Ep. 275: Clearing up the issues about climate change

Guest: Greg Flato, climate scientist at Environment Canada

If you are like Stuart, you watch and read a wide variety of reports about climate

Reports that state, repeatedly, that a consensus exists that arctic ice is melting, ocean levels are rising, ocean pH is changing (and not getting better), global temperatures are rising.

Then he read reports that say the above is not true. Arctic ice is actually growing and at astounding rates, ocean levels are not rising and while the temperature has gone up, it is insignificant.

Stuart looked up reports that are cited from either side of the argument and, within minutes, realized he did not have the appropriate knowledge to begin to understand what they mean. They are complex, they are extremely specific because science demands that the hypothesis focus on defined elements. The results of an individual experiment are just that and need to be taken in the context of the whole, which is challenging because the world we live in is extremely complicated.

Stuart reached out to a wide range of people who read the reports differently from one another. This week he read in a Canadian newspaper that the World Meteorological Organization, a trusted source, says Canada had a very cold 2019. So he looked it up. He couldn’t find that statement, instead he read, “2019 concludes a decade of exceptional global heat and high-impact weather.”

Where is the truth? In this Conversation That Matters, he talks online to Environment Canada Climate Scientist Greg Flato about climate and he clears up a number of issues. And because the conversation extended far beyond the broadcast window, we have broken this Conversation into two parts. Here now is part one.