This Graph Changed My Life

00:05:40
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvtEINcqc6c

Résumé

TLDRIn this video, the speaker addresses the common misconceptions about climate change beliefs among Americans, revealing that a significant majority actually acknowledges its reality. The discussion begins with a modular device that converts electricity, water, and carbon dioxide into fuel, which prompts a dive into the comments reflecting skepticism about climate change. The speaker emphasizes that the vocal minority does not represent the majority's views and highlights a graph showing that less than 10% of Americans are committed climate skeptics. The video encourages viewers to recognize the complexity of public opinion on climate change and to engage with those who may be uncertain rather than dismissing them as impossible to convince.

A retenir

  • 🌍 The video addresses misconceptions about climate change beliefs.
  • 📊 A graph shows that most Americans believe in climate change.
  • 🗣️ Comments on news articles often reflect extreme views.
  • 🤔 The 'cable news fallacy' misrepresents public opinion.
  • 💬 Engaging with nuanced perspectives is crucial.
  • 🔍 Many people are uncertain about climate change, not outright skeptics.
  • 📉 Less than 10% of Americans are committed climate skeptics.
  • 💡 The majority acknowledges climate change but may prioritize other issues.
  • 🤝 It's important to bring in those who are unsure rather than alienate them.
  • 📺 The information ecosystem shapes our understanding of opposing views.

Chronologie

  • 00:00:00 - 00:05:40

    The video begins with a discussion about hope and forgiveness, leading to a recent article about a modular device that converts electricity, water, and carbon dioxide into fuel. While the technology is interesting, the speaker notes that many comments dismiss it as impractical, reflecting a broader skepticism about climate change and fossil fuels. The speaker highlights a common misconception that all members of a group share the same beliefs, particularly regarding climate change, and emphasizes the importance of understanding the information ecosystem that shapes these perceptions. A pivotal graph reveals that a significant majority of Americans believe in climate change, contradicting the speaker's prior assumptions. This realization underscores the complexity of public opinion, where many people acknowledge climate change but prioritize other immediate concerns. The speaker warns against the danger of assuming that extreme views represent the majority, urging a more nuanced understanding of public sentiment to foster constructive dialogue and engagement.

Carte mentale

Vidéo Q&R

  • What is the main topic of the video?

    The main topic is the misconceptions about climate change beliefs among Americans.

  • What does the speaker say about the comments on the Fox News article?

    The comments reflect a belief that fossil fuels are not harmful and that climate change is a hoax, which the speaker argues is not representative of the majority.

  • What does the speaker mean by the 'cable news fallacy'?

    The 'cable news fallacy' refers to the mistaken belief that the most vocal members of a group represent the entire group.

  • What does the graph mentioned in the video show?

    The graph shows that a significant majority of Americans believe in climate change, contradicting the perception that many are skeptics.

  • How does the speaker suggest we should approach discussions about climate change?

    The speaker suggests we should engage with the broader perspectives and not focus solely on extreme viewpoints.

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Sous-titres
en
Défilement automatique:
  • 00:00:00
    Good morning, John. Since we've been
  • 00:00:01
    talking a lot about like hope and
  • 00:00:02
    forgiveness and stuff, I want you to
  • 00:00:03
    know that in the beginning of this
  • 00:00:04
    video, it's going to feel like we're
  • 00:00:05
    headed to a dark place, but it is going
  • 00:00:06
    to turn around halfway through. I
  • 00:00:08
    promise. Recently, I saw this rather
  • 00:00:09
    innocuous headline on Fox News.com. A
  • 00:00:11
    guy had made a modular device that turns
  • 00:00:13
    electricity, water, and carbon dioxide
  • 00:00:15
    into gasoline, or at least some kind of
  • 00:00:17
    fuel that can be burned by gasoline
  • 00:00:19
    engines. And this is great. Not the
  • 00:00:20
    first time that we've demonstrated airto
  • 00:00:22
    fuel technology. Certainly less
  • 00:00:24
    efficient than a large plant would be,
  • 00:00:25
    but maybe useful in off-grid situations.
  • 00:00:27
    That's how I read the article. Here is a
  • 00:00:29
    niche solution for niche problems, which
  • 00:00:31
    is one of the things that we do as
  • 00:00:33
    humans. But because I wanted to be sad,
  • 00:00:35
    I did scroll down to read the comments.
  • 00:00:37
    Very clever, but IMO of no practical
  • 00:00:39
    value. We have thousands of years of oil
  • 00:00:41
    and gas in our own country if you are
  • 00:00:43
    not taken in by the climate crisis hoax
  • 00:00:44
    scam. You easily see that this device
  • 00:00:47
    likely uses more energy than it
  • 00:00:48
    produces. Fossil fuel is the biggest lie
  • 00:00:51
    going. Petroleum is a product of the
  • 00:00:52
    Earth's crust and mantle action. I'm
  • 00:00:54
    guessing it takes more energy to make a
  • 00:00:56
    gallon than the energy it will create
  • 00:00:57
    when burned. Yeah, good guess. I promise
  • 00:01:00
    you, whoever breaks conservation of
  • 00:01:02
    energy will be a bigger story than some
  • 00:01:04
    little jar of gasoline. I mean, the
  • 00:01:06
    thing that this video is about is
  • 00:01:07
    climate change, but I do want to mention
  • 00:01:09
    that it is strange how many of these
  • 00:01:11
    people see the first law of
  • 00:01:13
    thermodynamics as something that we just
  • 00:01:14
    haven't yet happened to overcome yet.
  • 00:01:17
    But regardless, these comments all
  • 00:01:19
    suggested variously that fossil fuels
  • 00:01:21
    are not bad for the earth. Climate
  • 00:01:23
    change is fake and also fossil fuels are
  • 00:01:26
    manufactured by the earth and so there's
  • 00:01:27
    no reason to think that we'll ever run
  • 00:01:29
    out. And if you are like me and I think
  • 00:01:31
    that most people are like me, you would
  • 00:01:33
    look at this and you would think all Fox
  • 00:01:34
    News viewers would think this way and
  • 00:01:36
    also all Republicans would think this
  • 00:01:38
    way and also half of Americans would
  • 00:01:40
    think this way. This is how we work. If
  • 00:01:42
    we imagine them as a group, then we also
  • 00:01:45
    imagine that they all believe the same
  • 00:01:46
    things. And we also believe that the
  • 00:01:48
    things they believe are the things we
  • 00:01:50
    hear their representatives say. But I've
  • 00:01:52
    got news for you. Reality breaks at
  • 00:01:55
    every single one of those steps,
  • 00:01:57
    especially the last one. If you think
  • 00:01:58
    that the ideas of a group of people that
  • 00:02:01
    are reaching you are representative of
  • 00:02:03
    that group of people, you are not
  • 00:02:04
    understanding how the information
  • 00:02:06
    ecosystem works. Because the biggest
  • 00:02:09
    thing that decides whether an opposition
  • 00:02:12
    point of view reaches you is that it is
  • 00:02:14
    crazy. An ingroup is much more likely to
  • 00:02:16
    expose you to outgroup ideas that are
  • 00:02:18
    easy to refute. This is not a surprise.
  • 00:02:21
    Everyone would expect this, but that's
  • 00:02:24
    what happened. And so, you are mostly
  • 00:02:25
    only ever exposed to the worst versions
  • 00:02:28
    of your opposition's ideas. But this is
  • 00:02:30
    a very hard thing to keep in your mind
  • 00:02:31
    all the time. And around 5 years ago, I
  • 00:02:33
    saw a graph that changed my life
  • 00:02:35
    forever. And now, I'm going to show it
  • 00:02:37
    to you. And I hope it changes your life
  • 00:02:38
    forever, too. This is a graph of people
  • 00:02:40
    who are extremely or very sure that
  • 00:02:42
    climate change is happening on the top
  • 00:02:44
    line and people who are extremely or
  • 00:02:46
    very sure it isn't happening on the
  • 00:02:47
    bottom. For nearly two decades, the
  • 00:02:49
    percentage of Americans who are
  • 00:02:51
    committed climate skeptics has been
  • 00:02:53
    pretty consistently below 10%. Likewise,
  • 00:02:56
    if you ask Americans whether global
  • 00:02:57
    warming is happening, roughly four
  • 00:02:59
    fifths will say yes. The reason this
  • 00:03:02
    graph changed me is not because I'm
  • 00:03:03
    happy that it turns out lots of
  • 00:03:05
    Americans agree that global warming is
  • 00:03:06
    real. Because while that is nice to
  • 00:03:08
    know, it also comes along with the
  • 00:03:09
    reality that despite that fact, we are
  • 00:03:11
    not doing a great job of adapting to
  • 00:03:14
    that reality. It didn't change me
  • 00:03:16
    because I got like a useful piece of
  • 00:03:18
    data. It changed me because this did not
  • 00:03:21
    align with my perceived understanding of
  • 00:03:23
    the situation. If you had asked me
  • 00:03:25
    before I saw this graph, I would have
  • 00:03:26
    told you that probably 50% of people in
  • 00:03:28
    America thought that climate change is a
  • 00:03:30
    scam or a hoax. The actual situation is,
  • 00:03:33
    get this, complex. With lots of people
  • 00:03:36
    being unsure and even more people having
  • 00:03:38
    other concerns that are making it so
  • 00:03:40
    that they just aren't very focused on
  • 00:03:42
    climate change. It would be so easy to
  • 00:03:44
    take those comments from Fox News and
  • 00:03:46
    share them without any of this context
  • 00:03:48
    and see, look at how crazy these people
  • 00:03:50
    are, and what many people would
  • 00:03:51
    understand by these people is half of
  • 00:03:53
    the country. And then you move on
  • 00:03:55
    through the world with the idea in your
  • 00:03:57
    head, I guess that is what we're up
  • 00:03:59
    against. But if you believe that, you
  • 00:04:01
    are one fighting the wrong fight every
  • 00:04:04
    day. You think there's a bunch of people
  • 00:04:06
    who are impossible to convince. So
  • 00:04:07
    you're not trying to convince them when
  • 00:04:09
    actually the situation is mostly they're
  • 00:04:11
    convinced. They're just not convinced
  • 00:04:12
    that it is the thing that we need to be
  • 00:04:13
    concentrating on right now because
  • 00:04:15
    they're dealing with some other problem
  • 00:04:16
    like the price of eggs at the grocery
  • 00:04:17
    store. So one, you're caught fighting
  • 00:04:19
    the exact wrong fight. And two, you're
  • 00:04:22
    fighting it with the weight of despair
  • 00:04:24
    tied around your neck. If we could say
  • 00:04:25
    this in the fewest words possible, it
  • 00:04:27
    would be something like with today's
  • 00:04:29
    information ecosystem, it is very easy
  • 00:04:31
    to believe that 50% of people hold the
  • 00:04:33
    views of the most extreme 10% of them.
  • 00:04:36
    Or maybe if we wanted to state it as
  • 00:04:38
    like the cable news fallacy, it would be
  • 00:04:39
    the mistaken belief that the most vocal
  • 00:04:42
    or visible members of a group represent
  • 00:04:44
    that group as a whole. And it is no use
  • 00:04:46
    to be weighed down by a world that isn't
  • 00:04:49
    actually this one. This one's hard
  • 00:04:51
    enough as it is. And I know this is a
  • 00:04:53
    problem because every time I talk about
  • 00:04:54
    something with some amount of nuance,
  • 00:04:56
    people will come at me and say there's
  • 00:04:58
    no winning those people over. And who
  • 00:04:59
    are those people? They're not simple.
  • 00:05:01
    They're not unified. They're not
  • 00:05:02
    monolithic. And four-fifths of them
  • 00:05:05
    think that climate change is real. And
  • 00:05:07
    very few of them are committed climate
  • 00:05:09
    skeptics. If we think there's no winning
  • 00:05:11
    people over, then that huge group of,
  • 00:05:13
    "Yeah, I think it's probably a problem,
  • 00:05:15
    but I don't know if it's the right
  • 00:05:16
    problem to be addressing right now."
  • 00:05:18
    That group just completely gets ignored.
  • 00:05:20
    And then we have to ask ourselves, is
  • 00:05:22
    the way that we are behaving bringing
  • 00:05:24
    those people in or alienating them from
  • 00:05:26
    us? The cable news ecosystem, the
  • 00:05:29
    algorithmic news ecosystem, they both
  • 00:05:31
    benefit when we believe this fallacy.
  • 00:05:32
    But you know who doesn't benefit?
  • 00:05:35
    Anybody else. John, thank you for your
  • 00:05:37
    lovely video this week. I'll see you on
  • 00:05:39
    Tuesday.
Tags
  • climate change
  • public opinion
  • misconceptions
  • information ecosystem
  • cable news fallacy
  • fossil fuels
  • skepticism
  • engagement
  • nuance
  • beliefs