In late May I interviewed John Kotcher regarding his survey that showed physicians worldwide had a limited understanding of the climate crisis and its health effects. For example, 41% said they lacked sufficient knowledge to discuss the topic and less than half also believed the climate crisis is responsible for heat-related illnesses and increases in vector borne diseases. Since the climate crisis will pose increasingly harmful human health consequences, especially for Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries, health professionals would be well served by understanding the physics of climate change or what is causing planetary warming. Concerning recent climate crisis-related events: North American just suffered its hottest June in recorded history; two recent studies recently concluded the climate crisis presently causes five million deaths annually and the earth’s energy imbalance approximately doubled between 2005 and 2019; and, a leaked UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report (the report is expected to be published later this year) warns a series of thresholds or tipping points may soon be crossed that will leave policy makers unable to control of limit global warming - meaning the earth will experience run away warming.
During this 34 minute conversation Dr. Krauss begins by noting climate change or the climate crisis, like evolution, is empirical fact. Dr. Krauss goes on to discuss in detail how and why the planet has warmed by on average 1.3 degrees Fahrenheit moreover over the past 60 years due to human-caused emissions of greenhouse gases (moreover from the burning of fossil fuels) or approximately 10 billion tons annually. His discussion includes noting emissions to date will largely persist in the atmosphere for the next 1,000 years, that the planet will continue to warm if and when human-caused emissions are eliminated largely due to continued ocean warming and he discusses a few nonlinear feedback loops, for example, the release of carbon via melting permafrost, that will exacerbate the climate crisis. Dr. Krauss concludes by explaining why he wrote the work or how it may help policymakers address the issue.
Dr. Lawrence Krauss has recently retired as Director of The Origins Project at Arizona State University and was a professor at ASU’s School of Earth and Space Exploration and Department of Physics. He now serves as President of The Origins Foundation and hosts The Origins Podcast. Dr. Krauss 's work as a theoretical physicist included study of the interface between elementary particle physics and cosmology, focusing on the origin and evolution of the universe and the fundamental structure of matter. He has written more than 300 scientific publications and ten popular books, including the international best-sellers, "The Physics of Star Trek," "A Universe from Nothing" and "The Greatest Story Ever Told--So Far." He writes regularly for magazines and newspapers, including The New York Times and The New Yorker, and frequently discusses his work via radio and television programming. He is the recipient of the highest awards from all three US physics societies and received the National Science Board's2012 Public Service Award. Dr. Krauss earned his B.Sc. in math and physics with honors from Carleton University and his Ph.D. in physics from MIT.
Information on the book is at: https://posthillpress.com/book/the-physics-of-climate-change.
A video of a Dr. Krauss physics of climate change lecture is at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lApLD5g1Nrs.
Dr. Lawrence Krauss Discusses His Recently Published Book, "The Physics of Climate Change" (July 8th)