What do extreme weather events and popcorn have in common? For one, they tend to pop up more often when we turn up the heat.
Climate scientist Adam Levy, better known as Climate Adam, explains the connection between climate change and extreme weather in a quirky video, where he puts on a dress and goes on a hot date … with himself. Mid-date, he embarks on an experiment, microwaving two batches of popcorn kernels on different heat settings. To no one’s surprise, more kernels pop on high heat — and the “date” doesn’t end well.
“Of course, we can’t say which particular pops were caused by the extra heat and which would have popped either way,” Levy explains. “But we can say that the extra heat made popping more likely.”
The same thing goes for warming up Earth’s atmosphere: “We can say that climate change is making certain extreme weather events happen more often.” That’s the not-so-fun reality, but it certainly sounds better when said in Levy’s British accent!
