
    an issue of Technology it's simply an
  • 01:28:26
    issue of will nothing more or less than
  • 01:28:29
    that again uh you know some big changes
  • 01:28:33
    have have occurred as a result of
  • 01:28:36
    effort we'll skip through these very
  • 01:28:38
    very quickly a man on the moon if we can
  • 01:28:40
    do that we can surely uh fix this
  • 01:28:42
    problem uh the CFC the whole in the
  • 01:28:44
    ozone uh was an enormous problem many
  • 01:28:47
    people thought it was
  • 01:28:48
    unfixable um now uh as a result of um uh
  • 01:28:53
    of effort that have been made there's
  • 01:28:55
    been a tremendous success story and
  • 01:28:58
    chlorofluorocarbon uh production has
  • 01:29:00
    dropped dramatically and we're well on
  • 01:29:03
    the way to fixing the
  • 01:29:07
    problem so uh this is the um this is
  • 01:29:11
    really the uh the point
  • 01:29:14
    here this is a great shot here um if I
  • 01:29:17
    can play it of um again this was taken
  • 01:29:21
    by the Galileo spacecraft as it was uh
  • 01:29:24
    heading out into space Carl San said
  • 01:29:26
    turn the cameras around let's get one uh
  • 01:29:28
    one more shot and then later on when it
  • 01:29:30
    was I think 45 million miles out in
  • 01:29:33
    space he took this shot back pointed the
  • 01:29:35
    cameras just before it went out of range
  • 01:29:36
    back at Earth and there we are here this
  • 01:29:38
    is the car San's famous famous pale blue
  • 01:29:42
    dot and uh there's a lot of space around
  • 01:29:45
    us that's our home it's our only home
  • 01:29:48
    and we got to do our best to look after
  • 01:29:50
    it it's absolutely critical
  • 01:29:55
    so that's really it what I'd like to do
  • 01:29:56
    now is um take any questions and Amber
  • 01:29:59
    church is here Amber why did you come up
  • 01:30:01
    so Amber is a probably would have been
  • 01:30:04
    better if she'd given the presentation
  • 01:30:05
    but anyway you got me instead but
  • 01:30:08
    Amber's here as well Amber is uh was
  • 01:30:10
    also trained by alore in Montreal and uh
  • 01:30:14
    what are you now you're studying uh
  • 01:30:16
    glaciers what did I got it wrong right
  • 01:30:18
    so um I'm a master student here at SFU
  • 01:30:20
    and I study glacial Retreats and climate
  • 01:30:22
    change in the Yukon I brought in the big
  • 01:30:24
    guns for the question period you see mic
  • 01:30:27
    uh yeah I study Glacier Retreat and
  • 01:30:29
    climate change in the Yukon and the
  • 01:30:31
    effects on Northern River systems as
  • 01:30:33
    well um my two second brief background
  • 01:30:37
    is I am also a climate action
  • 01:30:40
    facilitator for the ministry of
  • 01:30:41
    environment for the BC Ministry of
  • 01:30:43
    environment here in Metro Vancouver I
  • 01:30:45
    was trained with Al Gore with with Nick
  • 01:30:49
    um I was part of the official uh youth
  • 01:30:52
    delegation International youth
  • 01:30:54
    delegation for the United Nations
  • 01:30:56
    climate change meetings so I have
  • 01:30:57
    negotiated climate change as an
  • 01:30:59
    international level uh as part of the
  • 01:31:02
    official youth delegation to those
  • 01:31:04
    meetings and I also work on adaptation
  • 01:31:07
    to climate change with a group here at
  • 01:31:09
    SFU and lots of work with Nos and works
  • 01:31:12
    with climate projects so that's who I am
  • 01:31:14
    and why I'm now standing up here as well
  • 01:31:16
    good so Eddie let's see if we if you
  • 01:31:18
    anybody's got any questions we'll do our
  • 01:31:20
    best to um I'll do my best to get abber
  • 01:31:22
    to answer them
  • 01:31:25
    so oh no I'm just kidding I'll try
  • 01:31:33
    to
  • 01:31:35
    right get um I think with this issue um
  • 01:31:40
    it's obvious that like right now in the
  • 01:31:42
    world we've reached a uh carrying
  • 01:31:44
    capacity in various aspects and this is
  • 01:31:47
    one kind of dimension of it sorry my
  • 01:31:49
    voice is really bad right now and um I'm
  • 01:31:53
    just curious um when it comes to the um
  • 01:31:56
    International you know e economy it's a
  • 01:31:59
    competitive playing field and this is a
  • 01:32:01
    Cooperative initiative
  • 01:32:04
    sorry terrible anyways um I'm just
  • 01:32:08
    wondering if if that is something that
  • 01:32:10
    needs to be considered is cooperation is
  • 01:32:13
    required for this and right now we're in
  • 01:32:15
    a competitive International economy and
  • 01:32:19
    so it's completely two different
  • 01:32:20
    paradigms for individuals and businesses
  • 01:32:24
    and uh governments so I'm just curious
  • 01:32:27
    if anybody's like kind of thought about
  • 01:32:29
    that go for it go for it yeah yeah all
  • 01:32:32
    right so a couple points there in terms
  • 01:32:35
    yeah no worries in terms of the
  • 01:32:37
    competitive economy uh I don't if you
  • 01:32:40
    guys have heard about what Europe is
  • 01:32:41
    doing with their cap and trade system so
  • 01:32:45
    we are now essentially working in a
  • 01:32:48
    system in many countries of the world
  • 01:32:50
    where there is not only a price on
  • 01:32:51
    carbon but it it's traded in the same
  • 01:32:55
    way that we trade anything on the stock
  • 01:32:57
    market so there's a value and what
  • 01:32:59
    happens is essentially in the cap and
  • 01:33:01
    trade system the idea is that there's a
  • 01:33:03
    certain amount of credits that are
  • 01:33:05
    varable carbon credits essentially a
  • 01:33:06
    right to pollute and everybody has a
  • 01:33:09
    certain level of those if you are a
  • 01:33:11
    green company you don't need those you
  • 01:33:14
    can sell them to the highest bidder if
  • 01:33:16
    you are a company that is polluting it's
  • 01:33:18
    going to cost you to buy them from
  • 01:33:19
    someone else each year the number of
  • 01:33:21
    credits available goes down so the cost
  • 01:33:23
    of carbon goes up eventually it it makes
  • 01:33:27
    more economic sense in a competitive
  • 01:33:29
    market to improve your industry and the
  • 01:33:32
    amount you're emitting that does to keep
  • 01:33:35
    emitting emitting so essentially we
  • 01:33:37
    putting up price on pollution the um
  • 01:33:40
    carbon taxes that we've got here in BC
  • 01:33:42
    are attempting to do the same thing but
  • 01:33:43
    they're doing it blanket across the
  • 01:33:45
    board so you are also charged for
  • 01:33:47
    example for driving your car
  • 01:33:50
    so uh many areas are actually implying
  • 01:33:52
    both so that in both targets consumers
  • 01:33:55
    but also essentially industry ends up
  • 01:33:57
    getting a double charge because the ca
  • 01:33:59
    trade goes for the big industrial
  • 01:34:01
    polluters so that's one way to work
  • 01:34:03
    within the competitive system it's
  • 01:34:05
    working incredibly well in Europe they
  • 01:34:07
    people are making a lot of money off of
  • 01:34:09
    it now uh here in BC we do have the
  • 01:34:11
    carbon tax as you know they tried to
  • 01:34:13
    bring it in federally if the Liberals
  • 01:34:15
    had come to power the Liberals did not
  • 01:34:17
    come to power so we will not yet have a
  • 01:34:19
    federal carbon tax although some
  • 01:34:21
    provinces are inating one BC being the
  • 01:34:23
    first First Ontario is working that way
  • 01:34:25
    as well uh we also in terms of cap and
  • 01:34:28
    trade California has been spearheading a
  • 01:34:31
    cap and trade system for North America
  • 01:34:33
    BC has signed on to that uh so as
  • 01:34:36
    Manitoba and I think Ontario is getting
  • 01:34:38
    involved as well and quite a few US
  • 01:34:40
    states so I think within the next few
  • 01:34:42
    years we will see uh this go
  • 01:34:45
    International uh various areas of the
  • 01:34:47
    world have their own Australia has their
  • 01:34:48
    own system the difficulty we're working
  • 01:34:51
    through now is trying to figure out how
  • 01:34:52
    to do it internationally so there's one
  • 01:34:55
    set price on carbet internationally so
  • 01:34:57
    that's in terms of your uh competitive
  • 01:35:00
    market that's the answer there in terms
  • 01:35:03
    of cooperation I think internationally
  • 01:35:07
    there's a very strong recognition for
  • 01:35:08
    that and that's what the UN process is
  • 01:35:10
    about so the United Nations framework
  • 01:35:12
    convention on climate change is what you
  • 01:35:15
    guys hear about every every year with
  • 01:35:16
    their they're called the cop meetings
  • 01:35:18
    which are the convention Convention of
  • 01:35:20
    the parties uh the next one is in
  • 01:35:22
    Copenhagen uh starting in a few
  • 01:35:25
    weeks that's where all of the parties
  • 01:35:27
    come together every country pretty much
  • 01:35:29
    every country in the world comes
  • 01:35:30
    together to try and negotiate the
  • 01:35:31
    international process and it is all
  • 01:35:33
    about cooperation it is very very slow I
  • 01:35:36
    have literally watched a room full of
  • 01:35:39
    incredibly brilliant people discuss the
  • 01:35:41
    word the for three hours and that sounds
  • 01:35:44
    awful and insane and it's incredibly
  • 01:35:46
    frustrating uh when you know how fast
  • 01:35:49
    the action needs to occur occur but that
  • 01:35:51
    word the means something very different
  • 01:35:52
    to Saudi Arabia than it means to China
  • 01:35:54
    than it means to Canada and in order for
  • 01:35:57
    cooperation to work it there is a
  • 01:35:59
    certain amount of it does have to go at
  • 01:36:02
    a certain Pace because you actually need
  • 01:36:04
    everyone on board if you don't have
  • 01:36:06
    buyin from all the parties it won't make
  • 01:36:08
    any difference that's what happened with
  • 01:36:09
    kyota we didn't have all the Buy in from
  • 01:36:11
    everybody involved when the US didn't
  • 01:36:13
    sign we didn't have a hell of a lot of
  • 01:36:15
    leg to stand on to be honest so we need
  • 01:36:18
    to we're working towards consensus based
  • 01:36:21
    decision making to make sure that
  • 01:36:22
    everyone Buys in everyone agrees and
  • 01:36:23
    everyone moves forward hopefully now
  • 01:36:26
    with the change at government in the US
  • 01:36:27
    we should see some really good forward
  • 01:36:29
    movement in Copenhagen because they've
  • 01:36:31
    been the ones dragging their feet the
  • 01:36:32
    most Canada is now the ones dragging
  • 01:36:35
    their feet the most so if you really
  • 01:36:37
    want to do something right now you
  • 01:36:38
    should be writing to our politicians now
  • 01:36:40
    and asking them to take positive action
  • 01:36:41
    in Copenhagen because suddenly we're the
  • 01:36:43
    ones left out in the cold going no we
  • 01:36:45
    don't want to do it Go yep thanks Amber
  • 01:36:49
    so I mean we're the Bad Boys and I'm I'm
  • 01:36:50
    hoping that um you know I think the way
  • 01:36:52
    the Taran problem is going to be fixed
  • 01:36:55
    is by forcing them to pay that you know
  • 01:36:58
    what they should be paying uh for the
  • 01:37:00
    carbon that's being emitted because the
  • 01:37:01
    true cost of uh of taran's oil doesn't
  • 01:37:05
    include fixing up the environment
  • 01:37:07
    they're not factoring that in which you
  • 01:37:09
    know somebody's going to have to pay for
  • 01:37:10
    that it's probably going to be us you
  • 01:37:12
    know um and uh the as I showed you on
  • 01:37:16
    one of my slides it's incredibly
  • 01:37:18
    polluting so this really needs to be
  • 01:37:19
    done but carbon credits are going to be
  • 01:37:20
    traded in Chicago right on the yes which
  • 01:37:23
    is is great I'm working on just starting
  • 01:37:25
    to work on a project I need to talk to
  • 01:37:27
    you about it in Africa actually and uh
  • 01:37:29
    there are tremendous opportunities in
  • 01:37:31
    Africa for developing countries to plant
  • 01:37:33
    crops where they were not planting them
  • 01:37:35
    before and get carbon credits and create
  • 01:37:37
    jobs and so on and so forth so there's
  • 01:37:39
    you know when you start thinking about
  • 01:37:41
    the green economy I'm an entrepreneur
  • 01:37:43
    when you start thinking about it from an
  • 01:37:44
    entrepreneurial standpoint it's it's
  • 01:37:47
    just actually it's you know best at
  • 01:37:49
    times worst of times I mean there's
  • 01:37:50
    going to be huge opportunities um for
  • 01:37:53
    for both us here in the developed world
  • 01:37:56
    and in the developing world to actually
  • 01:37:57
    s of get on our bikes and do something
  • 01:37:59
    about this and create a lot of you know
  • 01:38:01
    work and wealth in the
  • 01:38:04
    process anyone else
  • 01:38:09
    yeah we've got a mic coming your
  • 01:38:14
    way thank you uh I guess this question
  • 01:38:17
    is kind of related to what you talked
  • 01:38:18
    about now I'm just thinking about
  • 01:38:20
    developing countries in the way that
  • 01:38:22
    what they care about the most in those
  • 01:38:24
    countries will be cheap energy uh and um
  • 01:38:28
    I'm just we we are talking about a lot
  • 01:38:31
    of solutions here that that are
  • 01:38:32
    expensive but that people here can
  • 01:38:34
    afford but how how can we provide these
  • 01:38:38
    solutions to people who currently cannot
  • 01:38:41
    and how can we make this this beneficial
  • 01:38:43
    for them to buy great question for sure
  • 01:38:47
    so that's an amazingly good question and
  • 01:38:49
    it has a huge number of facets
  • 01:38:52
    um to start off you do hear a lot of
  • 01:38:56
    things in the news about people yelling
  • 01:38:57
    about China and India because of their
  • 01:38:59
    population expansion and you hear old
  • 01:39:02
    coal plant a week in China and it's true
  • 01:39:05
    but as you guys saw in the slideshow
  • 01:39:07
    their per capita emissions are
  • 01:39:08
    incredibly incredibly low
  • 01:39:11
    so we are doing much more damage per
  • 01:39:13
    person than they are that plays into how
  • 01:39:17
    can we help them get to our standard of
  • 01:39:19
    living without going through the same
  • 01:39:22
    process we went through
  • 01:39:24
    because we're actually now we don't want
  • 01:39:25
    to lower our standard living but we do
  • 01:39:26
    have to change our carbon uh footprint
  • 01:39:30
    and we need to get them to our standard
  • 01:39:31
    living without getting them to our
  • 01:39:33
    carbon footprint how do we do that okay
  • 01:39:36
    so part of the UN process is
  • 01:39:38
    specifically to deal with that and for
  • 01:39:42
    example uh the penalties involved in not
  • 01:39:46
    meeting your targets part of that was to
  • 01:39:49
    shift those funds to the developing
  • 01:39:51
    world to be able to help them make those
  • 01:39:54
    advances uh the when Nick mentioned the
  • 01:39:57
    green economy the green economy is
  • 01:39:58
    becoming a very very real reality very
  • 01:40:01
    quickly and the developing world is very
  • 01:40:04
    aware of that China has actually already
  • 01:40:05
    switched 18% of their National economy
  • 01:40:09
    to a green economy Canada is nowhere
  • 01:40:11
    near that yet so they are partially it's
  • 01:40:14
    partially they are well aware of it and
  • 01:40:15
    they're going there first they're
  • 01:40:17
    actually starting to lead the way
  • 01:40:18
    because they need to because they need
  • 01:40:20
    to um but that doesn't mean we should
  • 01:40:23
    shouldn't be helping them get there and
  • 01:40:25
    we very much have a moral and ethical
  • 01:40:28
    responsibility to get them there because
  • 01:40:31
    they are the ones that are going to be
  • 01:40:32
    most adversely affected by climate
  • 01:40:35
    change uh you've seen pictures of
  • 01:40:37
    flooding and sea the areas where sea
  • 01:40:39
    level rise is going to wipe out in some
  • 01:40:42
    cases whole countries tuvalu will lose
  • 01:40:44
    their entire country with one meter of
  • 01:40:46
    sea level rise there can you imagine
  • 01:40:48
    your whole country being gone so this is
  • 01:40:51
    we have a responsibility and we should
  • 01:40:54
    be working through our foreign
  • 01:40:55
    assistance programs to get the money to
  • 01:40:58
    them and to Target it towards things
  • 01:41:00
    that will help them with this emerging
  • 01:41:03
    well it's not an emerging issue with
  • 01:41:04
    this
  • 01:41:06
    issue I I I think I agree 100% I mean I
  • 01:41:09
    think we it's now Our obligation we've
  • 01:41:11
    had the big party and made a huge mess
  • 01:41:14
    and now it's their turn and it's Our
  • 01:41:15
    obligation to help them we have to help
  • 01:41:17
    them um and um yes so I mean that it
  • 01:41:21
    it's it we just got used to it we got to
  • 01:41:24
    help them but again there are
  • 01:41:25
    opportunities there you know we could we
  • 01:41:27
    we could in here in in North America we
  • 01:41:30
    could be developing technology and uh to
  • 01:41:33
    help fix these problems and help
  • 01:41:35
    generate uh green energy and so on and
  • 01:41:38
    the other sort of point to that is that
  • 01:41:41
    we can actually make money helping them
  • 01:41:43
    through uh carbon economies and through
  • 01:41:45
    offsetting programs for example a lot of
  • 01:41:47
    people in Canada even right now are
  • 01:41:49
    making money through like their business
  • 01:41:51
    is offsetting and so they are are
  • 01:41:53
    actually offsetting our carbon footprint
  • 01:41:55
    by helping install technology in
  • 01:41:57
    developing countries so for example
  • 01:41:59
    often if you buy an offset right now
  • 01:42:01
    what it's going to do is put in wind
  • 01:42:04
    farms in a developing Nation or switch
  • 01:42:06
    over uh to high efficiency wood burning
  • 01:42:09
    stoves right now a lot of countries in
  • 01:42:11
    Africa uh just have very very low
  • 01:42:14
    efficiency wood burning stoves and even
  • 01:42:16
    just switching to a high efficiency wood
  • 01:42:18
    burning stove almost Cuts their carbon
  • 01:42:20
    footprint in half there's actually a
  • 01:42:21
    high school in North vanan that has set
  • 01:42:23
    up their own offset uh program for their
  • 01:42:26
    students and uh community members and
  • 01:42:29
    those donations are going straight to
  • 01:42:30
    schools in Africa and switching over
  • 01:42:32
    their stoves and they've been very
  • 01:42:33
    successful there's huge numbers of
  • 01:42:35
    programs out there that are trying to do
  • 01:42:37
    this while still actually you can make
  • 01:42:39
    money doing this you can make money
  • 01:42:40
    helping them so I mean you know you that
  • 01:42:43
    slide that I showed of the cooking fires
  • 01:42:44
    in Africa they shouldn't be cooking on
  • 01:42:46
    Fires they should have a little stove of
  • 01:42:48
    some sort which could be easily
  • 01:42:50
    manufactured and provided to them and it
  • 01:42:52
    would it would enable then they wouldn't
  • 01:42:53
    require as much fuel it would be better
  • 01:42:55
    for cooking um I remember when I was in
  • 01:42:58
    Africa and I think they're still doing
  • 01:42:59
    this they were cooking on a plow wheel
  • 01:43:01
    where they get up get a wheel offer an
  • 01:43:02
    old wheel off a plow which has three
  • 01:43:04
    holes in it to fix it on the plow they
  • 01:43:06
    put three bolts one in each hole and
  • 01:43:08
    that's what it's sort of like a walk and
  • 01:43:09
    they light a fire underneath it and cook
  • 01:43:11
    on that well it works but it's not very
  • 01:43:13
    efficient so we could for not much money
  • 01:43:16
    provide them with something like that
  • 01:43:18
    and it would make a big difference uh to
  • 01:43:20
    their lives but there's a Hu there are
  • 01:43:21
    huge opportunities I think that you know
  • 01:43:23
    we're going through a time uh that's
  • 01:43:25
    really
  • 01:43:26
    transformational uh where we have to
  • 01:43:28
    make these changes it's not optional and
  • 01:43:30
    it creates an enormous uh uh opportunity
  • 01:43:33
    uh for for for business people and for
  • 01:43:36
    engineering for engineers to figure out
  • 01:43:38
    figure out new technologies and new
  • 01:43:40
    products so um I think we're actually
  • 01:43:43
    entering one of the most exciting times
  • 01:43:46
    um for a long time in terms of Entre
  • 01:43:49
    entrepreneurial development I actually
  • 01:43:51
    think that the green economy is going to
  • 01:43:52
    take over from the you know the computer
  • 01:43:53
    the whole computer thing was what I grew
  • 01:43:55
    up with and where I made my living and
  • 01:43:57
    that was the big the big deal you know
  • 01:43:59
    of the 20th century I think the green
  • 01:44:01
    economy is going to be the big deal of
  • 01:44:02
    the 21st century so that's where people
  • 01:44:04
    where you need to be thinking about
  • 01:44:05
    getting jobs and working in firms is
  • 01:44:07
    it's going to be an enormous uh as we as
  • 01:44:10
    we have to Green up the world it's not
  • 01:44:12
    optional uh you know as Amber said in
  • 01:44:14
    China the reason that they're doing it
  • 01:44:16
    in China is not because for altruistic
  • 01:44:18
    reasons or because they heard Al Gore's
  • 01:44:20
    presentation it's because they haven't
  • 01:44:21
    got enough energy
  • 01:44:23
    they need to do it they they don't have
  • 01:44:25
    any choice so there's an enormous
  • 01:44:28
    opportunity there yeah and in terms of
  • 01:44:31
    that opportunity I think uh my
  • 01:44:33
    generation and the majority of most of
  • 01:44:36
    you are in that generation as well we're
  • 01:44:39
    in many ways the first generation that
  • 01:44:40
    grew up knowing we were going to have to
  • 01:44:42
    do something about this I was writing
  • 01:44:43
    political letters at 5 years old and I
  • 01:44:46
    know I'm not the only one who was and
  • 01:44:50
    the paradigm shift is coming with us
  • 01:44:52
    because we we care enough to do it and
  • 01:44:54
    now we're lucky that there are people in
  • 01:44:56
    the generations before us that get it as
  • 01:44:57
    well and are helping to support us but
  • 01:44:59
    we are now coming into a phase of Our
  • 01:45:01
    Lives where we are the people running
  • 01:45:02
    the businesses we are the people running
  • 01:45:04
    for office and we are the ones who are
  • 01:45:06
    going to be making this change and
  • 01:45:09
    unfortunately we are also fully
  • 01:45:12
    responsible for that if we don't make
  • 01:45:13
    the change well we'll probably be past
  • 01:45:16
    the Tipping Point so it's a little bit
  • 01:45:18
    heavy to put on our shoulders but we
  • 01:45:19
    don't have a choice we have the choice
  • 01:45:20
    to rise to the occasion or to stand back
  • 01:45:24
    and watch it
  • 01:45:27
    burn Dan yes take at the back but then
  • 01:45:30
    we okay I have two questions um first of
  • 01:45:32
    all um is there a rising political
  • 01:45:37
    person in Canada that we should be
  • 01:45:41
    supporting and and who should we be
  • 01:45:43
    writing to with those letters more
  • 01:45:45
    immediately that's my first question
  • 01:45:48
    okay uh well we'll do that one first
  • 01:45:51
    there was a rising political person he's
  • 01:45:53
    just resigned the liberal leadership um
  • 01:45:56
    unfortunately Stefan actually was
  • 01:45:58
    incredibly incredibly Progressive um he
  • 01:46:01
    just couldn't manage to project that to
  • 01:46:03
    the Canadian public and he wasn't
  • 01:46:06
    particularly he didn't do particularly
  • 01:46:08
    well coming across on a television
  • 01:46:09
    screen he did incredibly well in public
  • 01:46:11
    in person if you ever got a chance to
  • 01:46:12
    see him
  • 01:46:13
    but uh that's no longer an option so
  • 01:46:16
    we're going to have to wait and see what
  • 01:46:18
    happens with the liberal leadership race
  • 01:46:19
    and in terms of what they come out if
  • 01:46:21
    the green shift is still a reality or if
  • 01:46:23
    they're going to move a different
  • 01:46:24
    direction uh
  • 01:46:27
    obviously the conservatives are not
  • 01:46:29
    there yet Elizabeth May is incredibly
  • 01:46:32
    incredibly well spoken very smart and
  • 01:46:34
    very intelligent unfortunately the green
  • 01:46:35
    party probably isn't going to take power
  • 01:46:37
    yet and the NDP sits somewhere in the
  • 01:46:39
    middle so I know that know that's
  • 01:46:40
    particularly great news um in terms of
  • 01:46:44
    those letters you should definitely be
  • 01:46:45
    targeting them to the minister of the
  • 01:46:47
    environment our current Ministry of the
  • 01:46:48
    environment and our prime minister
  • 01:46:50
    because those are the people who will
  • 01:46:52
    actually be representing us and
  • 01:46:53
    negotiating for us at cop uh especially
  • 01:46:56
    the minister of environment that's
  • 01:46:57
    actually one of his duties so definitely
  • 01:47:00
    you should be bombarding him um that
  • 01:47:03
    said you can also write to the
  • 01:47:05
    environment critics for the other
  • 01:47:06
    parties because they will all also be at
  • 01:47:08
    cop and they'll be doing everything they
  • 01:47:10
    can they won't be the official voice but
  • 01:47:12
    they'll be doing everything they can
  • 01:47:13
    behind the scenes and in the back rooms
  • 01:47:15
    so if you give them their support that
  • 01:47:17
    gives them just that much more incentive
  • 01:47:19
    to try and do everything they can I you
  • 01:47:21
    know it looks like I was listening radio
  • 01:47:23
    this morning Michael nnaf has thrown his
  • 01:47:25
    hat in the ring and looks like he's
  • 01:47:26
    going to probably be it for the liberals
  • 01:47:28
    so he needs we need to start writing to
  • 01:47:30
    him I obviously you've got to write to
  • 01:47:32
    the person that you think's going to get
  • 01:47:33
    elected sadly I mean Elizabeth May was
  • 01:47:35
    great but she's just not going to get
  • 01:47:37
    elected uh Jack Leighton was pretty good
  • 01:47:40
    but although he softened on the tarand
  • 01:47:42
    thing a bit I was a bit disappointed
  • 01:47:44
    with by that you know he he was like
  • 01:47:46
    looking good for a while then he then he
  • 01:47:48
    lost the plot a bit I think he did a few
  • 01:47:50
    things at the end that was was not too
  • 01:47:52
    good so I I you know so you know you've
  • 01:47:55
    got to you've got to you've got to write
  • 01:47:56
    to the people you think are going to get
  • 01:47:57
    elected and if none of them are any good
  • 01:47:59
    you should run for election you know
  • 01:48:00
    what we need are new people uh doing it
  • 01:48:03
    these old guys are are not they don't
  • 01:48:06
    get it you know they so we need some new
  • 01:48:08
    blood in the system so I don't know what
  • 01:48:11
    Trudeau's son is running I don't know
  • 01:48:13
    what he's I haven't heard much about him
  • 01:48:14
    is he is he Justin Trudeau is a very
  • 01:48:17
    good option uh he definitely has a very
  • 01:48:21
    strong environmental and social
  • 01:48:22
    conscious and so he's we've got some
  • 01:48:24
    hope there um I wish he'd Run for the
  • 01:48:27
    leadership yeah he's he might eventually
  • 01:48:29
    I don't think he'll do it yet not yet
  • 01:48:30
    but he is now in office there's he did
  • 01:48:34
    win during the last election his writing
  • 01:48:36
    um yeah Elizabeth May um for very moral
  • 01:48:41
    reasons chose to run in a writing that
  • 01:48:43
    she was knew she wasn't going to win
  • 01:48:45
    it's been
  • 01:48:46
    conservative for Generations like it's
  • 01:48:48
    actually been past father to son in Nova
  • 01:48:51
    Scotia that writing hasn't has been
  • 01:48:53
    conservative for almost 60 years but she
  • 01:48:55
    felt it was important to run in her home
  • 01:48:57
    writing now that said I think she did a
  • 01:48:59
    pretty good job of stirring things up at
  • 01:49:00
    the debate but um at the moment we are
  • 01:49:03
    in a slightly tricky political situation
  • 01:49:06
    in terms of voting as well that in many
  • 01:49:09
    ways we have a two- party system uh that
  • 01:49:11
    said the block can control Quebec and
  • 01:49:13
    the block actually has much more
  • 01:49:15
    Progressive in terms of environmental
  • 01:49:16
    opinions than um than the conservatives
  • 01:49:18
    so we're actually better off with them
  • 01:49:19
    in power there um the NDP takes a
  • 01:49:23
    portion of the seats but they'll never
  • 01:49:24
    they're never going to they they
  • 01:49:26
    probably aren't going to win and so we
  • 01:49:29
    have and The
  • 01:49:30
    Greens at this point don't have a seat
  • 01:49:32
    so we have this issue that we've got two
  • 01:49:34
    parties and we can split our left Vote
  • 01:49:37
    or we can strategically vote and there
  • 01:49:39
    was a huge move to to strategically vote
  • 01:49:42
    in the last election and it did work
  • 01:49:43
    very well it definitely kept the
  • 01:49:45
    conservatives in a minority people think
  • 01:49:47
    that that was probably the reason that
  • 01:49:48
    they did not win their majority was the
  • 01:49:49
    Strategic
  • 01:49:51
    voting but we still need a party to win
  • 01:49:54
    enough to become the leading party so
  • 01:49:59
    we're we're in a frustrating situation
  • 01:50:02
    right now the but the more pressure you
  • 01:50:04
    put on the more public voices they hear
  • 01:50:06
    on an issue the more likely they are to
  • 01:50:08
    act on it what do you think about
  • 01:50:10
    proportional representation I'd like to
  • 01:50:12
    I was a bit disappointed I mean they we
  • 01:50:13
    made a mess of that you know it wasn't
  • 01:50:15
    explained to people properly uh does
  • 01:50:17
    everybody in the room know what
  • 01:50:18
    proportional representation is do people
  • 01:50:20
    get it yeah yeah okay um we'd have some
  • 01:50:23
    green MPS if we had proportional
  • 01:50:25
    representation so basically instead of
  • 01:50:26
    everybody you know we're in this
  • 01:50:27
    ridiculous situation in Canada we're not
  • 01:50:29
    supposed to talk about political stuff
  • 01:50:30
    but we're in this ridiculous situation
  • 01:50:32
    in Canada where where the where the
  • 01:50:34
    majority of people don't vote for the
  • 01:50:36
    party that gets elected that's in charge
  • 01:50:38
    you know so proportional representation
  • 01:50:40
    is a system that they have in other
  • 01:50:41
    countries they have it in in Ireland for
  • 01:50:43
    example in southern Ireland in the
  • 01:50:44
    country of Ireland and um it basically
  • 01:50:47
    means that you vote for the person You'
  • 01:50:49
    like most and then the person you'd like
  • 01:50:51
    next most I mean that's the simple
  • 01:50:53
    explanation of it so and then uh and
  • 01:50:56
    then so people that are a lot of
  • 01:50:58
    people's second choices can actually get
  • 01:51:01
    elected and actually get a seat so um I
  • 01:51:05
    think something like that would
  • 01:51:06
    personally that's my personal opinion I
  • 01:51:08
    think that would be a good idea because
  • 01:51:09
    then we could get you know I think it'
  • 01:51:11
    get more people engaged and you get
  • 01:51:13
    people like Elizabeth may actually being
  • 01:51:15
    in the house which would be great one
  • 01:51:18
    more question I know we're getting short
  • 01:51:19
    on time because I know you had your hand
  • 01:51:20
    up this will be the final question we'll
  • 01:51:21
    have to wrap up
  • 01:51:23
    thanks but you are welcome to ask us
  • 01:51:25
    questions after afterwards absolutely
  • 01:51:27
    Yeah well yeah um I think it's much
  • 01:51:29
    easier to take my own responsibility
  • 01:51:32
    instead of persuading um those P hats in
  • 01:51:35
    the government um well I just I've been
  • 01:51:37
    wondering um how is it possible for us
  • 01:51:40
    to reduce our emission level to zero and
  • 01:51:43
    even we do um how how can we start
  • 01:51:47
    removing carbon dioxide from atmosphere
  • 01:51:51
    okay
  • 01:51:53
    um how do we get to
  • 01:51:55
    zero at the moment uh there are people
  • 01:51:58
    living carbon neutral Lifestyles but
  • 01:52:00
    they are doing that uh with a heavy
  • 01:52:03
    Reliance on offsets at the moment we
  • 01:52:05
    aren't quite there in terms
  • 01:52:08
    of not the technology not being there
  • 01:52:10
    but the technology being publicly
  • 01:52:11
    available and affordable um to be able
  • 01:52:14
    to do it completely on your own so a lot
  • 01:52:17
    of people right now who are car there
  • 01:52:18
    are people quite a few people out there
  • 01:52:20
    who are carbon neutral but they do have
  • 01:52:21
    to offset to get there so that's what
  • 01:52:23
    you can do right now um all of the
  • 01:52:25
    things that Nick listed are ways that
  • 01:52:27
    you personally can get there so changes
  • 01:52:30
    in your electricity use in your water
  • 01:52:32
    use in your eating habits local organic
  • 01:52:36
    uh less Reliance on meat if you want to
  • 01:52:38
    go there vegetarian if you want really
  • 01:52:40
    want to go there vegan all really do
  • 01:52:42
    make a huge difference uh 8% of the
  • 01:52:44
    global greenhouse gas emissions are from
  • 01:52:47
    cattle that we
  • 01:52:48
    eat it's a huge chunk right there it's
  • 01:52:52
    it starts to rival the amount from
  • 01:52:53
    Transportation uh changes in your
  • 01:52:55
    transportation uses all of those things
  • 01:52:58
    will start to get you there and you can
  • 01:53:00
    offset the rest to get to neutral uh as
  • 01:53:04
    uh our governments continue to push and
  • 01:53:06
    the public continues to push and more
  • 01:53:08
    importantly the business sector who is
  • 01:53:09
    going to push regardless of if the
  • 01:53:11
    government or the public do anything
  • 01:53:12
    because it makes Financial sense for
  • 01:53:14
    them it will become easier and easier to
  • 01:53:16
    do that without
  • 01:53:17
    offsetting
  • 01:53:19
    um I'm sorry I think there was a second
  • 01:53:21
    part to your question and I I've missed
  • 01:53:22
    it yeah I was asking how can we start
  • 01:53:24
    removing how can we start removing okay
  • 01:53:27
    um there are
  • 01:53:31
    some there's actually a huge amount of
  • 01:53:32
    research coming out of Alberta uh mainly
  • 01:53:35
    because of the tar sands on how to pull
  • 01:53:37
    carbon out um some people push for the
  • 01:53:41
    carbon capture and storage which is to
  • 01:53:43
    pull carbon out and store it uh for
  • 01:53:45
    example in oil wells uh other people are
  • 01:53:48
    now looking at there was some cutting Ed
  • 01:53:51
    Edge research in University of Alberta
  • 01:53:53
    and University of Calgary that's looking
  • 01:53:55
    at other ways that they they think they
  • 01:53:58
    found ways that technology can draw it
  • 01:54:00
    out and store it in other forms that's
  • 01:54:03
    at the experimental stage
  • 01:54:06
    so uh it is starting to push their
  • 01:54:08
    carbon capture and storage has been
  • 01:54:10
    shown to work so that is one way that we
  • 01:54:13
    definitely will be going I'm sure at
  • 01:54:15
    least and I'm sure part of the solution
  • 01:54:17
    although there are issues around it it
  • 01:54:20
    will probably still something that will
  • 01:54:21
    come into effect so we will be using for
  • 01:54:23
    example old oil wells tailings piles
  • 01:54:25
    from mines at least certain minerals
  • 01:54:28
    actually react with the carbon in the
  • 01:54:29
    atmosphere and pull actually can be
  • 01:54:31
    incredible sinks forests are incredible
  • 01:54:33
    sinks uh there are issues with using
  • 01:54:37
    planting trees as
  • 01:54:39
    offsets um but that said Forest uh
  • 01:54:43
    vegetation plant life does draw down CO2
  • 01:54:45
    so there are huge tree planting
  • 01:54:47
    campaigns as well for example the
  • 01:54:49
    province has just started something
  • 01:54:50
    called trees for tomorrow it's a 5 year
  • 01:54:52
    plan and they're giving out grants of
  • 01:54:54
    huge amounts of money for uh Urban
  • 01:54:58
    spaces so schools and
  • 01:55:00
    universities everyone should listen up
  • 01:55:02
    there uh hospitals institutions green uh
  • 01:55:06
    public green spaces to have planting
  • 01:55:08
    campaigns and they will give you
  • 01:55:10
    everything you need to do it so that's
  • 01:55:12
    another place where people are trying to
  • 01:55:14
    make for uh progress is urban a
  • 01:55:17
    forestation thanks sber thank you very
  • 01:55:19
    much thank you thank you very much
  • 01:55:23
    [Applause]
Tags
  • canvi climàtic
  • energia renovable
  • glaciars
  • escalfament global
  • emissions de carboni
  • acció individual
  • impacte ambiental
  • Al Gore
  • Nicholas Miller
  • presentació