Climate Scientist Rap

The people at Hungrybeast sometimes have a weird sense of humour. As such, when they decided to comment on the lack of action on climate change, and the lack of focus on actual science - they did it with a rap performance. (Warning: coarse language)



So why did they do it? Dan Ilic wrote the lyrics after talking to the scientists in the video.

They talked about how climate feedbacks ... when permafrost melts there’s a stack of methane that’s released which just adds exponentially to the problem

Dr Ailie Gallant (University of Melbourne) took part because it "highlighted the issue of unqualified opinions on climate science by politicians, economists etc. in the media".

I think the job of satirical humour is to make people laugh, but then to make people think. I hope Hungry Beast’s rap makes people think about the importance of considering who is presenting opinions on the science of climate change in the media.

Professor Roger Jones (the older scientist in the video) speaks about the scientific concern about why people believe certain things. "It is increasingly clear to the scientific community that the so-called rational form of decision making is only utilised by some people, some of the time."

He describes the two categories of denial. "Defensive" is where people deny the evidence because the consequences are "too hard for people to contemplate".

Offensive denial shows someone’s blind self interest where they’re willing to invest time and money as the tobacco industry has and certain people are now doing, to delay decision making and confuse the evidence.

He describes this kind of denial as far more offensive than the a bit of profanity in the video.
[More from the scientists here]