Climate Change Perspectives / Embracing Suffering

Hosted byGeorge Noory

Climate Change Perspectives / Embracing Suffering

About the show

In the first half, speaker, author, and researcher on environmental issues, Steve Goreham argued that business should adopt policies that are sensibly green, continue to reduce air and water pollution, but avoid those aimed at stopping global warming and halting hydrocarbon use. With climate change activism and protests by youth at an all-time high, we're seeing a rise in "climatism"-- the belief that humans are causing dangerous global warming, he noted. There's a confusion by many that pollution is associated with global warming, he continued, but actually greenhouse gases like C02 and methane are invisible. Air and water pollution are declining around the world. The evidence, he suggested, is that climate change is dominated by natural not man-made factors.

While climatists and environmentalists like Al Gore may be sincere in their beliefs, Goreham pointed out the solutions they propose are not economically sound. Contrary to the catastrophic reports that are presented or projected, we don't have more or stronger storms, or more droughts and floods than in the historical past, he contended, and ocean levels are rising at just a small amount. Further, he considers efforts at creating 100% renewable energy to be misguided. Resource depletion is not happening, Goreham declared, and "we have centuries of oil and gas remaining" because of the hydrocarbon revolution from fracking and undersea methane hydrates full of natural gas.

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Research laser physicist William Arntz used proceeds from the sale of his software company to create the movie 'What the BLEEP Do We Know?.' In the latter half, he share his latest work on how humans create their own suffering, and humorous ways to actually embrace it. In his book, How to Suffer … In 10 Easy Steps, he takes a satirical approach to the concept of suffering and self-help, categorizing levels of unhappiness by constructing a "Sufferometer," and discussing how humans successfully stay mired in their misery, often by avoiding dealing with the issue that is troubling them.

He talked about "techno-suffering," the idea that people are "on" all the time, and overstimulated in a constant of whir of notification from their devices. Among some of the other ways humans bring on misery, he listed: not examining one's world view, dis-empowering oneself, desiring the unattainable, and staying out of the present moment. Arntz also talked about the difference between pain and suffering, and how they can be intertwined or independent, as well as have different thresholds.

During the last half-hour, George played his rendition of Edgar Allan Poe's The Tell Tale Heart.

News segment guests: Lauren Weinstein, Steve Kates

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