Global Warming is an excellent two-hour documentary
similar to Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth,
but with a large number of experts and on location
coverage of such issues as species extinction, the melting of
polar ice, the flooding of coastal areas and islands, and the
possible loss of tropical rain forests.
The documentary does not bother
to try to argue that global warming is occurring. Rather, Tom
Brokaw simply announces that most scientists now agree that it
is. Thus, there are no experts presented contesting this point,
although some do acknowledge that they had had reservations in
the past. The issue is instead how bad it will be and what can
be done about it. The documentary opens with special effects
shots of possible consequences, including New York city underwater.
Brokaw claims to be giving
just the facts, and they are, although in many cases they are
facts about what various scientists believe. Nevertheless, although
the argument of the documentary remains hidden, it is there and
could be brought out, for example, in a classroom situation.
The documentary relies most
heavily on the views of Dr. James Hansen,Chief of the NASA Institute
for Space Studies, Dr. Michael Oppenheimer, Professor of Geosciences
and International Affairs at Princeton University, and Dr. Stephen
Pacala, Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology also at
Princeton University. Other specialists include:
- Dr. Daniel Nepstad, Ecologist,
Amazon researcher, Woods Hole Research Center, Woods Hole, Massachusetts
- Dr. Mark Serreze, Senior
Research Scientist, National Snow and Ice Data Center, Boulder,
Colorado
- Dr. Greg Holland, Director,
Mesoscale and Microscale Meteorology Division, National Center
for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado
- Dr. Nick Lunn , Research
Scientist, Canadian Wildlife Service, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
- Dr. Stephan Harrison, Director,
Climate Change Risk Management, Glaciologist / Senior Research
Associate , Oxford University Centre for the Environment
- Bob Spicer, Professor, Earth
Sciences, Director of the Centre for Earth, Planetary, Space
and Astronomical Research (CEPSAR), Open University, England
- Professor Peter Cox, Science
Director, Climate Change at the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology,
Exeter, England
- Dr. John Hunter, Researcher,
Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre.
University of Tasmania, Australia
- Professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg,
Marine Biologist, University of Queensland, Queensland, Australia
- Professor Lin Er Da, Director,
Agrometeorological Institute, China Academy of Agricultural Sciences
- Hilia Vavae, Senior Meteorologist,
Director of Meteorology Office, Tuvalu Island
Visuals include a trip to
the Patagonian ice fields to wander in melting ice caves, a visit
to Glacier National Park, which is losing its glaciers, a look
at ice layers in Antarctica, an examination of the plight of
polar bears in the north, an examination of the capability of
the rain forests to withstand drought, evidence of flooding on
islands in the Pacific, and evidence that the coral is dying
on the Barrier Reef in Australia.
The debate about global warming
is focused on the issue of cycles: whether the warming can be
explained as part of a natural cycle. The documentary's experts
insist that it cannot and that the problem is now too obvious
to ignore. A visit to China shows that the amount of carbon dioxide
will continue to increase rapidly because Asian nations such
as China and India are rapidly bringing their countries up to
Western industrial standards.
The primary message of the
documentary is that many things can be done to slow global warming
and soften its coming impact, including changes in behavior of
ordinary people in industrialized nations. It is also noted that
it would be helpful for the United States to return to its previous
role of leadership in the matter.
In many ways, this documentary
is better than Gore's film, in part because it remains more on
point than Gore's documentary, since Brokaw does not personalize
any of the issues, and in part because of the more extensive
use of scientific experts and location footage. As a DVD, it
may be a useful aid in the classroom at high school and college
levels.
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July 8, 2006 |
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