John Oliver takes on Coal Mining and Trump's stance on the matter

I wanted to post this because, despite John Oliver not being a journalist, neither Last Week Tonight being a news show, the fact that they show they investigation work when commenting makes it an interesting piece of information.

Also, John Oliver just showed a massive pair at the end of that video.

Comments

[Magenta Cat]

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Okay, I want to make clear that the following reply is impersonal and entirely not meaning to be offensive towards you.

With that said, the very first "rebuttal" and I lost any form of expectancy for that video's content. Not only he failed to prove wrong the claim he was accusing of being incorrect, but he claimed that a different fact needed to be rebutted to validate it. That's an outright fallacy, and not even an elaborated one.

Believe it or not, I watched the rest of the video and here was a far nastier and more offensive reply. However, here's the bottom line of it all, in a hopefully more civil and cold manner.

My main problem with this video is that its host has no problem in using fallacies, which for a journalist (student) is a big deal, because that means his argument is unsustainable for its own. There's also a complete disregard of sources confirmation.

Just to make my point, I did research on Germany's CO2 emissions and, although they did rise in 2016, it was the first time they did so ever since 2008, and the scientific consensus is that CO2 emissions can't go steadily down, as coal is not the only factor involved. There's also car industry and general oil usage and derivatives, both of which are still on the rise.

Then, there's the secondary text of his speech, which goes on the importance of money over anything else and denying climate change. The first one i can't go against on an impersonal level, as it's a matter of personal choice. However, I can, and will go against denying of climate change, on the grounds that I live in a country that has experienced historic extreme temperatures, and has seen a glaciar going the other direction because it's melting. Or, as I said it in a different context, we're having "this goddamn fuck-you-Trump-climate-change-is-real [extreme] cold weather".

But, with all that said, I'm inclined to understand from where the concern comes. Change is happening in the world. For better or worse, it's been always happening and will happen. Eppur si muove. The transition from oil and coal will leave a mark. It will be one of the first improvements from the First Industrial Revolution to last this long and become obsolete. But there's a need for that transition, as the alternative, while vastly more lucrative, relies on natural balance to be unbreakable, which is not the case.

Sorry if my own discourse doesn't match with your views, but I'm hopeful we can exchange the ideas and remain civil.