AP PHOTOS: Hallmarks of climate change seen in floods, fires and drought around the globe
Updated 6:02 PM EDT, September 17, 2024

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The hallmarks of climate change — extreme heat and drought; larger, more intense wildfires and supercharged hurricanes, typhoons and rainstorms that lead to catastrophic flooding — are being seen and felt around the globe.

Drought in Brazil. Wildfires in Portugal, Peru and the Western U.S. Severe flooding swamping Central Europe, Southeast Asia and Western Africa.

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Elon Musk (01:06:12):
Yeah, absolutely. I should probably say something about maybe my views on climate change and oil and gas because I think they’re probably different from what most people would assume because my views are actually pretty, I think moderate in this regard, which is that I don’t think we should vilify the oil and gas industry and the people that have worked very hard in those industries to provide the necessary energy to support the economy. And if we were to stop using oil and gas right now, we would all be starving and the economy would collapse. So I don’t think it’s right to vilify the oil and gas industry. And the world has a certain demand for oil and gas, and it’s probably better if the United States provides that than some other countries, and it would help with prosperity in the US. And at the same time, obviously my view is like we do over time want to move to a sustainable energy economy because eventually, you run out of oil and gas. It’s not infinite, and there is some risk.

(01:07:20)
I think the risk is not as high as a lot of people say it is with respect to global warming. But I think if you just keep increasing the cost per million in the atmosphere long enough, eventually it actually simply gets uncomfortable to breathe. People don’t realize this. If you go past a thousand parts per million of CO2, you start getting headaches and nausea. And so we’re now in the sort 400 range. We’re adding, I think about roughly two plus per million per year. So it still gives us… What it means is we still have quite a bit of time, so it’s not like we don’t need to rush and we don’t need to stop farmers from farming or prevent people from having steaks or-

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Yeah. Yeah. Well, my estimate would be a little more aggressive than that, but it’s not the sort of we’re all going to die in five years stuff. That’s obviously BS. But my view is if you just look at sort of the parts per million that increments every year, you get sort of two or three parts per million every year of CO2. I think some of that, it’s problematic if it accelerates, if you start going from two or three-

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Elon Musk (01:09:48):

Yeah. Yeah. Well, my estimate would be a little more aggressive than that, but it’s not the sort of we’re all going to die in five years stuff. That’s obviously BS. But my view is if you just look at sort of the parts per million that increments every year, you get sort of two or three parts per million every year of CO2. I think some of that, it’s problematic if it accelerates, if you start going from two or three-

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Elon Musk (01:10:16):

… to say five. And then there may be some situations where you get a step change increase in the CO2. And I think we don’t want to get too close to 1000 PPM because that’s actually makes it uncomfortable to breathe. Just existing in 1000 PPM CO2 is uncomfortable. That’s considered an industrial hazard.

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