20 Hacker News comments link this video. Each one links back to its thread.
agentultraJan 2023Strongly recommends
The address Carl Sagan made in 1985 is well worth watching for those who remember those times and especially for those who weren't alive back then [0] People knew about this before you were born and decided their best interests were more important and they acted in wilful disregard for your life and the lives of everyone on this planet. They weren't ignorant. No facts were hidden from them that they could be forgiven for being misinformed. They knew with certainty what the science was revealing and spent money to discredit the science, cut funding to their own researchers, bought politicians, funded PR campaigns, and continued building their fossil fuel empires. Everything Carl Sagan said in that address has come to pass. It's wild to watch. [0] ▶ this video
in “Revealed: Exxon made ‘breathtakingly’ accurate climate predictions in 70s & 80s” · View on HN
mellingMar 2023Recommends
Time to watch Carl Sagan, almost 50 years ago, explain how our coal usage would be a big problem: ▶ this video A slow train wreck that was avoidable.
in “Trees Across the U.S. Are Sprouting Leaves Earlier Than Usual This Year” · View on HN
YellowStuDreggAug 2022Recommends
A quick google search gives us plenty of past published projections and how they fared: [link] You can also watch Carl Sagan break it down in front of congress back in 1985 for just 15 minutes of your time ▶ this video
in “Climate endgame: exploring catastrophic climate change scenarios” · View on HN
andersonmvdJan 2022Recommends
Look at how many details this guy (Carl Sagan) conveyed in his 15' speech: ▶ this video in a way that potentially everyone understood. I wonder if every explanation was like his, if nuance wouldn't be well communicated, even to large groups.
in “Nuanced communication usually doesn't work at scale” · View on HN
metobehonestMar 2026Cites it
>If doomers were good at predicting these events and how it will play out they'd all be rich as hell, but no, they are for the most part a bunch of broke whiners. Oh, the classic "if you're so smart then why aren't you rich" non argument. I'm sure Carl Sagan was a just whiny loser because he didn't figure out how to become a billionaire from knowing how physics works. His prediction that the planet would warm several degrees by the mid to late 21st century failed to reward him what he was owed. By the way we haven't even gotten halfway there yet, so your "shifting goalposts" thesis is null. People who push dangerous neoliberal propaganda like carbon capture or "infinite growth on a finite planet is possible" on the other hand do get very rich, and they don't even need to make good predictions. Such is the planet governed by pedophiles. ▶ this video
in “Thoughts on Slowing the Fuck Down” · View on HN
mellingJun 2025Cites it
We’ve had 40 years and we’re still burning all the coal Carl Sagan warned us about. ▶ this video So, after 40 years I’m a little tired of hearing it takes too long to build nuclear power plants. On the bright side, we’ve almost reached peak coal: [link]
in “Environmental Impacts of Artificial Intelligence” · View on HN
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mellingSep 2024Cites it
40 years ago Carl Sagan said to stop burning coal and make sure India and China don’t use all their reserves. Imagine how much more time we would have if we’d have listened. ▶ this video We should be very close to peak coal sometime this decade.
in “Antarctica's Ozone Hole Is Healing and Set to Recover by 2066” · View on HN
mellingJul 2024Cites it
How have we done in the last 40 years dealing with climate change? Peak fossil fuels Real Soon Now I’d say Carl Sagan nailed it: ▶ this video
in “Puerto Rico files $1B suit against fossil fuel companies” · View on HN
mellingAug 2023Cites it
“Gotta start somewhere” We’re about 40 years into “getting started”. One of the main problems was identified in 1985. ▶ this video
in “Montana loses fight against youth climate activists in landmark ruling” · View on HN
ojosilvaAug 2023Cites it
That's Al Gore at 11:28. ▶ this video If you watch the entire video, you'll see he's actively involved on this committee presentation, arguments and deliberation. [link]
in “Carl Sagan testifying before Congress in 1985 on climate change [video]” · View on HN
mellingJun 2023Cites it
We were warned about the coal problem in China/India 40 years ago. ▶ this video We were also warned that even if the United States solved the problem that it wasn’t enough. People think they can convince several billion people to give up meat but replacing several thousand coal power plants is too hard… “Local governments in China approved more new coal power in the first three months of 2023 than in the whole of 2021, according to official documents” [link]
in “New study suggests that lab-grown meat produces up to 25 times more CO2” · View on HN
hn8305823May 2023Cites it
Here is Carl Sagan's original essay on climate change in 1980 where he warned specifically about global cooling based on deforestation: [link] 5 years later he testified to Congress about the dangers of excess CO2 emissions causing runaway warming : ▶ this video On the surface these two messages may seem contradictory but underlying both is a consistent message that excessive man-made changes to a delicate highly non-linear system are dangerous to our survival as a species.
in “The Upper Atmosphere Is Cooling, Prompting New Climate Concerns” · View on HN
2479411230May 2023Cites it
> Can we explore this issue from a not-panicked perspective? I think we tried doing that. See, for example, Carl Sagan testifying before Congress in 1985 [1]. I _wish_ that fossil fuels could be on your list. I think a main reason why nothing is being done is that oil is big business! Oil companies have toppled a democratically elected government because that government was cutting into their oil profits [2]. Moving away from fossil fuels would cut into oil's bottom line, so they paid lots of money to discredit and oppose climate change research for decades [3]. [1]: ▶ this video [2]: [link] [3]: [link]
in “Scientists warned about climate change in 1965. Nothing was done” · View on HN
mellingApr 2023Cites it
100,000 flights a day, every single day of the year 2% of emissions. Coal power plants 25% of emissions. So many people going after aviation, it explains how we got this far into the problem. Carl Sagan warned everyone about coal 40 years ago. ▶ this video So, instead we talk about aviation
in “A passenger aircraft that flies around the world at Mach 9? Sure, why not” · View on HN
mellingOct 2022Cites it
I hear all kinds of narratives on this. According to this EPA article, US emissions are down 20% since 2005. [link] Of course, global emissions are way up but we were warned 40 years ago about global coal use. ▶ this video
in “California’s greenhouse gas reductions could be wiped out by 2020 wildfires” · View on HN
mellingSep 2022Cites it
That’s not correct. There are large emission issues that would should tackle first. How we generate electricity is one of them. Carl Sagan warned us almost 40 years ago that coal would be a future problem. ▶ this video That was clearly a large problem that could have been addressed, and still needs to be ASAP. Coal-fired power stations emit over 10 Gt of carbon dioxide each year,[4] about one fifth of world greenhouse gas emissions, so are the single largest cause of climate change. 8500 coal power plants in the world. “Coal-fired power stations emit over 10 Gt of carbon dioxide each year,[4] about one fifth of world greenhouse gas emissions, so are the single largest cause of climate change.” [link] So, we start the discussion with air travel, trying to reduce 2% to under 2%. While we’ve ignored 20% of global emissions. We actually cost ourselves decades. So many miracles needed by 2050, when we could be talking 2070. Now, let’s just tell everyone we need to do everything at once.
in “Unequal consumption lies at the heart of the climate crisis” · View on HN
mellingJul 2022Cites it
Sounds more like a long-term plan… “It will take €10 trillion of investment by 2050 for Europe to transform its energy infrastructure” In case anyone is wondering how we got here, it required almost 40 years of not doing much to solve the problem. We’ll need another 30 years of effort. I imagine because we waited so long, we shortened our window to solve the problem. Thus requiring more money and a couple additional miracles. The multi-generational effort did turn out to be a problem. And all that coal in China. Carl Sagan understood the issues so well. ▶ this video
in “Europe Can Replace Russian Gas and Still Achieve Its Net-Zero Emissions Goal” · View on HN
mellingMay 2022Cites it
It’s 2022 and 40% of global electricity is from coal. We just hit 10% from solar and wind. Here’s Carl Sagan from 1985: ▶ this video He said China would use all that coal and they did. We lost decades of time. Now we need a few additional miracles.
in “California Joins Bid to Save Nuclear Power” · View on HN
jaltekruseApr 2022Cites it
I think it is important to remember that anti-renewables messaging has been around for a very long time. The panels might have needed to come off for repairs but definitely could have been put back up. Casually discarding even a public relations action like this likely had negative impacts on the discussion and many people taking the issue seriously for years to come. I don't know specifically how anti-renewables Regan was personally, but he definitely was the leader of a party that most strongly fought climate change messaging and actions in recent years. Here is Carl Sagan testifying before congress in 1985 ▶ this video Admittedly this hasn't necessarily been as strongly polarizing as it was during the 2010s, there was a time that it was a bipartisan issue that unified both parties in the interest of reducing foreign energy dependence. [link]
in “Jimmy Carter's White House Solar Panels (2019)” · View on HN
asix66Dec 2021Cites it
Almost. But those that did were not listened to as in this case where Carl Sagan clearly explains the situation before policy makers almost 40 yrs ago [1] 1: ▶ this video
in “Life Circa 2050 Will Be Bad.” · View on HN