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There are a few basic facts about climate change that we can be near-certain about: the global temperature is rising, this change is being driven by humans, and it represents a serious threat to a great many living things on the planet – humans included. But due to countless complexities and uncertainties, the trajectory of the global temperature in our deep past and, more pressingly, our near future is riddled with known unknowns. In Degrees of Uncertainty, the US video essayist Neil Halloran takes a data-centric deep dive into the climate crisis, emphasising the vital importance of rejecting fatalism when it comes to solving the problem. In doing so, he also charts the evolution of science itself since the age of enlightenment, and makes a case for science demanding scrutiny from an informed public, especially journalists. You can explore an interactive version of this video at Halloran’s website.
Via Kottke
Video by Neil Halloran
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Oceans and water
A stunning visualisation explores the intricate circulatory system of our oceans
5 minutes
video
Earth science and climate
Images carved into film form a haunting elegy for a disappearing slice of Earth
3 minutes
video
Engineering
Can monumental ‘ice stupas’ help remote Himalayan villages survive?
15 minutes
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Biology
‘Save the parasites’ may not be a popular rallying cry – but it could be a vital one
11 minutes
video
Earth science and climate
There’s a ‘climate bomb’ ticking beneath the Arctic ice. How can we prepare?
8 minutes
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Knowledge
An Indigenous myth and a geological survey elicit two ways of knowing one place
4 minutes
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War and peace
A war meteorologist’s riveting account of how the Allies averted a D-Day disaster
6 minutes
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Earth science and climate
The only man permitted in Bhutan’s sacred mountains chronicles humanity’s impact
22 minutes
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Metaphysics
Why mathematical truths exist with or without minds to consider them
8 minutes