The October 2015 “This is Not Cool” video produced for Yale Climate Connections by independent videographer Peter Sinclair features well-known climate scientists emphasizing the need for broader public understanding of climate change moral and ethical issues.

“What is our responsibility here? What is right, and what is wrong?” asks James White, PhD, of the University of Colorado. “In the end, economic arguments are powerful but not as strong as ‘What is right?’”

Texas Tech University’s Katharine Hayhoe, PhD, agrees that “we need to start with the values,” and Stanford University’s Ken Caldeira, PhD, says: “There’s just a fundamental issue of morality . . . Our responsibility is to leave options open for future generations.”

The video shows radio personality Rush Limbaugh accusing NASA of lying concerning its recent finding of flowing water on Mars as, in his view, it has lied repeatedly concerning the warming climate. The video follows with reports and examples of scientists decades ago having voiced concerns about fossil fuels, carbon dioxide, and climate change, including scientists from Exxon.

It closes with a Shell Oil Company vice president, Angus Gillespie, saying, “You will struggle now to find climate deniers inside the oil industry. It’s just become unacceptable.” Gillespie points to strong evidence that 1) climate change is happening; 2) humans are responsible for the “majority” of the warming over recent decades; 3) fossil fuels are a “large part” of the problem; and 4) “What that implies is the need for an energy transition.”