Years of Living Dangerously (1st Episode)...Climate change documentary on Showtime

[deutsey]

[2naSalit]

1. THANK YOU!!!

[RainDog]

2. k&r n/t

[yuiyoshida]

3. Thanks for posting...

Very interesting. I also see the Republicans burying their heads in the sand over this...its a "Democratic plot" to keep Americans scared.. or some such crap. They will probably sit around waiting for the rapture long after this all affects us on a deeper level.

[neverforget]

4. Just finished watching it. Excellent!

and very frustrating listening to some of the people deny science.

[2naSalit]

5. That was

very interesting and poignant. The subtlety in making it clear that world governments are shirking responsibility for $$ is truly well placed. I am really glad they put the Syrian issue in the first segment so that those who weren't able to get the real story of the problems there can see the roots of the conflict... and ow it can happen here if one is able to connect the dots.

Thank you for posting this so that we, who have no TeeVee or cable or $$ to pay for ShowTime, can see at least the first segment. Everyone who is capable of thinking should see this.

[panfluteman]

6. Weaving the World Wide Web on Climate Change

I just finished watching this first episode, and if it is a representative taste of episodes to come, it will be totally FANTASTIC! I see their method - weaving together all the complex strands of this biggest story of our times, Global Warming and Climate Change, showing that there is way more to it than meets the eye - or even than gets reported in the mainstream media. For example, I was really shocked to learn that a severe drought caused by climate change was behind the Syrian civil war. Not a word whispered in the mainstream media about that! But when you think that the mainstream media is totally owned by the large corporations, the largest and most wealthy / powerful of which are the petroleum and fossil fuel corporations, that's really not so surprising. So, can we now assume that if some terrible war or calamity is happening in the world, and the mainstream media leaves you totally in the dark as to its root cause, we can assume that that root cause is related to Climate Change? Could be!

Another great thing that this episode did was to bridge the gap between science and faith. Evangelicals and conservative Christians thump their Bibles and cherry pick the passages of scripture that supports their right to do whatever the heck they want, regardless of the consequences, but fail to think critically and make rational conclusions about the ramifications of the core tenets of their faith, which, obviously, this Evangelical Christian climate scientist has done. She's put two and two together, and has connected the dots. God gave man the free will to either be a good steward of the planet, or to abuse it, with the disastrous results that we are experiencing now. And yes, there are passages in the Bible that speak of man's responsibility to be a good steward of Nature, and of the planet. It's like the climate scientist said, we are here to take care of each other, and the world we inhabit...

[ancianita]

8. Exactly what I got from it, too. That and state corruptions that enable farm and forest ruin.

Well said. This is important!

[deutsey]

10. It's all about framing (e.g., climate sciance and religious conservatives)

The Christian climate scientist basically laid out the same kind of science that Al Gore did, but she framed it in a way that connected with the conservative Christians in her audience.

I think George Lakoff, the guru on framing issues, said that liberal/progressive types often assume if we just present the facts and data to people, we'll persuade them to join your cause. This assumes that we all assess information logically like Spock from Star Trek.

We don't.

As the one Christian guy in the show pointed out, he was more inclined to believe the woman scientist (as opposed to Al Gore) because she reflects his kind of Christianity, she's from where he's from, etc. I imagine the fact that her husband is a conservative Evangelical pastor also gives her credibility to him. So he will listen to the science she presents where he'd tune out the science in "An Inconvenient Truth" as liberal propaganda.

We can snicker all we want about stuff like that, but the way we frame an issue (the language, metaphors, context we use) and the ethos of the person framing the issue are foundational aspects of rhetoric (i.e., the art of persuasion).

I like how this show demonstrated that.

[ancianita]

7. Earth will survive us. Today, too many delusionals aren't angry at the agents of extraction.

The science scare shows on Harrison Ford's face. Biblical delusions of prayer, patriotism and pandering show the millions' ignorance of reality. Every year, forests the size of Germany are lost forever from deforestation/slash-and-burn destruction.

Desertification has begun across the planet. Plant closures. Unemployment. Drought. Foreign rebellions. Civil wars. Refugee tent cities. By 2080, Fargo, ND will be Phoenix.


Sure, we're used to the news. Even the photos, but think about your kids and grandkids. It's going to be horrible in my grandson's lifetime.



By 2080...
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2013/09/rising-seas/if-ice-melted-map

I don't know if voting Democrat will stop this, but prayer sure as hell won't do it.
As one DU'er says, "Anger is a gift," and it our anger that will stop these agents of human destruction.

[panfluteman]

9. Yep - There's So Many Threads to Be Woven into This Web!

I'm glad you liked my post, Ancianita! And of course, the third thread in this episode, which I didn't talk about, is how some little ingredient in so much of the prepared food we buy in supermarkets, which most people here don't even think about, is corrupting whole nations and their governments half a world away, and causing massive deforestation - Palm Kernel Oil. Then what other stuff that seems pretty minor and inconsequential to us is actually a big deal when it comes to driving Climate Change? You'll have to stay tuned to future episodes to find out, I suppose. I suppose that there are so many diverse angles and aspects to this greatest story of our times that even the most active and devoted Climate Change activist can't wrap their head around them all - or at least not all at once.

Climate Change can be seen as a business and economic issue: Does one industry (the petroleum and fossil fuel industry) have the right to ruin things for other industries - like the tourist industry or the insurance industry? I don't think so! But beyond that, when one looks at the whole, it is a fundamental moral issue: Do we have the right to ruin the whole world for posterity just for our short term profit?