Last night I attended one of a series of documentary viewings on our nation's "Addiction to Oil", where we watched and discussed the documentary, "Everything's Cool".
We have finally reached a day and age in which most of our citizens believe that global warming is a real threat to our planet (recent polls suggest as many as 85% of Americans). But it has taken years and years to convince the general public of the dangers of imminent climate change, and it is NOT because the science was faulty, or the research inconclusive. Rather, the global warming debate was a direct result of intentional attempts by Big Oil and the energy industry to position global warming as theory rather than fact.
How do you convince a country that the conclusions of eminent scientists are somehow mistaken? Some of the under-handed tactics which the energy industry employed included paying "pseudo-scientists" (scientists that are being paid by powerful interest groups rather than through impartial funding) to argue against the science of global warming (which, by the way, has been proven by hundreds of world-renowned scientists); creating new conservative think tanks and organizations whose sole purpose is to argue against global warming; and altering (and even suppressing) official climate reports to make them sound less definitive. The idea was that if the general public believed there was actual debate as to the veracity of the global warming issue, then they wouldn't take it seriously.... until now.
The Documentary "Everything's Cool" does a fabulous job of explaining the history of the global warming debate, following a number of important journalists, scientists, and environmentalists from 2003-2007, including Bill McKibben, Ross Gelbspan, Dr. Heidi Cullen, Michael Shellenberger and Ted Nordhaus, and Rick Piltz.
From the "Everything's Cool" website: "EVERYTHING'S COOL is a film about America finally "getting" global warming in the wake of the most dangerous chasm ever to emerge between scientific understanding and political action. While industry funded nay-sayers sing what just might be their swan song of pseudo-scientific deception, a group of global warming messengers are on a high stakes quest to find the iconic image, the magic language, the points of leverage that will finally create the political will to move the United States from its reliance on fossil fuels to the new clean energy economy - AND FAST."
This was a powerful and inspirational film (though to be honest, it's also a little depressing, too, to learn about the subversive forces at work against the movement and how powerful they have been). It was also humorous and entertaining, which is nice to see in a documentary. Definitely a must-see!
Recent Comments