James Burke : Connections, Episode 6, "Thunder in the Skies", 1 of 5 (CC)

[akulkis]

Opening shots are in Detroit... .the 5-tower complex on the waterfront is the Renaissance Center, and when he's first on camera, he's riding in one of the Ren-Cen elevators, (which travel in the vertical tubes attached to the side of each of the 5 towers)

Appropriate for his comment "this is people's vision of the future" because when it was built, the interior of the RenCen looked like something out of Star Wars, and because talking about production lines .. Detroit is the obvious place.

[awshucks]

Sadly, James does not highlight the fact that, even with their bellies literally crammed with bread...it did no good. The lack of sunshine during the growing season meant that what wheat did not mould in the field, was severely lacking in nutritional value (no sun, no energy transfer).

Global Warming...from this point forward, the earth distance relative to the outermost area of the sun...shrinks. We get marginally hotter every year from this point forward. Not man made at all.

[seks03]

what idiot disliked this?

[Frank14612]

James Burke, you are a genius and a humanitarian -- a rare combination. Thank you!

[jaymoe67]

Why is the challange of learning what has allready been learned so dispicabel to the rightous. Most Catholic priests will admitt to any one who asks that the bible is not a source of set in stone knowledge. Science has surpassed what the Bible brings to us, many of these monk/scholars admit that religion is a force of community to bring us together during the dark times, science is what advances us forward.

[pseudocute]

I love it, you listen to one damn travelling poet and BAM the ice age has already hit.

[alpha18412]

James Burke is the real Doc Savage; Man of Bronze.

[daddyofjames]

JB doing programmes in the frozen wastes when men were men..Non of this namby pamby crash helmets on skidoos, wrapped in gortex on the off chance he'd get hypothermia! Oh no... Only a duvet jacket and normal trousers and shoes for our James!

[JamesBurkeWeb]

Not even an arctic leisure suit!

[kewlmynd99]

James suggests that the lack of sun spots may have been the trigger of the climate change discussed...

Recently I have read the current solar cycles have been getting more chaotic and the current solar minimum is taking it's time to change.

But yet, here we are with no ice age.

Perhaps suprisingly this is because the expected ice age is being offset by our carbon gas emissions, and if that were the case, you probably won't want to be around when sun activity returns to normal!

[JamesBurkeWeb]

Actually I think ... (is it this episode?) he says that we're in a "mini" ice age right now, possibly due to sunspots or whatever.

Whether or not the temperature is "returning to normal" or going beyond what it should be is a matter of concern definitely.

Previously sudden shifts in the earth's climate had dramatic effects but with 10 billion+ people now, most of them living in poor countries and near the coast lines (Indonesia for instance) a sudden shift up could be devastating.

[Bondianwolf]

In reply to 99 and JBW - thank goodness your own bias' are completely removed from your theories. Here's another take. JB says himself (in 1978): Scientists don't KNOW why there was a mini ice age. Sunspots? Volcanic activity? If those things could have such a dramatic effect on the climate in a short period of time BEFORE the industrial revolution, couldn't they have the same effect (both warming or cooling) during/after the industrial revolution?

[Bondianwolf]

(continuation)

Mankind has spent the last 10,000 years trying to predict the future, especially the climate future. How many times have scientists had to correct themselves in that 10,000 years? In 1975 on the cover of Newsweek and Time we were heading into a new ice age. 10 years later we were gonna melt all the ice. It serves the collective human ego to believe we have all the answers after a few parlor tricks like atom splitting and curing polio.

[Bondianwolf]

(continuation)

Maybe less hubris and more humility would serve this debate in light of the recent scandals involving agenda driven "science" results. Are we genius Gods if we can't even control over-population with 10 forms of proven birth control? Lets connect the dots. Some very frustrated people upset species are disappearing due to habitat loss. Failed efforts at controlling over-population which drives habitat-loss. Successful effort at reversing habitat loss by a return to agrarian days

[Bondianwolf]

(lastly)

I could be totally wrong. But there's the difference between me and the people saying the sky is falling. I admit, because I am human and we have spent almost all of our evolution being wrong about everything from God to a flat-earth, that I distrust anyone who tells me they KNOW WHAT THE FUTURE brings and for me to question them is heresy. Human beings are flawed, weak, cowardly and not all that bright. We need to stop making God in our image and start admitting how little we know.

[ToniBabelony]

@Bondianwolf

IMHO this is a wrong idea, as people need to believe in something else, other then themselves. A believe in science is to believe in fact, though not all answers are given. Faith dwells from what we don't know, but what we believe. Knowledge is what we know and what is fact. Not all is known, so we can't put our full commitment in believing what knowledge has to offer. Humans need something they can not grasp to feed the void of what we don't know, and that will always remain.

[AtheistAnarchoRudi]

@ToniBabelony philosophy for the win. you bring up beautiful points.

[darkmiles22]

@Bondianwolf JB admitted that scientists had a lot of theories but no evidence for what caused the Little Ice Age, and the LIA wiki article confirms that this is still the prevailing scientific opinion.

We have a lot more data about what is happening to the climate in more recent decades however, and scientists are in nearly unanimous agreement (>98%!) that human influence is on the climate is very likely having a net warming effect.

en.wikipediadotorg/wiki/Attrib­ution_of_recent_climate_change

[darkmiles22]

@Bondianwolf JB admitted that scientists had a lot of theories but no evidence for what caused the Little Ice Age, and the LIA wiki article confirms that this is still the prevailing scientific opinion.

We have a lot more data about what is happening to the climate in more recent decades however, and scientists are in nearly unanimous agreement (>98%!) that human influence is on the climate is very likely having a net warming effect.

cf wikipedia: Attribution_of_recent_climate_­change

[davepetr]

Very cool show, especially liked the bits about Joseph Priestly, if only because I live right near where he tried to set up a sort of utopian society, here in Northumberland Co. Pennsylvania

[JamesBurkeWeb]

Now that *is* interesting!

What did they base their utopian society on? I mean, was it some specific "ism" or just making it up as they went along?

[davepetr]

Well, it never really got off the ground, since no one from England could afford to move there. He was fervent believer in what was known as "phlogiston" theory, which is a defunct theory about oxidation and combustion. He called oxygen "deflogistated air". Before I moved here, I was always taught that Lavoissier had discovered oxygen, but since we are a bit more Anglophilic than Francophilic here in the US, I can see how we gave credit to the Britt...

[JamesBurkeWeb]

Ugh. You needn't elaborate further.

- JBW

[felipepiresrj]

Thak you soooo much for posting !

they should teach like that in schools...the WHY of things...

[JamesBurkeWeb]

They should.

Problem is, most teachers don't really know for one thing. And secondly they tend to lose their passion for the subjects they teach over and over again.

I think perhaps it would be a good idea if there were no such thing as a "math teacher" say. Maybe it would be better they should just randomly shuffled teachers and subjects around every week or so to keep *them* interested!

Truth be told, many subscribers here are in fact teachers trying to learn how to teach better.

- JBW

[JamesBurkeWeb]

oops:

"would be better if they"

not

"would be better they should"

---

In attempting to rephrase in order to erase the word "should" (which I have vowed never to use again!) I produced a meaningless sentence ;)

Live-n-learn.

- JBW

[tnecklover]

I loved this series!

[MartiW]

This is brilliant, Thank you!

[JamesBurkeWeb]

You're very welcom. Enjoy the shows.

- JBW