Stuff You Should Know - How do trees affect the weather?

Episode Date: June 6, 2013

Sure, you know that trees have an impact on climate change: to wit, fewer trees mean more atmospheric CO2. But did you know that trees can actually impact local and immediate weather? Learn about why you should love trees even more than you do. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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and do not include pending transactions or any other purchases you make before the end of the billing period. Welcome to Stuff You Should Know from HowStuffWorks.com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, and there's Charles W. Chuck Bryant, which makes this Stuff You Should Know podcast. I don't think I should obviously finish, please. Because of that horrible house fire. It's good, but it's not quite poetry. What was it?

I don't think I should ever see something so beautiful as a tree. Is that right? A poem is beautiful as a tree. Is it a poem? Mm-hmm. Okay. Yeah, which is really something because what was that? Longfellow or Whitman?

No, I want to say like Joyce Carol Oates, no? No. No? No. We should look this up. Okay. Well, we're freewheeling. While you're looking it up, that's really saying something because, insert poet's name here,

really was taking his own craft to task and appreciated his or her own task. And it was still saying that a tree is lovelier than any poem, which is a real ode to nature. So I said Joyce Carol Oates, but I was in fact wrong. It was, in fact, Joyce Kilmer, who was a dude. I thought for sure it was like Longfellow or, huh, boy, he was a, uh, it's a mama's boy if I've ever seen one right there. Nice. Right, poems about trees, what do you expect?

Huh. Well, that's a great line. Yeah. Well, we botched that one all over the place. Yeah, we did. But we're not going to start over. That's okay. This isn't a poetry slam.

This is stuff you should know. We would never slam poetry. No. Instead, we would spend our time, as is our want, promoting trees, talking about trees and how great they are. And, um, uh, Val Kilmer, yeah, his great grandfather, Joyce, Joyce Kilmer. Yeah. Uh, he, he kind of had it dead on because trees are not only beautiful.

They are, um, functional and as, uh, either Longfellow or, uh, Whitman said nothing can ever truly be beautiful unless it's also functional. Oh yeah. Uh, they didn't really say that. Somebody said it. Uh, and you know, we live in Atlanta, Georgia, for those of you who don't know, and we basically live in the middle of a forest. Yeah.

If you ever go up on the building here or any building in Atlanta and you think you're in like downtown or midtown, you just take a look out there and you realize, man, there are trees everywhere. There's a lot of trees. And people that are from like the West or other places where they're not as foresty come to the deep South sometimes and they're like, wow, he is in the middle of a forest. It's a city and a forest. Yeah.

And it's pretty nice. It's nice. Nice living. Sure. Up and down the East Coast is kind of like that. Right. Um, and we actually live in a temperate deciduous hardwood forest area. Nice.

Look at you from what I understand. Although there's a lot of pine trees too. There's those Georgia pines. Yeah. That is true. I, I may be incorrect. Caniferous. Well, here's the deal with forest.

Um, the author of this, I take a slight issue. 30% of our planet is, is forest land. Right. And she says it's mostly concentrated in 10 countries, the US, Canada, Russia, sorry, Russian Federation, uh, Brazil, China, Australia, uh, Democratic Republic of Congo, Indonesia, Peru and India. Great. But no mention of like Europe, uh, Germany, Sweden, Finland, Norway, like serious forest

going on there. Is there enough? I mean, I know there's the black forest in Germany. Yeah. Like the boreal forest, basically 10 degrees above or below the equator, you're going to have rainforest. Gotcha. And then between roughly like 50 and 70 ish degrees, uh, you're going to have boreal

forest, which is like Europe and Canada and Russia. And you know, it's like serious dense forest. And she didn't mention Europe at all. Those are the Northern Climes forests. Yeah. We're talking coniferous, pine, spruce, birch, beautiful, beautiful trees. Nice. And Canada, of course, America's hat is lousy with trees.

Yeah. There's a lot of trees there. It's like Atlanta. 1.5 million square miles of forest land in Canada. Right. So they got it going on up there. It's in that, that sounds like a lot and it is. It is.

But it's still, it's alarming to consider that we lose about 13 million hectares. What's a hectare? A hectare is I think 1.5 acres. Is it? I believe. Uh, well, I do know that only, I'm sorry. I'm not getting one more thing wrong in this episode. You go ahead and talk.

I do know that only one, uh, I'm sorry, only 20% roughly 20% of the earth's original forest land is still intact today. So over the years, 80% has been lost due to things manmade and things natural. And apparently we lose an amount of forest that's about the size of Greece every year. Wow. So we need Canada. We need Canada's trees. Yeah.

And you know, there are things like forest fires, uh, disease, insects, uh, competition between species, acid rain, things like that happen. Of course, that one is actually manmade. Uh, and then there's things like logging and slash and burn practices. Just when you cut down trees and burn them to create a field, uh, so those are things that man is doing to make trees go bye-bye. Right. So man and nature are conspiring to rid us of trees, which we need.

Yes. And a hectare, by the way, is about over two acres. Oh, okay. Yeah. Well, look at that in show corrections for the first time. All right. So Chuck, everybody loves trees. Not the least of whom would be Joyce Kilmer.

That's right. But we like them too. We like having them around. And they actually serve a little bit more of a function than you would think. Yeah. Apparently, it's not just, ooh, they give us oxygen, which is what everyone thinks, which is great. They actually can affect the climate.

And the climate is defined as a period of weather patterns in a localized area over about a 30 year at least stretch. I think not many people realize that. Everything else is just weather. Yeah. You know, anything under that. Although I imagine once you start getting into like the 28, 29 years. It's climate-y.

Yeah. Yeah. They'll be like, okay, all right, that's climate fine. That is true. And our planet is warming. We're not going to get into the whole rigmarole of global warming and all that entails, although we should do that in earnest one day. But the climate is warming here on the planet and it is heating up by about one to one and a half degrees per 100 years,

or at least over the past century. Yeah. And I mean, that's an important qualifier, too, because it wasn't supposedly until the beginning of the industrial revolution starting around 1830 that after that we started to see temperatures rise thanks to global warming. Right. So the fact that it rose by one to one and a half degrees in a century, that's significant. Even though it doesn't seem like much. Not to us humans.

You can breathe into your hands and raise the weather around your face by more than just one degree. Yeah, also be foggy. Yeah. You know, and a little smelly depending on, you know, okay. So how can trees affect our climate? Really three main ways, right? Yes. So the first is to lower temperatures, which is something they do themselves.

Yes. Next, they reduce energy usage, which is a new phenomenon for trees because we've only had like air conditioning for 50, 60, 70 years. Yeah. But it's a new gift that trees give us. That's true. And then they actually remove air pollutants, which is pretty awesome. All right.

So let's start with the first one. They lower temperatures. They act as a natural air conditioner for the world in a way through a process called evapotranspiration. No huge shock. That is a mix of not a mix, but both things going on at the same time. Right. Evaporation and transpiration, both of which release moisture into the air. One by way of drawing water from lakes.

And we talked about in our clouds episode, how we eventually get clouds. And then transpiration is when trees pull up water through the roots, work its way up through the tree, and then eventually leave from the leaves. Right. And we don't actually see, like after like a heavy rain in the summer, you can see the evaporation going on. Yeah. And probably what you're seeing off of the trees is actually evaporation off of the leaves. Transpiration is invisible.

It's paper. But over like the course of a year, large oak trees supposedly can transpire about 40,000 gallons of water. That is crazy. That's a lot. Yeah. So they come, they bring up all the nutrients through the water. They take what they can and they peel out their leaves into the atmosphere. It's paper.

Right. Not as urine. Right. No. But since that's going on, especially when it's going on at the same time as evaporation, it produces water vapor and it can actually decrease the temperature. That's right. And like you said, it, you know, a big thing now, and it's not now actually, that's the funny thing.

A lot of things that people do now to be green are things people did many years ago as just way of life. Yeah. Homesteaders. Yeah. Like Emily's grandmother and actually my grandmother too. They were like, you know, they composted and did all that stuff because it was a way of life and they didn't have trash pickup. Homesteaders. Yeah.

And now we're like, oh yeah, I compost. Like big deal. There's nothing new. I mean, it is a big deal. You should do stuff like that. You know what I'm saying? Right. People like nowadays think they invented the green movement.

Yeah. When it was our forefathers really and mothers. Yeah. I guess just as long as you're not like burning trash. Yeah, that's true. You're doing good. So what led me on that mini rant against our people of this age is that passive heating and cooling is a big thing now. But it was a big thing way back when because before they had air conditioners and things, they would, you know, plant trees where it made the most sense are not plant trees,

but plant houses between trees where it was going to grow where it made the most sense. So like they say, I think a tree to the north of your house in the south of the house can cut down on your energy expenses by how much? Well, a heating costs two to 8% and cooling costs by 8 to 18%. And you want to plant one at least one tree to the west and one tree to the south. Deciduous trees. Yes, that's the key. Yeah. If you plan a big old Magnolia tree.

Yeah. You're going to be like, because while it'll cool your house in the summer by keeping some sunlight off of it, projecting shade in the winter time, it'll still keep sunlight off of it. With a deciduous tree, they lose their leaves. So the sun shines through the branches during the winter time. So it cools your house in the summer by producing shade, warms your house in the winter by letting the sunlight through. Yeah. And I love Magnolia trees, but boy, you ever had one on your property? It's a pain.

Yeah. You know, black sea leaves that don't disintegrate ever or have to grade, they just are there and then those grenades, which were great as a kid when you played war, but they're not so great when they're all over your yard. Right. And then pine trees, which I love to look at as well here in Georgia, they're also a big pain. Yeah, they can be. Yeah. But they, well, yeah, they don't lose their leaves on an annual cycle. They just lose them all the time, but they're always, they always have the needles.

That's true. But with the Magnolia, though, you also get the lovely scented flower and you can snip those off and put it in a little water bowl in your kitchen. It's like a natural air freshener. Nice. So my neighbor has a stutter. Well, my neighbor has a Magnolia and one branch hangs over into my yard. And so I will clip flowers and not really have to deal with much of the waxy leaves. It's just kind of the best of both worlds.

Sounds like you're living the life. I'm living the life, man. The war on drugs impacts everyone, whether or not you take drugs. America's public enemy number one is drug abuse. This podcast is going to show you the truth behind the war on drugs. They told me that I would be charged for conspiracy to distribute 2200 pounds of marijuana. Yeah, and they can do that without any drugs on the table. Without any drugs, of course, yes, they can do that.

And I'm the prime example of that. The war on drugs is the excuse our government uses to get away with absolutely insane stuff. Step out of piss y'all. The property is guilty. Exactly. And it starts as guilty. It starts as guilty. The cops, are they just like looting? Are they just like pillaging?

They just have way better names for what they call like what we would call a jack move or being robbed. They call civil acid for it. Be sure to listen to the war on drugs on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcast. Our podcast How to Money Can Help. That's right. We're two best buds who've been at it for more than five years now and we want to see you achieve your money goals. And it's our goal to provide the information and encouragement you need to do it. We keep the show fresh by answering list of questions, interviewing experts and focusing on the relevant financial news that you need to know about.

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So passive heating and cooling. Evapotranspiration. That is a great thing that trees do and they can also help cut down on what's called the heat island effect, which is bad in cities. Yeah, we have that bad here. Yeah. So there's this thing called the Albedo effect, right? Where if you are dark colored, wearing a dark shirt, you're wearing a black shirt right now. That's right.

You would be hotter in that shirt than you would if you were wearing a white shirt. Why? I'll tell you why. White shirts reflect sunlight. Black shirts absorb sunlight and trap heat. Same thing with asphalt. Same thing with dark rooftops. And when you put all this stuff together, it actually absorbs all this heat, traps it.

And so when you're in a city, it's frequently much harder by several, several degrees than it is out in the suburbs where you have more trees and lawns and stuff like that, that aren't going to absorb the heat quite as much. Yeah. And I lived in Yuma, Arizona, as you know. A lot of white cars in Yuma. Not a lot of black cars. And they actually have, I might have mentioned this before, they have almost carpet that they put on their dashboards. And it's like a thing. It's like fit to the car and it's velcroed on.

And it saves your dashboard. Oh yeah. But you have carpet on your dashboard. Yeah, pretty much. And you go to the video store at the time. This is, you know, they had video stores back then in the mid-90s. Right. And they would have, you know, melted videocassettes on display as a reminder.

And they would have seen those or like the ticketmaster tickets, like don't leave them in your glove box or this will happen. What are they? A catch fire? It looks like they caught fire, but they, it was just heat exposure. Is that the average ticketmaster employee? That's what the sign sounds like. Okay. Yeah.

Yeah. Don't just pay a million dollars for fees. So that's the heat island effect in Atlanta. Five to eight degrees hotter. And Phoenix, in 1950, it was six degrees warmer than the nearby Casa Grande monument. I don't know why that is. Oh, because in 2007, it was 14 degrees. Okay, I get it.

Yeah. So it's getting hotter in the cities as urban sprawl and the black tops of asphalt take over the world. Yeah, exactly. Phoenix isn't exactly like a work, live, play, walkable community. It's pretty drivey, right? Or at least golf carty. Yeah. Yeah.

Well, same with Atlanta. So you've got sprawl, which is going to increase that urban heat island effect. Yeah, Phoenix is big, big time sprawl. Yes, but trees help counteract this. They cut it down. They say, no more of this. We're going to provide you passive energy savings and evapotranspiration. And while we're at it, you know, all this horrible air that you're breathing, we're going to filter it for you.

We're going to throw that in as a bonus. Included in the low, low price. They will filter dust ozone, carbon monoxide, other kinds of pollutants and through photosynthesis. They actually remove CO2, which is a greenhouse gas, as we all know. Right. They remove it and release oxygen instead. And they can actually even store it. Yeah.

They sequester it in the forest soil. And apparently that soil, depending on where you are, I think in a deciduous temperate forest. Yeah. That carbon dioxide will be stored for anywhere from 10,000 to 100,000 years. Wow. Yeah. I think we talked about that. We talked about carbon sequestration before.

Or what, was it desertification? Desertification, maybe, or earthworms. Yeah. We play in the dirt a lot. Yeah, we do. The earthworm one, that was a good one. That was a good one. So the trees are filtering out the air.

But they actually, and this is a little known, Ronald Reagan actually once said, trees pollute more than cars do any day of the week. And he was not entirely wrong. Yeah, I don't quite get this, the photochemical smog. Okay, so when it gets hot, trees have this volatile organic, well, volatile organic compounds. Two of which are terpenes and isoprene. Okay. And they give them off for their leaves. It's just like, oh, it's too hot.

I've got to get rid of my VOCs. Right. And isoprenes in particular act as a catalyst. They speed up the breakdown by sunlight of nitrous oxides into ozone. And ozone is a big contributor to smog. So basically, when the trees are giving off these volatile organic compounds, they're accelerating the production of smog indirectly. Ah, okay. You know?

Right. So when you mix sunlight photo with these chemicals, photochemical smog, it's from the breakdown of, like, car exhaust into ozone, which scratches our eyes and makes us achieve that hard to breathe. So we should cut down all the trees. Pretty much. That's what Ronald Reagan taught. No, of course not. And that is, that's like the one negative effect that we can find, right? Oh, yeah, other than that, trees, oh, well, that and falling on somebody or your house or something, other than that, trees are great.

Right. That happens a lot in Atlanta with the heavy rain. Well, it does because we went through a drought cycle where the roots all started to come toward the surface. And then when you get a heavy rain, the trees no longer planted like it was, and it just tips over. It's a big problem. Just the other day, another guy sitting in his car. Man, they love talking about that on the news. It'll be like, crime, crime, crime.

Oh, tree fell over. Let's go cover that instead. But that's the Atlanta news. Yeah. Because boy, there's a lot. I don't, do you watch the local news? Sometimes. Really?

Yeah. I'll see, I'll see it, you know, out of the corner of my eye. I haven't watched the local news since I was probably in high school. It's good on like the treadmill. Like when you can't hear anything. Yeah. It's good for that. When they're in front of the varsity interviewing somebody about something important.

A tree falling over. What do you think about this? Right. Yeah. We were talking about global warming. Can we actually plant trees and get more forest land? Hey. To actually help us out?

That's what Pearl Jam used to do to offset the carbon usage or emissions for their tours. Did you know that? Yeah. Like they started the whole thing. They planted trees? Yeah. They calculate like how much like their jets emitted like in green house gas, the CO2 I think specifically.

How much like their fans' cars emitted like on the way to the venue. Like for a whole tour. Wow. And they calculate it and then like they would buy an equal amount of trees or however much you know carbon and number of trees could sequester. That's how much they got to offset their tour. And then Al Gore started doing it. It was really close to about the same time.

Right. And everybody thought this is great. This is a great idea. But there's a couple problems with it. One, once you cut down that tree like that carbon's released in the atmosphere. Yeah. And then secondly there was a 2007 study that said it depends on where you put the tree. Right.

If you put it in the tropics then it actually will cut down on global warming. Because in the tropics trees not only cool the place, the place by evapotranspiration, it's actually warm enough that they produce clouds which cool the rest of the earth. It's like a cloud factory down there around the equator. Yeah, we hit that in the rainforest podcast. Right. Okay. In the middle climates where we live, it's pretty much a wash.

If you plant a tree there for a carbon offset, it's not going to really have a net effect. If you go up to the borealis forests, which is a term you taught me recently, it actually can contribute to the heating. The boreal. Boreal forests. Yeah. Aurora borealis, which is what I understand now. It can contribute to the heating of the planet because, remember the albedo effect?

Yeah. Well, up there it's cold enough so that that green canopy that's trapping sunlight and hence warmth is actually going to raise the temperature. So this cold climate, cold part of the earth that you use to balance out the overall global temperature, if you plant trees up there, it'll warm it. Where was Pearl Jam planting trees, do you know? I don't know. Yeah.

Hey, we mentioned Ticketmaster too. They stuck it to those guys. Yeah, they did. Remember Eddie Vedder wore that German World War II helmet in court? Oh, really? Yeah. He was not happy. Yeah, I saw a lot of Pearl Jam shirts at that Soundgarden show last night.

Yeah, how was it? People, you know, it was great and my buddy ended up getting hooked up with VIP seats because he knows a guy at the Tabernacle. Nice. So we were literally like front row of the balcony right in the center. Nice. But the setless man, they got to work on that. Oh, really?

Yeah, it's one of those deals where, I know, I don't want a complete nostalgia tour, but when you're coming back after that long, no one wants to hear seven songs from your new album. Oh, yeah. You know what I'm saying? Well, I mean, if you're trying to kickstart your career again, yeah. Yeah. I mean, there was a decided energy change in the room when they were doing like bad motor

finger and screaming life and Louder Than Love and then they were doing whatever that new album's called, which I don't care for. Here comes the sunshine. Like everyone was just kind of like, oh, okay, another one of these. Yeah. Except for like, you know, the drunk 18 year old near me. Yeah. It's the only song I've heard.

Yeah. Finally, one I recognize. But yeah, good. He sounded great, man. He's amazing. Well, I'm just glad that Pearl Jam fans and Soundgarden fans are apparently getting along now. Sure.

It was rough there for a while. Yeah. And then he factor in Alice in Chains. It got really ugly. Go look it up, kids. Music of the 90s. You got anything else about stupid trees? No.

Oh, I do. I have another thing. So you remember the 2007 study I was just talking about? Yeah. Where I miss you's Borealis? Yes. A 2013 study this year, yeah, said, you know what, nuts to that. Nuts to Lawrence Livermore Laboratory.

We have a computer model that says that if we doubled the amount of forests, including boreal forests, and especially, I think, boreal forests, as soon as possible, we would lower the global temperature by a full one degree Fahrenheit. So we would offset that 20th century increase, possibly. Yeah. But the last 100 years, it's crazy. Yeah. And we would increase summer rains by 10% to 15% all by 2071.

Wow. Yeah. Well, at the earliest. But still. So is there a plan in place or was that just like, hey, we should do this? It is like, well, what can I do as a computer model today? Right. How about trees?

Thatcha. Yeah. All right. Well, good for them. Yeah. Plant a tree. I'm sure there is a program in your community where you can go out and sponsor a tree to be planted.

Yeah. But God help you if you plant one in the northern clines because you're part of the problem. All right. You got anything else? No. If you want to learn more about trees and weather, type those two words into the search bar at HouseSoForks.com. And I said, search bar means it's time for a message break.

The war on drugs impacts everyone. Whether or not you take drugs. America's public enemy number one is drug abuse. This podcast is going to show you the truth behind the war on drugs. They told me that I would be charged for conspiracy to distribute 2200 pounds a mile a hour. Yeah. And they can do that without any drugs on the table.

Without any drugs. Of course, yes, they can do that and I'm the prime example of that. The war on drugs is the excuse our government uses to get away with absolutely insane stuff. Stuff that'll piss you off. The property is guilty. Exactly. And it starts as guilty. It starts as guilty.

The cops, are they just like looting? Are they just like pillaging? They just have way better names for what they call like what we would call a jack move or being robbed. They call civil acid for it. Be sure to listen to the war on drugs on the I heart radio app, Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. How's that New Year's resolution coming along?

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you achieve your money goals. And it's our goal to provide the information and encouragement you need to do it. We keep the show fresh by answering list of questions, interviewing experts and focusing on the relevant financial news that you need to know about. Our show is chock full of the personal finance knowledge that you need with guidance three times a week. And we talk about debt payoff. If let's say you've had a particularly spend thrift holiday season, we also talk about building

up your savings, intelligent investing and growing your income. No matter where you are on your financial journey, how to money's got your back. Millions of listeners have trusted us to help them achieve their financial goals. Ensure that your resolution turns into ongoing progress. Listen to how to money on the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. All right. Listen to me all the time.

Yes. Great. I'm going to call this one Hotty Toddy from the land of cotton and Faulkner. Because that was the subject line. Right. I was like, you know what? No one's so good. I'm going to use it.

Yeah. That's good stuff. And I just kind of like the cut of this guy's jib. That's why I'm reading it. Guys, the name is David Holbrook and I'm from a little town of Waynesboro, Mississippi. I'm currently a senior in my final semester at the University of Mississippi for my B.A. in political science. Go Rebs.

Should we say that? SEC team. I also work part-time in the parts department of the local GMC dealership here in Oxford. And I'm a bouncer on the weekends at one of the bars on the famous Oxford Square. Busy, busy boy. You ever been there? Oxford? No.

A lot of fun. Yeah. Yeah. Great college time. I'm a huge fan and just found, I never found the gut to write you guys until today. I really enjoyed. After my third minute too, Luke, I put pen to paper. I really enjoy throwing around the knowledge I learned from y'all in the workplace, although

I sometimes think my coworkers get a little jealous and my girlfriend as well. Yeah. So today, one of my favorite things about the show I will admit, this is really random, is when Chuck whispers things at the end of sentences, which he does a lot. I have no idea what he's talking about. That was a pretty poor example, but yeah. I agree. I always laugh so hard because sometimes it seems as though Chuck doesn't really mean

for us to hear those bits. Right. But he forgets he's in front of a mic. That might be true. I also really relate to you all in the way as soon as- Oh wait. This guy's a fraud. What?

Did he say you all? No, I did. It's y'all. Oh, okay. All right. He checks out. I really relate to y'all in the way that it seems we have held many jobs in our past that makes us well-rounded people while I feel like I'm rambling on with this nonsense.

I will continue with the fan mails and maybe with some filled with more interesting and beneficial substance. Thank you from the land of Cotton and William Faulkner, David Holbrook, Jr. Random fact about me, P.S., I grew up on a chicken farm. We have eight chicken houses with any way of from 250,000 to 350,000 chickens at one time. Geez. In eight houses?

That's what he said. Those are big chicken- y'all chicken houses are huge. Well that's great. What do you think? David Holbrook, Jr. Thank you. And I'm sure one day we will get a David Holbrook III. Yeah.

We keep doing this long enough. Yeah. David Holbrook, Jr., thank you very much for writing in. Chuck, did you practice reading that one? No. I'm back and forth with the accent like Kevin Costner and Robin Hood. Right. Or Dancers with Wolves or Waterworld.

But I'm impressed. And I think like you hit all the emphasis just perfectly. Well, I'm from the south. Faulkhorn, Lake Horn is in my blood. I'm more like that little chicken with the glasses. I'm a chicken hawk and you're a chicken? No, no, no. The little one who never talked.

Oh, okay. He just read all the time? Yeah. Yeah. The little jerk. If you are, I don't know, stereotypically regional, we want to hear from you. Agreed. You can send us a tweet to SYSKpodcast.

You can join us on facebook.com slash stuff you should know. You can email us, we understand. You can send it to stuffpodcast.discovery.com and check out our website, guys. Stuffyoushouldknow.com For more on this and thousands of other topics, visit HowStuffWorks.com. This podcast is brought to you by BASF, the chemical company. The war on drugs is the excuse our government uses to get away with absolutely insane stuff. Stuff that'll piss you off.

Are they cops? Are they just, like, looting? Are they just, like, pillaging? They just have way better names for what they call, like, what we would call a jackmove or being robbed. They call civil acid for it. Be sure to listen to the war on drugs on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

What if you had the chance to change the past? And then you'd be back with a new show. I'm gonna have to work on my new 27th 1996 and create the future you've always dreamed of. Einhorn's epic productions and iHeart Radio bring you a new 12-part scripted audio time travel adventure. Join Nikki and her friends as they travel back to the 90s and change the past to save our future.

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