Katherine Hayhoe’s YouTube series, “Global Weirding”, is a series that touches on the common myths and misconceptions people have on global warming. Her introductory video begins with her explaining that you don’t have to be a green wearing, granola eating, liberal to care about the earth and its climate. In fact, she is a Canadian who is a Christian and she very much cares about the climate change. Scientists have been studying climate change since 1820, almost 200 years now. And it has been 50 years since scientists first warned the current president of the time the affects climate change could have. So, the topic of climate change has been around for quite some time now, but recently it has become very politicized so it has become a tough
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This change in the climate is causing a mass extinction similar to the one dinosaurs had 65 million years ago. Climate change is not entirely to blame for this mass extinction because encroaching on natural habitats and overfishing oceans is to blame as well, but climate change is also on the list. The dinosaurs at least had an excuse that volcanoes and asteroids were causing the mass extinction, today it is us that is causing it. If our current trends continue, 90% of our coral reefs could be wiped out by 2050, and by the end of the century, 30% to 50% of all species could be extinct. Katherine explains that a common myth people believe is that more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere makes plants grow better. It can make them grow better, but many other factors of global warming contribute to this making it not true. In fact, what ends up growing better and faster is weeds and invasive vegetation. They will begin to take over our crops rather than our crops growing better. Katherine then talks about renewable energy and the myths people believe. One myth is that renewable energy sources are very expensive, but solar prices are dropping rapidly and are now below fossil fuels. Another common misconception people believe is that wind turbines kill too many birds. It is true that 300,000 birds are killed each year by wind turbines, …show more content…
She did a very good job of keeping the videos interesting and easy to watch. What I found most interesting was the myths that she talked about many people believe. One major takeaway I got from these videos is that Texas plays a major role in carbon pollution, but they have the potential to be a huge leader in renewable energy. They are leading in wind energy, but if they made the leap to solar energy, the turn out could be amazing. Like I stated before, if they made a 150-mile by 150-mile solar farm, they could power the United States, and although that may be a large area of land taken by solar panels, the thought of it powering the United States is mind blowing. Unfortunately, Texas is rather stubborn and does not want to change its ways because they have many oil farms they want to use. Some other things I found interesting in her other videos was the myth that crops would grow better with more carbon in the atmosphere. I could maybe see how someone could think that because plants use carbon to survive, but in fact it is worse for our crops because it causes more weeds and invasive crops to thrive! I did know that wind turbines kill lots of birds, but I never realized the scale to witch other things kill birds, which is much larger than the scale to witch wind turbines kill birds. I also did not realize we were undergoing a mass extinction, and it is very scary to think that we could lose up to 50% of all
This change in the climate is causing a mass extinction similar to the one dinosaurs had 65 million years ago. Climate change is not entirely to blame for this mass extinction because encroaching on natural habitats and overfishing oceans is to blame as well, but climate change is also on the list. The dinosaurs at least had an excuse that volcanoes and asteroids were causing the mass extinction, today it is us that is causing it. If our current trends continue, 90% of our coral reefs could be wiped out by 2050, and by the end of the century, 30% to 50% of all species could be extinct. Katherine explains that a common myth people believe is that more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere makes plants grow better. It can make them grow better, but many other factors of global warming contribute to this making it not true. In fact, what ends up growing better and faster is weeds and invasive vegetation. They will begin to take over our crops rather than our crops growing better. Katherine then talks about renewable energy and the myths people believe. One myth is that renewable energy sources are very expensive, but solar prices are dropping rapidly and are now below fossil fuels. Another common misconception people believe is that wind turbines kill too many birds. It is true that 300,000 birds are killed each year by wind turbines, …show more content…
She did a very good job of keeping the videos interesting and easy to watch. What I found most interesting was the myths that she talked about many people believe. One major takeaway I got from these videos is that Texas plays a major role in carbon pollution, but they have the potential to be a huge leader in renewable energy. They are leading in wind energy, but if they made the leap to solar energy, the turn out could be amazing. Like I stated before, if they made a 150-mile by 150-mile solar farm, they could power the United States, and although that may be a large area of land taken by solar panels, the thought of it powering the United States is mind blowing. Unfortunately, Texas is rather stubborn and does not want to change its ways because they have many oil farms they want to use. Some other things I found interesting in her other videos was the myth that crops would grow better with more carbon in the atmosphere. I could maybe see how someone could think that because plants use carbon to survive, but in fact it is worse for our crops because it causes more weeds and invasive crops to thrive! I did know that wind turbines kill lots of birds, but I never realized the scale to witch other things kill birds, which is much larger than the scale to witch wind turbines kill birds. I also did not realize we were undergoing a mass extinction, and it is very scary to think that we could lose up to 50% of all