Neil deGrasse Tyson shuts down climate change deniers

On Sunday night's Cosmos, Neil deGrasse Tyson tackled the issue of climate change head-on.

Tyson compared the carbon dioxide released by "those damn volcanoes" with that from humans' coal and oil burning, and the results are staggering. He found that the largest estimate of all of Earth's volcanic carbon emissions — 500 million tons of CO2 — is "not even two percent of the 30 billion tons of CO2 that our civilization is cranking out every year."

It's not a coincidence that Tyson chose yesterday's episode to address climate change: Today, President Obama will release his administration's plan to reduce emissions from America's power plants. Watch Tyson's segment, "Are we the problem?" (here's a hint: yes) at the Cosmos site.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up