Topic: Computer Simulations

The hosts challenge the notion of a total scientific consensus on climate change, citing a letter signed by 30,000 dissenting scientists. They revisit a 1989 Reuters report where a UN official predicted that entire nations would be wiped out by the year 2000 if global warming was not reversed. The reliance on computer simulations for long-term environmental forecasting is criticized as unreliable.

The hosts examine the methodology of the IPCC report, which relies heavily on computer simulations and "qualitative levels of confidence." They explain that the widely cited "95% certainty" figure is an extrapolation of the term "extremely likely" rather than a direct statistical fact. They argue the report is based on consensus and agreement rather than definitive proof.

Physicist Michio Kaku appeared on CNN with Anderson Cooper to explain the unique formation of Hurricane Sandy as a collision of three distinct air masses. The storm resulted from a tropical hurricane merging with an Arctic jet stream and a western storm, creating a massive weather system 800 miles across. Kaku noted that current computer simulations struggle to model such complex three-way atmospheric collisions accurately.