Thoughts, Rants, and Other Stuff

“TO ALL OF YOU…WE ARE IN A WONDERFUL, FASCINATING, CAPTIVATING, GLORIOUSLY DEEP HOLE DEBT TO YOU AND WE LOVE IT DOWN HERE SO MUCH. ” — Hank Green

This was posted by Hank a few minutes after the vlogbrothers channel hit one million subscribers. While I feel honored to be part of a community with such generous and honest hosts, I disagree with your sentiment… the debt is ours to bear.

For every book John wrote that allowed us escape, for the cynical viewer finding hope in your engaged and active young community you built, for teaching the value of critical thinking and empathy, for the tireless work you guys give to bring us things like crashcourse, scishow, hankgames, LBD, VidCon, while still maintaining your vlog, for being there (oh god now I’m crying) in the deep dark hole of despair and depression and anxiety with so many of us without even knowing who we are helping in the recovery by just being you, and for continuing to never let each and every one of us never FTBA… thank you.

The debt is ours Mr Green brothers. We are entertained and we are enlightened because of your efforts, and we are strengthened by the community formed around you guys. While the center may not hold if it is a man, an idea, a feeling, is immortal and eternal. This is your gift to us.

Tomorrow at noon eastern, P4A begins. It is an annual project created by the vlogbrothers and participated in by many YouTube creators and consumers to promote charities as well as raise money for charities. This tumblr will be active in the event and thus be prepared for links and videos to be shared on this tumblr over the next couple of days. I encourage everyone to take time out of their day to watch videos, look into charities, and volunteer time and money during this holiday season. For more information about the Project for Awesome and ways to donate, I encourage you to visit http://www.projectforawesome.com and http://www.indiegogo.com/p4a2012/

Dear Hank Green,

I enjoy content you create. From SciShow to Vlogbrothers you are always interesting and engaging… except on climate change.

I’ve attempted in several different ways to engage you or anyone at all on the subject many times, but each time I’m either laughed at, comment downvoted, or message either overlooked, not seen, or not replied to. I understand this. It is the nature of the beast. But try as I might to engage you or ANYONE on the matter, it never happens.

First let me state that I am a full fledged believer in climate change. It is happening. You cannot deny the data. In that much I agree with you. However I have not found a single well sourced peer reviewed study that states this is solely because of fossil fuel usage by man. I likewise have not found a single well sourced peer reviewed document that states lowering or even eliminating man made greenhouse gases would make a significant difference. A difference? Yes. But not a significant one.

In fact, everything that I HAVE found would appear to lean the opposite direction. Scientist studying climate change cannot agree on how much of an impact humans have on these gases. The reports I’ve read range anywhere from just under 1% to as high as 10% (of course most all reports leave out water vapor but that is a rant for another time). When reading summaries of these reports it is easy to be misled as well. For instance methane and CO2 make up a large portion of current GHGs, yet there are many non-human sources of this gas as well.

I have not found a single well sourced peer reviewed study that states this is NOT a natural event. In fact, in my searches I’ve even found one study that states if man made GHGs are the cause of climate change it is very likely that they have already stopped an ice age. (I just spent 30 mins looking for the study but with the election garbage I couldn’t find it).

So I will pose this question to you again as I have countless times before. Can you point to one single well sourced peer reviewed study that does not implicate but ascertains that man made (and ONLY man made) GHGs are the cause of climate change or one that states if tomorrow we woke up in a completely carbon free society that our climate would even eventually cease to change (cause it does take a long ass time for those particles to decay/reform/whatever they do… except water vapor). If not, all the talk about cars and industry being “green” needs to stop until we DO have that data and instead we need forecasts and those same industries to help prepare goods and services for whatever awaits.

I hope you can enlighten me if I’m ignorant. For all my searching I’ve found plenty of news articles. What I have NEVER found is the actual studies they say they are citing or the studies do not say what the news articles say they do (usually misinformation/spin). To your credit you have never once in any video stated it was man’s fault. You have, however, implicated him/us several times and continue to live the lifestyle of one who believes this. Don’t make me feel it, make me believe it. Show me science!

Lastly, and this is important, THIS IS NOT WHAT I FEEL. THIS IS WHAT MY OWN RESEARCH AND UNDERSTANDING HAS LEAD ME TO BELIEVE SCIENCE’S PERSPECTIVE TRULY IS.

In short, I’m asking you, begging you, HAVE BEEN PLEADING with you or ANYONE else, give me science! My cries have either fallen on deaf ears or there is no science to back up this position.

Sincerely
One pissed off person who is sick of hearing about (personally) unsubstantiated claims that its all our fault.