The Philip DeFranco Show - PDS 1.19 The Truth About Logan Paul & This New Lawsuit, Alec Baldwin's Charges, Evidence Against Brian Walshe

Starting point is 00:00:00 The details of this new Logan Paul lawsuit are wild. Alec Baldwin could be going to jail for five years now. Diabetics are struggling because people are gobbling up their medication, but for weight loss. We break down the horrifying new evidence against Brian Walsh. We've got all of that and so much more on the first XXL PDS of the year. So hit that like button to let me know you love him big and let's just jump into it. Toffeezilla is not a criminal. Oh, that's a relief. I thought Logan was gonna hire me. No! He'd be fucking drooled. So we got updates to the Logan Paul scam accusations

Starting point is 00:00:33 and Logan Paul threatening and then not threatening and then apologizing and then coming up with a way that people aren't scammed out of money story. So let's break it down. So the Sparknotes version to get you up to speed. Coffeezilla makes a series about Logan Paul's CryptoZoo game, essentially calling it a scam. And in this, he has some receipts, some info from insiders showing devs hadn't been paid and that Logan had hired a lot of sketchy people. With Logan denying it was a scam multiple times and

Starting point is 00:00:54 eventually saying he was going to sue CoffeeZilla, going as far as to say, CoffeeZilla, you're slimy as f***. He is a lopsided journalist with an agenda. With that being just a taste of the negative things he had to say about it. But then Logan was hit with an even bigger wave of backlash, ultimately resulting in Logan coming out to apologize. I called him, I apologized. My initial response to his series was that of fire and ego. Logan going on to lay out a plan

Starting point is 00:01:18 that involved putting up about $1.3 million to help those who bought his NFTs as well as promising to finish the game. Which brings us to the biggest update and that is CoffeeZilla responded. Now, obviously, he seemed happy that he wasn't going to have to deal with a frivolous lawsuit. He was happy that Logan apologized, even saying that the video hit all the right marks. But only if you're a Logang member. If you are an outsider who is not affected by this scam and you wanted a reason to love Logan Paul again, I think this nails it. I mean, he's giving back some of

Starting point is 00:01:45 the money. He's apologizing. So if you're a card carrying member of the low gang, you can rest easy here. Logan says he's sorry. He says he's making things right. And I think that's the point of this video is to speak to his core audience, to tell them he didn't scam anyone. However, he claims Logan misses the mark in other areas, saying, first off, there's the issue that Logan's tone very much comes off like he's the victim. At one point even telling people in his CryptoZoo Discord not to invest any more money because I will no longer be the scapegoat for anyone's financial decisions. And the other issue being the $1.3 million.

Starting point is 00:02:15 With Coffey noting that it'll only help the current holders of egg tokens which are part of his crypto game. And also pointing out that that $1.3 million number doesn't even come close to covering the nearly $7.7 million that high-level members of the team made off with. So saying it feels like a lot of the victims who liquidated their eggs or bought into ZooCoins, the in-game currency, they're kind of screwed. Now there, Logan defends this by claiming that ZooCoins were never meant to be an investment vehicle. However, you had Coffey pulling up receipts saying that Logan and his team very deliberately advertised ZooCoin to be an investment. But in the end, you had Coffey's illest takeaway being, it's just so frustrating when the good that Logan seems to be doing,

Starting point is 00:02:47 he's doing the bare minimum of at the last possible second with motivations that seem to be in the proper context, to say it lightly, irreparably tainted by self-interest. But here's the thing, Logan's troubles are far from over because it's not just the court of public opinion he has to worry about. And we know that because another creator who is also an attorney who goes by the name Attorney Tom posted a video a couple of days ago. And in that video announcing he's representing a number of victims in a case against CryptoZoo and Logan and Company. And they're alleging some not so great stuff like fraud, unjust enrichment, negligence, and fraudulent misrepresentation. Going on to say that he and his

Starting point is 00:03:19 team have filed their first arbitration action. And the key thing is that arbitration is different from the traditional courtroom lawsuit. Meaning CryptoZoo's team and Attorney Tom's team will need to meet with a neutral third party arbitrator to find a solution to their dispute. With Tom in his video, which I'll link to, he breaks down Logan's three part plan and mentions the same issues CoffeeZilla did about the refund.

Starting point is 00:03:35 Only current egg holders are eligible, not people who invested in ZooCoins or who sold at a loss because the whole thing didn't work or it looked like Logan abandoned it. And to wrap up his video, Attorney Tom recommends that if you're a victim of this whole crypto zoo mess, talk to a lawyer. But for now, that's where we are. We'll have to see how arbitration plays out. And in the meantime, I'll pass the question off to you. What are your thoughts here? And then,

Starting point is 00:03:52 did he murder his wife? Will these kids be okay? What the hell are those Google searches? All these questions right now are being asked in the case of Brian Walsh. But he was a middle-aged man living in Massachusetts with his three kids and as of last month, his wife, Anna. And I say as of last month, because nobody has seen her since January 1st with her employer reporting her missing on the force See the police visiting their home Brian telling them hey She left on the first for a flight to DC where he says she often commutes for work and has another home But investigators found no evidence of a ride share which Brian claimed that she took nor of a flight And there was no activity on her debit or credit cards also finding that her phone was in the area of the Massachusetts home until it was turned off early on January 2nd.

Starting point is 00:04:27 Which, key thing here, is a very specific date because later that same day, surveillance footage shows Brian purchasing $450 worth of cleaning supplies at Home Depot. Paying for this in cash and getting mops, buckets, tarps, tape, and other items, none of which he told police about, who then charged him for misleading investigators. There was then more footage surfacing of him chilling at a juice bar, seemingly relaxing after a long day of cleaning. But the really damning evidence

Starting point is 00:04:47 came in the form of a broken knife and blood in his basement, according to investigators, as well as a hacksaw and a blood-covered rug found at a transfer station 20 miles from the home. Though maybe he has a reasonable explanation, like he cut himself while cooking with the hacksaw in a kitchen with a rug.

Starting point is 00:05:00 But all of this leading to him being arrested on January 8th and then charged with murdering his wife on Tuesday. Then on Wednesday, he had his arraignment where the prosecutor really laid out evidence that was just damning. With the key thing being a list of Google searches made on his son's iPad early on January 1st and January 2nd. Now there's just too many to read all of them, but here are some of the wildest. How long before a body starts to smell? How to stop a body from decomposing? 10 ways to dispose of a dead body if you really need to, how to clean blood from wooden floor, hacksaw, best tool to dismember, and how long for someone to be missing to inherit. So either the most in-your-face damning evidence, or he was researching

Starting point is 00:05:36 a murder mystery novel that no one knew about. But despite all of the evidence, Brian's defense blasts the prosecution for leaking what they called so-called evidence to the press before giving it to her. And saying it is easy to charge a crime and even easier to say a person committed that crime, it is a much more difficult thing to prove it. But that said, for now, Brian's being held without bail, and his next court appearance is set to be on February 9th. Now, here's the thing. With this story, there's more than one victim.

Starting point is 00:05:59 Yes, of course, you have the wife, but I also can't help but think about the kids. In addition to the just transparent in-your-face trauma here, like, they're losing both parents. And their three children, who are between the ages of two and six years old, could be suddenly thrown into foster care. Which is also something that Anna's friends, Natasha Sky and Pamela Barty, don't want. So they're pleading with the state to let them take custody of the kids. But as far as what's going to happen with those kids, as well as the father, we're gonna have to wait to see. But as we wait to see what all comes from this, let know what you're thinking and then alec baldwin is being charged with involuntary manslaughter with all this stemming from the death of cinematographer

Starting point is 00:06:30 helena hutchins back in october of 2021 that of course with the cast and crew of russ were rehearsing a scene that involved baldwin who was both a producer and actor in the movie pointing a gun toward the camera with the weapon then firing killing hutchins and injuring the director joel souza baldwin has long maintained his innocence saying he was told the gun was safe to use, that it didn't have live rounds, also claiming that he didn't even pull the trigger. But for what it's worth, the FBI has since said that the gun could not have been fired without pulling the trigger. And after a long investigation into this whole case,

Starting point is 00:06:55 today, prosecutors in New Mexico announced charges. Baldwin will face two counts of involuntary manslaughter. The set's armorer, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, who was in charge of handling weapons on the set, is also going to be charged with two counts of involuntary manslaughter. And David Hall armorer, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, who was in charge of handling weapons on the set, is also going to be charged with two counts of involuntary manslaughter. And David Halls, the assistant director who handed Baldwin the gun and told him it was cold, aka did not have live rounds, signed a plea agreement for negligent use of a deadly weapon. With New Mexico's first judicial district attorney, Mary Carmack-Altweese, saying in a statement posted to

Starting point is 00:07:19 social media, after a thorough review of the evidence and the laws of the state of New Mexico, I have determined that there is sufficient evidence to file criminal charges against Alec Baldwin and other members of the Russ Film crew. On my watch, no one is above the law and everyone deserves justice." And according to that statement, Baldwin and Gutierrez-Reed will be, quote, "...charged in the alternative," meaning that a jury would not just decide if they are guilty or not, but under what definition of involuntary manslaughter they would be guilty under. The first is just simply involuntary manslaughter, and for this charge to be proved, there must be underlying negligence. With that specific charge punishable by 18 months in jail and a $5,000 fine, and it includes the misdemeanor

Starting point is 00:07:51 charge of the negligent use of a firearm, which would likely emerge as a matter of law. And then the other charge is involuntary manslaughter in the commission of a lawful act, and requires proof that there was more than simple negligence involved in a death. And that would also be punishable by 18 months in jail and a $5,000 fine, but it also includes a firearm enhancement or added mandatory penalty because a firearm was involved. And that enhancement makes the crime punishable by a mandatory five years in jail. So with all of this, you have special prosecutor Andrea Reeb saying, if any of these three people had done their job, Helena Hutchins would be alive today. It's that simple. The evidence clearly shows a pattern of criminal disregard for safety on the Rust film set. But on the other side, you had Baldwin's lawyer condemning

Starting point is 00:08:27 these charges, calling them a terrible miscarriage of justice and claiming that the decision distorts Hutchins' death and adding, Mr. Baldwin had no reason to believe there was a live bullet in the gun or anywhere on the movie set. He relied on the professionals with whom he worked who assured him the gun did not have live rounds. We will fight these charges and we will win. And Gutierrez reads lawyers saying that these charges are the result of a very flawed investigation and an inaccurate understanding of the full facts. We also saw Hutchinson's family responding, thanking the officials for conducting the investigation and adding that the family's own independent investigation also found charges were warranted and saying,

Starting point is 00:08:58 it is a comfort to the family that in New Mexico, no one is above the law. We support that charges will fully cooperate with his prosecution and fervently hope the justice system works to protect the public and hold accountable those who break the law. While the charges have not yet been formally filed, they will be by the end of the month. And then I'd like to take a second to thank a sponsor of today's show,

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Starting point is 00:10:20 of the drug Ozempic and that's important because it's been approved by the FDA to treat patients with type two diabetes. Right? That's an important thing. And the generic drug name for Ozempic is semaglutide. And semaglutide is also prescribed at higher doses under the name Wagovi for weight loss. But not just for people looking to drop a pan size, right? It is approved for, quote, chronic weight management in adults with obesity or overweight with at least one weight-related condition, such as high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, or high cholesterol. But still, people have seen that semaglutide is being used for weight loss, and so that means tons of people

Starting point is 00:10:47 aren't just seeking Wegovi, but Ozempic as well for weight loss, even if they don't have diabetes. And especially as demand for Wegovi started to skyrocket, it became way more common for doctors to write off-label prescriptions for Ozempic for weight loss. And it's absolutely blown up as a weight loss solution over on TikTok, with there also being headlines like the secret celebrity weight loss drug, with some professionals even saying that everyone's on it, especially the rich and famous who can afford to get their hands on it whether they medically need it or not. And rumors specifically circulating around the Kardashians, right? People speculating it's how Kim Kardashian lost so much weight so fast, though we don't actually know that. Same with Khloe, but she

Starting point is 00:11:18 is also outright denied ever using it. Hell, you even had the likes of Elon Musk openly talking about how he lost weight with Viggovia. And so with all that celebrity talk, demand just gets higher and higher. So over the last couple of weeks, we've seen headlines about shortages of Ozempic, and those stories are just not going to go away yet. Which is kind of horrible. I mean, you have people like this one diabetes patient telling the Chicago Sun-Times that she has had to go three weeks without her Ozempic, leaving her to wonder,

Starting point is 00:11:38 what's this going to do to me because I don't have my medication? It's extremely frustrating. Because a big key thing here, it's not like they kind of need it. People could experience issues with their kidneys, heart, eyes, and more. We're seeing an increasing number of reports that diabetes patients are having to go to multiple pharmacies just to get their hands on the Ozempic that they're supposed to have anyway. And then, like we see with stories like this, in some cases being forced to take lower doses of it. And for the people who aren't fortunate enough to be able to do that, they're having to switch medications, which can

Starting point is 00:12:01 just be incredibly complicated. Especially since going off of Ozempic and then going back on it can cause a litany of side effects like nausea and vomiting, which is why we've seen people like Jamila Jamil condemn this phenomenon that a lot of people see as celebrities being selfish, saying, I fear for everyone in the next few years. Rich people are buying this stuff off prescription for upwards of a thousand dollars. Actual diabetics are seeing shortages. It's now a mainstream craze in Hollywood. I am deeply concerned, but I can't change any of your minds because fat phobia has our generation in a chokehold. Also, on top of all that, Ozempic is not an effective quick-fix weight loss solution. Yes, semaglutide is approved for weight loss, but like I said, it is for people dealing with obesity as a chronic illness that has

Starting point is 00:12:37 resulted in other medical problems. It works by mimicking a hormone that reduces food intake and appetite, with a doctor telling NBC News that your appetite will likely go right back to normal once you get off of it. This is a medication meant for people with lifelong illnesses, so you are likely going to have to continue taking the medication for the rest of your life to maintain the benefits. And so all of this is part of the reason why you have so many doctors right now speaking out against its use for rapid weight loss, including one who published a piece in Insider yesterday saying, people who aren't overweight or diabetic are pressuring clinicians to prescribe them the drug, but it's not appropriate for those individuals. Though to that, I feel like I want to speak to this on a personal note.

Starting point is 00:13:08 If you are a doctor and you're like, My patients are pressuring me into doing this thing that I don't want to do. You're the fucking doctor! You're a grown-ass adult expert. Don't act like the victim here. For example, when there started to be murmurs about this drug back when I was 260 plus pounds, I was like, oh, this is the solution. Let me ask my doctor. And then my doctor said, hey, I don't think that's a good idea.

Starting point is 00:13:28 And then he, the professional doctor with the experience and expertise explained the reasons why he thought this was a bad idea. And then based off of that information and reasoning, I went, oh, well, this isn't gonna be a drug for me. I didn't pursue it elsewhere. And then I lost weight the natural way. I hated myself and started eating better,

Starting point is 00:13:43 but still tasty foods and going for hikes. Which for me, I'm not only very proud of, but I feel a little safer because I now know my personal equation for how I can live a healthier life. I don't have to be worried about, you know, rubber banding back up to 260 if I stop taking a drug. But also I do want to say with this, because I don't know everyone's medical situation or health situation, et cetera. While I did not take a drug to lose the weight that I've lost over the past year, I also don't wanna shade those who have. Hopefully you're getting those medications

Starting point is 00:14:10 based off of a doctor that actually cares about you and is not trying to just get you out the door or is acting like the victim being bullied. I know a lot of people love when I go for people's throats. With weight loss and weight management and stuff like that, I think it is a very complicated personal issue. But there is some good news here, especially because I feel like even covering this story

Starting point is 00:14:27 about there being a shortage and the impacts, it's still gonna probably raise interest in these drugs. Some believe that based off of what we're seeing, that by the spring, shortages of Ozempic and Wegovy won't be as common. But hey, that's a story. And of course, I'll pass the question off to you in general. What are your thoughts here?

Starting point is 00:14:40 But also if you or someone you know has been on this drug, what are your thoughts? And then New Zealand's prime minister just gave up. Jacinda Ardern, who was widely popular, announced today she's resigning. Though technically, she's not stepping down quite yet. That's going to happen on February 7th, once a new leader is chosen. But shockingly, right, she's not leaving in disgrace or because, you know, there was this massive scandal, she just couldn't escape. But rather, because of the, honestly, the most perfect normal reason, she's just kind of done with the job and burnt out and to that I say girls same

Starting point is 00:15:06 That's just for me being responsible for like less than 30 people let alone a fucking whole country when speaking at a news conference She said I believe that leading a country is the most privileged job Anyone could ever have But also one of the more challenging You cannot and should not do it unless you have a full tank, plus a bit in reserve for those unexpected challenges. And I know that I no longer have enough in the tank to do it justice. With her then going on to state, the only interesting angle that you'll find is that after going on six years of some big challenges, I am human. Politicians are human. We give all

Starting point is 00:15:42 that we can for as long as we can, and then it's time. And for me, it's time. But likely another driving factor is the fact that elections are coming up in October, and she doesn't want to have to deal with all that. You know, it's not super surprising that she would be burnt out. Ardern's time in office has been especially challenging, having to navigate things from, like, the Christchurch shootings all the way to the COVID-19 pandemic. And so what we're seeing are many praising Ardern's decision. Like, honestly, when was the last time you saw a politician go like, hey, I don't feel like I might be the best person for this job anymore. Meanwhile, literally almost every other politician I've seen is like, you will rip the power from my cold dead hands. I'm going to be 117 years old with my 117 year old values dictating what my country is going to do. Though,

Starting point is 00:16:18 I will say strategically, this might also make sense. Because while Ardern has been widely popular, you have to take into account that is internationally. She has a way more mixed record when you're talking about at home, with her and her party tanking in the polls over the last year, in fact, at the lowest point since 2017. In fact, it's so low, there's a chance it would barely eke out a win over the National Party. And even then, it and the Green Party may not have enough votes to form a government. But also, at this point, we're getting into hypotheticals, and October is a long ways away. In the meantime, a new prime minister is going to be chosen by February 7th, and then they'll get to do that job for around, what, nine months? But for now, we're gonna have to wait to see what the fallout from this is. And then,

Starting point is 00:16:50 if you think your mother-in-law is petty, check this out. So there's a situation going on between Blizzard Entertainment and its Chinese partner, NetEase. But the two companies partially parting ways in a dramatic fashion after they failed to renegotiate a deal around World of Warcraft, leading to NetEase literally destroying massive statues to the game and calling Blizzard a sussy bitch. Now, taking a step back, there's something you need to know for all of this to make sense. When a foreign company wants to do business in China, it usually has to make a deal with a local company that'll actually run the things. This is why the Trump administration complained so much about IP theft, because Chinese companies would get access to this information as part of their deals and often rip it off. And well, with gaming, it's no different. And in this case,

Starting point is 00:17:23 NetEase was running Blizzard's World of Warcraft servers in china for its millions of players and as the deal was drying up the two companies couldn't come to an agreement and while it's unclear exactly what the sticking point was there are rumors that net ease wanted to control blizzard's ip something that they deny in blizzard they continually pointed the finger at net ease for the deal falling apart but either way blizzard was publicly looking for a new partner and the two sides were exchanging statements about how the other was to blame for the partnership breaking down like blizzard went to NetEase and asked if they could have a six-month extension on their deal so Chinese World of Warcraft players

Starting point is 00:17:50 could continue playing the game, but NetEase apparently turned that down. And so then Blizzard yesterday went on their Weibo account and told people, hey, you need to back up your character data since no deal could be made for the foreseeable future. But one of the big issues is that players were actually getting mixed messages here because afterwards NetEase warned them that the process wasn't verified by them, and to do so was at their own risk. And that was a little prophetic, because in some cases it ended up actually deleting

Starting point is 00:18:09 the characters, possibly permanently. And for a game where you spend literal months of real-world time playing a character, that could be devastating. NetEase's statement also said that Blizzard's version of how the deal fell apart wasn't the whole story. Right, for example, NetEase allegedly didn't just turn down the six-month extension, rather saying they were mad that Blizzard was offering them a six-month extension

Starting point is 00:18:27 while at the same time shopping around for a new partner and offering them three-year deals, but saying Blizzard refused to offer to negotiate the same deal with NetEase. And NetEase was in fact so pissed off about this breakup that they dissolved their Blizzard team and seemingly destroyed their offices. And on top of that, with Blizzard being known for having huge statues of their characters on their campuses, NetEase completely tore theirs down on a livestream to a ton of people, and then rewarding the workers with a Blizzard green tea. Which, as I learned, is a language joke?

Starting point is 00:18:51 Apparently calling someone green tea in Mandarin is a slur for a manipulative person who tries to appear wholesome, innocent, or traditional, but is decidedly not so. Or, as what I was told, how it would translate is into sussy bitch. But also a thing to note is that there's likely going to be more fallout from this. Because NetEase also runs the Chinese versions of Overwatch and Diablo Immortal, Blizzard's other cash cows, and clearly they do not mind burning that bridge. But in the meantime the unfortunate thing is that you have all these Chinese players who are just kind of caught in the middle and stuck without a game to play. And then, listen y'all, you've heard me talk about Magic Spoon over and over and there's a reason for that. They aren't just sponsoring today's show, I'm also a loyal subscriber to Magic Spoon.

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Starting point is 00:20:03 and cream maple waffle and other awesome, including blueberry muffin and cinnamon roll. And for my Canadian and British folks, Magic Spoon ships to you too. And then, you can tell the apocalypse is coming by just looking at your windshield. When you drive, do you ever notice the nasty mass of blood and guts splattered all over your windshield from insects hitting it? Well, actually, no, of course you don't, and that's because they're all gone. It's called the windshield effect, which started as an anecdotal observation that you just don't see as many dead insects driving as you did 30 years ago. But it's actually backed up by science, with one study in Denmark finding that between 1997 and 2017, insect splatter on windshields decreased by over 80%.

Starting point is 00:20:35 And that's because of a dramatic drop in the abundance of not just insects, but plants and animals generally. This is a global biodiversity crisis. And the sheer number of organisms is just one way to measure it. There's also species, biomass, ecosystems, and all of them are declining. But I wanted to get a better idea of like actually what the hell is going on and also to get a sense of the scale of this thing. So we spoke to Dr. Rebecca Shaw, chief scientist for the World Wildlife Fund, as well as Dr. Gerardo Ceballos, senior researcher at the Institute of Ecology at UNAM. And right off the bat, Shaw dropped this absolute bombshell on us. The relative abundance of populations around the globe, that's mammals, fish, amphibians, birds, has declined by 69% since 1970. Now keep in mind, that's just the average across

Starting point is 00:21:18 wildlife populations. If you take Latin America and the Caribbean, the percentage decline reaches a staggering 94%. And for freshwater species worldwide, it's around 83%. So you've got species from Amazon river dolphins to Eastern lowland gorillas, to Australian sea lion pups falling off in huge numbers, which is why she says this moment is almost unprecedented in the history of life on earth. There have been five major extinctions.

Starting point is 00:21:39 The last one was the one that killed off the dinosaurs. So that was a huge one. 75% of all the animals on the planet were gone. The last one one that killed off the dinosaurs. So that was a huge one. 75% of all the animals on the planet were gone. The last one that killed off the dinosaurs was by a meteor. But in this case, we're our own meteor. And we're actually creating the sixth mass extinction, which means we're seeing extinction rates 100 to 1,000 times higher than they should be. What's better than a well-marbled ribeye sizzling on the barbecue?

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Starting point is 00:22:49 we'll see as many as a million species threatened by extinction. With Ceballos adding that the rate of extinction for some particular plants and animals over the last century would have taken 100,000 years without human influence. For instance, 10 million elephants, African elephants, at the beginning of the 1900s. There were less than half a million in the 1960s, 70s, and now there are probably no more than 380,000, something like that.

Starting point is 00:23:14 And as for the main causes of this crisis, the World Wildlife Fund lists habitat loss, species overexploitation, invasive species pollution, climate change, and diseases, with the loss of natural habitats in particular reaching an alarming rate. We have lost since 1970, something like 30, 35% of all the forests, tropical and temperate forests, coral reefs, and mangroves and so on in the planet. Those are just the immediate causes though. The deeper question is why are we destroying

Starting point is 00:23:39 so many ecosystems? And as Shaw explains, the answer is that cheeseburger you're eating right now, James. Did I get you? Did I get at least one, James? It's mind-boggling, but food production actually is responsible for about a third of all greenhouse gas emissions through production and consumption and transport. It also uses 70% of the world's fresh water. And it also is the leading cause as we expand more and more acres to plant more row crops for food and to raise cattle.

Starting point is 00:24:14 It's actually the leading cause of biodiversity decline. So she says we need to transform the way we eat, both in how we produce our food and the types that we choose to produce. Because as Shaw explains, the most intensive and inefficient foods we consume are animal proteins, especially beef, which often comes from cattle raised

Starting point is 00:24:30 in or around tropical rainforests, furthering habitat destruction and using up tons of resources. And as Shaw explains, it's almost as much about the food we do eat as the food we don't eat. The other phenomenal thing is we waste, on average, 40% of all the food that is produced. So when you add everything up that goes into humanity's vast consumption of resources, Shaw says it's simply unsustainable.

Starting point is 00:24:50 Generally, we say we're using about a planet and a half, a planet and three quarters worth of resources, which means we're drawing deep into our natural asset base to sustain our current levels of consumption. That means we're polluting the water, we're polluting the air, we're taking out forests, and we're destroying coral reefs, and we're destroying freshwater resources. So we're doing this at a rate that nature cannot replenish or regenerate. But it gets even worse because the loss of biodiversity also warms the planet. When we destroy ecosystems, forests, grasslands, coral reefs, the dead material burns or decays, unleashing vast amounts of stored carbon into the atmosphere, which contributes to climate

Starting point is 00:25:38 change. And that's roughly about 22% of the climate change we're experiencing now. Which is one of the reasons so many people are panicking about the Amazon rainforest, commonly dubbed the lungs of the earth for how much carbon it contains. In just the past half century, 17% of it has been turned into croplands and cattle pasture.

Starting point is 00:25:56 And according to one scientist, if that number reaches 20 to 25%, the rivers will get so weak that the rainforest and most of the Amazon basin won't be able to survive. Instead, it'll collapse into shrubby Savannah, probably over the following decades. And then, the resulting climate change causes more biodiversity loss, which then causes even more climate change,

Starting point is 00:26:10 and on and on until James is eating his own fucking fingers instead of that cheeseburger. Which is a joke, but also not a joke. Or the way Sabeos talked about it was comparing our biodiversity loss like pulling bricks out of a wall. One by one, you can remove a lot of them and the wall still stands. But eventually, it will reach a tipping point where the whole thing collapses. And then, I mean, speaking for most conservation scientists, he made this chilling prediction.

Starting point is 00:26:31 We think there will be a collapse of civilization. And we're talking about a few decades. Nobody can really say the exact point. But he also clarified that he doesn't think civilizational collapse means all of a sudden everybody dies. Rather, you'll see more and more of humanity slide into the conditions of life already being experienced by the poorest parts of the planet. With scarce food and drinking water, chronic fires and floods, as well as hordes of climate refugees.

Starting point is 00:26:51 That also doesn't mean we're just going to be living the way we are now, just with fewer resources and more natural disasters. Rather, Sabaeus warns that these ecological effects will translate into dramatic social, political, and economic disruptions. Though Shaw, on the other hand, doesn't see us reaching a single tipping point, but rather says one country or community after another will get hit by the crisis. It will just rotate around the globe from the high latitudes to the lower latitudes,

Starting point is 00:27:14 all from the tropics to the tundra. We're going to see one community after another collapsing because of the lack of resources that they need to sustain their livelihoods or because the climate is too extreme to stay there. So I don't see entire civilizational collapse. What I see is chronic collapse across the planet that creates big problems everywhere. Which I'm adding it's precisely those people least responsible for the crisis who will be its main victims. Those being the poor and rural populations of the earth, especially in low-income countries who lack the means to insulate themselves against its effects. But thankfully,

Starting point is 00:27:52 right now, none of what I've talked about so far is 100% inevitable. And to that end, we saw the world's governments convene in Montreal last month for the UN's COP15 summit. And there, they came to an agreement committing themselves to a number of goals. Starting with the most notable, conserving at least 30% of the planet's land inland waters coastal areas and oceans by 2030 Have restoration completed or underway on at least 30% of degraded terrestrial inland waters and coastal and marine ecosystems Reduced to near zero the loss of areas of high biodiversity importance and cut global food waste in half Now if you're a cynic like me you hear all that and you think okay sounds great

Starting point is 00:28:24 But the question is well, what are we actually going to do? But Shaw, who actually attended the summit, said she was hopeful. Twelve years ago when the last targets were set, there wasn't that much focus on it. With her adding that now countries will mobilize $200 billion per year, double the 2020 baseline and saying. We have more people, more sectors, more kinds of nations focused on this than ever before. So I think we have a pretty good chance of hitting those targets. But then, and this is kind of perfect, she ended up getting a knock at the door. And when she opened it, it was actually the fire department in California telling her to evacuate because the river had flooded. So, you know,

Starting point is 00:28:58 mother nature, I think either has a sense of humor or is always watching. But with all that said, thank you again to the doctors for giving us their time today. And where I'll leave you is the question of what are your thoughts with everything that we just talked about? Are you not worried? Are you scared? Are you hopeful? Are you somewhere in between?

Starting point is 00:29:11 Are you all the things? Let me know. And that brings us to the end of today's show. Thank you for watching, liking, and being a part of these daily dives into the news. I love being a part of your day. And hey, if I haven't already overstayed my welcome, you should definitely check out yesterday's show,

Starting point is 00:29:22 even though YouTube put a content warning and killed it. And or check out one of the bonus shorts. But as always, my name's Philip DeFranco. You've just been filled in. I love yo faces, and I'll see you Sunday.

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