we went to Antarctica to see firsthand
just how fast the world's ice is melting
and then Bangladesh to see the impact of
these rising sea levels this is my
debrief every season of ice has had a
story on global warming or sea level
rise and every season will at least have
one story
why because I think it's the biggest
story that affects all of humanity I
think that this story we go a little bit
deeper into the debate why is it a
debate why are people still saying this
isn't happening
and I think that's what's frustrating is
that despite global consensus there's a
political and economic reason why people
continue to deny this even though in
many cases they know the science is
correct which I find particularly
insidious so I don't think there's a way
that I can wake up every morning and
look in the mirror without doing stories
that tell the truth about climate change
you know I think climate change deniers
are people who view themselves as
they're doing a job they get paid they
get paid by big oil they get paid by
petrochemical companies they get paid by
Koch brothers they get paid to go out
there and create a feeling that this
isn't actually true the biggest problem
going to the climate change denier
conference was saying well we're gonna
be journalists you get to tell your side
of the story and then we're gonna take
your story and then we're gonna go to
scientists and NASA and we're gonna go
to the top you know experts in the world
and see if that's actually true and if
it holds up which of course it doesn't
the general consensus on deniers is that
there's just little to be done what the
scientists are saying is you don't
understand Greenland will melt
Antarctica will melt it's just a case of
how fast now if we can get off our
addiction to oil and stop filling the
atmosphere with carbon then indeed we
can slow that speed if you have ten feet
of sea-level rise over the course of a
hundred years or 200 years or 300 years
you can adapt you can you can you know
make sea walls you can slowly move
people you can do things but if you have
ten feet of sea-level rise in three
years in four years in five years you
have global economic chaos
you have migrations of people you have D
stratification of power systems it's
complete madness you can already see the
effects that are happening now but can
you imagine what's happening in
Bangladesh happening everywhere else in
the world well that's in the mail but
that means we have to wake up which is
why we do pieces like this I think what
you see in Bangladesh is interesting
because as they said in the piece it's
so flat a little tiny bit of sea-level
rise goes a long way there's a lot of
countries where the majority of cities
are at sea level and all of these cities
are gearing up to try to combat this
because they realize that you know
they're in real trouble and in fact they
just had the largest United Nations
meeting on the environment because
politicians are waking up realizing this
is probably the number one political
issue that globally we have consensus on
I mean Antarctica's massive it's just a
huge huge huge entity incredibly
difficult to get to vast area all made
up of ice which is all the fresh water
we need or or will ever need but if we
dump that into the ocean
you have exponential sea-level rise so I
mean it's just it's inspiring and
overpowering and overwhelming and it's
really hard to get across the scale and
I hope that we did a little bit of that
story justice well I understand why he
says that because we'd like to believe
that and I would like to believe that
and statistics have shown that you know
40 50 % of America didn't believe it was
happening and now those numbers are
rapidly decreasing I think you know
people are finally waking up because you
know they see it with their own eyes and
I think that as long as you have
leadership saying this doesn't exist as
long as you have these you know paid
groups and paid bloggers and paid
deniers saying it doesn't exist then
you're going to get people who believe
it that's what's worrying to me is there
still an overwhelming huge number of
people in America who believe that
global warming is a hoax who believe
that sea-level rise is a hoax why
because their leaders have told them
that which is
you
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