A brief history of the climate crisis
The Story
The Times
3.9 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 12 August 2021
⏱️ 30 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
How did we arrive at such a sophisticated understanding of climate change, and yet still end up on the edge of disaster?
Today: how 165 years of science and politics led to the United Nations declaring 'code red for humanity' this week – and why the story very nearly turned out differently.
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Guest: Dr Alice Bell, author of Our Biggest Experiment: A History of the Climate Crisis.
Host: David Aaronovitch.
Clips: BBC, Sky News, CNN, DW News, Al Jazeera, ABC News, ITN, Richard Nixon Presidential Library, Jimmy Carter Presidential Library, Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, Margaret Thatcher Foundation, WJW-TV8 Cleveland, CBS, Shell, ExxonMobil, Competitive Enterprise Institute.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | How did we get here? |
| 0:07.0 | The UN Secretary General calling the reporter code red for humanity. |
| 0:10.5 | The evidence shows we're facing a future of extremes if changes don't happen now. |
| 0:14.8 | 1.5 degrees Celsius in the next 20 years. |
| 0:18.3 | Now that is 10 years sooner than expected. |
| 0:22.2 | How did we arrive at such a sophisticated understanding of climate change and global warming and yet |
| 0:28.3 | still end up on the edge of disaster? |
| 0:32.2 | The world listened, but didn't hear, and as a result, climate change is a problem that |
| 0:38.3 | is here now. |
| 0:41.6 | This is a story of remarkable science and catastrophic dithering, and at each stage things very nearly |
| 0:49.0 | turned out differently. |
| 0:54.6 | You're listening to stories of our times and the times and the Sunday times. |
| 0:57.6 | I'm David Aronovich. |
| 0:59.2 | Today, a brief history of the climate crisis. |
| 1:06.2 | On Monday, the UN issued a code red for humanity. |
| 1:11.6 | The report of its Climate Change Committee said for the first time that human activity |
| 1:16.4 | was unequivocally warming of the planet. |
| 1:19.4 | Heaviest downpour in 1000 years. |
| 1:22.3 | The world of water 12 meters high. |
| 1:24.6 | Where large swathes of non-profits are underwater. |
| 1:27.9 | People have been trapped in this subway. |
| 1:30.1 | Fire crews are battling fires tonight on a nearly unprecedented scale. |
... |
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