Get your DEMYSTICON 2024 tickets here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/demysticon-2024-tickets-727054969987 William Happer is a Professor of Physics at Princeton University, where he has spent decades working out the details of atomics, spectroscopy, and adaptive optics that are used in telescope arrays around the world to counteract the distortions caused by atmospheric currents. Harper has also served the Bush and Clinton administrations as director of the Department of Energy’s Office of Science, where he was tasked with allocating DOE funds to promising research projects. More recently, he was appointed senior director of the National Security Council office for emerging technologies by the Trump administration - an position that was cut short due to disagreements within the administration about Happer’s strong stance on the relationship between CO2 and climate. Namely, that there is not a strong relationship between CO2 and warming, and that mitigation strategies that are being rolled out around the world will do more harm than good. On the podcast we talk about science as a refuge from social conflict, leading DOE science policy in the nineties, the questionable success of the Ozone hole story, the future of energy, and the disaster of making the wrong moves. Tell us what you think in the comments or on our Discord: https://discord.gg/MJzKT8CQub Sign up for a yearly Patreon membership for discounted conference tickets: https://bit.ly/3lcAasB 00:00 Go! 00:00:18 What drives Will Happer 00:09:07 Science as refuge from social conflict 00:15:53 Degradation of free inquiry 00:23:56 Paying attention to paradoxes 00:41:27 Threshold & the quantum of action 00:45:51 Leading the DOE science 00:53:24 The ozone hole controversy 01:03:22 The energy future 01:09:14 The Sri Lanka disaster 01:16:29 Problems with the CO2 narrative 01:29:09 Existential fear as motivator 01:45:38 Reading the CO2 record from the distant past 01:59:29 Hidden motivations 02:13:54 Public v private academics 02:25:51 Science 2.0 02:37:12 Familials #PhysicsProfessor, #PrincetonUniversity, #AtomicPhysics, #Spectroscopy, #AdaptiveOptics, #TelescopeArrays, #AtmosphericCorrections, #DOEScience, #ResearchAllocation, #NationalSecurityCouncil, #EmergingTechnologies, #ClimateChangeDebate, #CO2andClimate, #SciencePolicy, #OzoneHole, #FutureOfEnergy, #ClimateMitigation, #PodcastDiscussion, #ScienceAndConflict, #SocialImpactOfScience Check our short-films channel, @DemystifySci: https://www.youtube.com/c/DemystifyingScience AND our material science investigations of atomics, @MaterialAtomics https://www.youtube.com/@MaterialAtomics Join our mailing list https://bit.ly/3v3kz2S PODCAST INFO: Anastasia completed her PhD studying bioelectricity at Columbia University. When not talking to brilliant people or making movies, she spends her time painting, reading, and guiding backcountry excursions. Shilo also did his PhD at Columbia studying the elastic properties of molecular water. When he's not in the film studio, he's exploring sound in music. They are both freelance professors at various universities. - Blog: http://DemystifySci.com/blog - RSS: https://anchor.fm/s/2be66934/podcast/rss - Donate: https://bit.ly/3wkPqaD - Swag: https://bit.ly/2PXdC2y SOCIAL: - Discord: https://discord.gg/MJzKT8CQub - Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/DemystifySci - Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/DemystifySci/ - Twitter: https://twitter.com/DemystifySci MUSIC: -Shilo Delay: https://g.co/kgs/oty671