Smog Cloud Silver Lining

Radiolab

WNYC Studios

History, Science, Documentary, Natural Sciences, Society & Culture

4.6 • 44.5K Ratings

🗓️ 22 September 2023

⏱️ 32 minutes

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Summary

Summer 2023 was a pretty scary one for the planet. Global temperatures in June and July reached record highs. And over in the North Atlantic Sea, the water temperature spiked to off-the-chart levels. Some people figured that meant we were about to go over the edge, doomsday. In the face of this, Hank Green (a long time environmentalist and science educator behind SciShow, Crash Course, and more), took to social media to put things in context, to keep people focused on what we can do about climate change. In the process, he came across a couple studies that suggested a reduction in sulfurous smog from cargo ships may have accidentally warmed the waters. And while Hank saw a silver lining around those smog clouds, the story he told—about smog clouds and cooling waters and the problem of geoengineering—took us on a rollercoaster ride of hope and terror. Ultimately, we had to wrestle with the question of what we should be doing about climate change, or what we should even talk about.Special thanks to Dr. Colin Carson and Avishay Artsy. EPISODE CREDITS: Reported by - Lulu Millerwith help from - Alyssa Jeong PerryProduction help from - Alyssa Jeong PerryOriginal music and sound design contributed by - Jeremy Bloomwith mixing help from - Jeremy BloomFact-checking by - Natalie Middletonand Edited by - N/A CITATIONS: Videos: Sci Show (https://www.youtube.com/@SciShow) Crash Course (https://www.youtube.com/crashcourse) Articles: The article Hank came across (https://zpr.io/zKYxWht3Nmy7) Books: Under a White Sky (https://zpr.io/zKYxWht3Nmy7): The Nature of the Future by Elizabeth Kolbert Our newsletter comes out every Wednesday. It includes short essays, recommendations, and details about other ways to interact with the show. Sign up (https://radiolab.org/newsletter)! Radiolab is supported by listeners like you. Support Radiolab by becoming a member of The Lab (https://members.radiolab.org/) today. Follow our show on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailing radiolab@wnyc.org. Leadership support for Radiolab’s science programming is provided by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Science Sandbox, a Simons Foundation Initiative, and the John Templeton Foundation. Foundational support for Radiolab was provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

Transcript

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0:00.0	I've scared myself over and over and over again. I've made myself cry. Oh, really? Oh, yeah, yeah.
0:08.2	It's so hard for me to picture you feeling afraid because you're just such a like big dude.
0:14.4	Oh, Lulu here. But the other day I sat down with Radio Lab's director of sound design,
0:21.6	Dylan Keith. It was late at night. I was mixing this piece on zombies to talk to him about super
0:27.8	freak out. What he actually does on our show. Well, which was something I thought I understood. He
0:36.9	smooths out the cuts in the dialogue. He writes pretty music. But when he actually started explaining
0:44.0	it to me, I realized there's an argument. I had no idea. Right from dialogue editing, we are deciding
0:52.6	like how much humanity do we want to be presenting to people? What do you mean? Well, if someone
0:58.7	feels particularly nervous being on the air, for example, you might want to for the sake of the
1:04.0	story, allow that nervousness to breathe. You might want to breathe. And the more he talked about
1:08.8	what he was doing, the more I started to see how the choices he was making about pacing with timing
1:16.0	and the right mood or music. I can draw some sort of emotional qualities out of the words. We're
1:25.0	journalistic ones. Like he is sitting there thinking really hard about how to give listeners
1:33.0	a slice of complexity, both what a person is intentionally saying with their words and unintentionally
1:41.6	revealing with their behaviors. Yeah, totally. It kind of blew my mind.
1:48.0	And the thing is Dylan is just one of 22 people on this team thinking obsessively about every choice
1:55.1	they make in the name of bringing you audio that showcases complexity that makes you feel that
2:00.8	doesn't waste your time, teaches you something new. And I'm just coming on here for one last time
2:06.9	during the fall pledge season to say that if work like this matters to you now is an amazing time
2:13.2	to support us. The best way to do it is to join our membership program The Lab. I will admit I
2:18.8	don't usually sign up for these things, but it is super easy. You just go to radialab.org slash
2:25.9	join radialab.org slash join. You commit to putting in a few bucks a month. Maybe like a couple
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