Customer Reviews

Global Warming: The Signs and the Science

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I am a K-12 school librarian and am launching an awareness project about the environment, with global warming as a key topic. I needed a documentary about global warming for secondary level students.
I had proposed that all teachers watch "An inconvenient Truth" for their own information, and was confronted with one typical negative reaction: "Al Gore has an agenda, this is politics in school and I will not admit that. I want scientific, objective information". Although I do not agree with this reaction at all, I thought that I might as well look for something else, since I think that "An Inconvenient Truth" is not the ideal first step to raise awareness among the younger students. And there I ordered the PBS "Global Warming" documentary. Alanis Morissette is a very articulate speaker, clear and convincing. The construction and contents of the film, with very interesting interviews with diverse scientists give an excellent overview of the issue.
This DVD and "An inconvenient Truth are important eye-openers for us all!

Complete overview of the challenges facing our planet! Wonderful complement to our ecology class. Karen Orrell

As I write this review, Australia is experiencing a massive, lethal fire which is raging on the fuel of its worst drought in a century. Here in Colorado, we've had a couple winter wildfires, one of which forced the evacuation of former FEMA director, Michael Brown. The majority of the scientific community, around 80 percent, feels global warming is taking place and human (fossil fuel industry) activity is the cause. This film takes us on a global tour of the dynamics, disasters, and possible responses to a changing climate. If only the voices in this film had the sort of platform as those who seek to muddle the issue. Hour after hour on right-wing talk radio stations a parade of oil funded "skeptics" argue in ways that Exxon and Peabody coal must appreciate. While I hope the skeptics are right, and we shouldn't be worried (an argument that has shifted to "there's nothing we can do about it", which is more fossil fuel business propaganda); the responsible thing to do would be to take precautions regarding what the CIA considers an international security threat. For example, former CIA director James Woolsey talks about climate change threats in the documentary A Crude Awakening - The Oil Crash.
Additionally, a Wikipedia entry on "Scientific Opinion on Climate Change" reveals how many scientific organizations (not just Al Gore) argue that we are creating a catastrophe. These organizations include the IPCC, the InterAcademy Council, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the European Science Foundation, the National Research Council, the American Association of Wildlife Veterinarians (the film features a segment on the spread of diseases from climate change), the American Society for Microbiology, the American Geophysical Union, and many others. Sadly, the money and media influence of Big Oil and Big Coal and the endless deception of people like Sean Hannity are perverting what should be a serious discussion Everything's Cool.

I would highly recommend this DVD, it's a well-crafted and very informative film. Other media tools I'd recommend are:
The 11th Hour
E - The Environmental Magazine
Boiling Point: How Politicians, Big Oil and Coal, Journalists, and Activists Have Fueled a Climate Crisis--And What We Can Do to Avert Disaster
Worldchanging: A User's Guide for the 21st Century
The Green Collar Economy: How One Solution Can Fix Our Two Biggest Problems
Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Social Movement in History Is Restoring Grace, Justice, and Beauty to the World

My sophomores and I watched this as one of three films about global warming in the process of learning persuasion. They immediately recognized the sponsors of the program as hybrid car manufacturers, and one supporter is a financial planning and investment group who would benefit from new programs designed to build anti-global warming equipment (which, of course uses energy). One of the solution demonstrations included a police department in Florida driving hybrid cars (manufactured by the sponsor) and being thrilled with them. As presented in this video, global warming is unquestionably human created with no option but to buy Toyota cars and build strange looking monolyths all over the planet to neutralize the CO2 we are putting into the atmosphere. The presentation of scientific evidence is interesting and allows students to exercise some of what they have been exposed to in science classes. I bought this documentary to use as part of a high school English research lesson I taught. The idea was to see both liberal and conservative sides of the issue. I am amazed that so many documentaries and news programs take the stance that every scientist agrees that the problem is human caused. If you want to see the other side of the coin or consider what difference it really might NOT make, google the concept of "global warming hoax" or "climate change hoax" and find Bjorn Lomborg on the internet. Balance is always the hardest part of life to achieve, and this is one issue that has little balance in logic.

As a science teacher who specializes in the natural sciences, the topic of Global Warming is (finally) becoming an acceptable topic to introduce. Resistance has usually come from parents who see the teaching of Global Warming as linked to a political statement. Viewing of the film "An Inconvenient Truth" can be... inconvenient. The film "Global Warming: The Signs and Science" is a very nice alternative to anyone else who is facing the same problem. Al Gore's prize will do little to alter the political tag some give his film. The "Signs and Science" video lives up to its title. I found it well done, and I especially liked that they included information on the "global conveyor" into the film.

When this aired on PBS we watch. Everyone should own a copy of this. It's sad to see what is happening to our planet.

Stunning, factual, direct. If you want yet another documenrtary to support ecological acti.on needed, watch this and An Inconvenient Truth

This was by far & away the worst documentary on Global Warming I've ever seen. No research or evidence is used to support the film's assertions. ...more informative and evidence-based conclusions on Global Warming can be found at any grammer school science fair.

PBS should pull this one off the market. It is a shame!

What a waste of money! Both PBS and Ms.Morissette should be ashamed of this product as it has absolutely no scientific evidence to support her position that CO2 is connected with global warming. She presents no facts and provides no scientific evidence. This whole DVD can be summarized into the basic concept-that if you raise the temperature of the atmosphere enough, the polar ice caps will melt! That conclusion goes without saying and is equivalent to concluding that increasing one's thermostat will result in warming the temperature in their house. This `Documentary' would have a lot more value if Ms. Morissette provided some evidence, or provided facts of a cause and effect relationship.

I would recommend the DVD, the Great Global Warming Swindle, as this author actually provides scientific data from an objective point of view which is supported by facts

Boy, I sure am glad they got the scientific genius Alanis Morissette to preach to us on this DVD, but I think the shallowness of this selection is made clear by its one-sided examination of global warming. There is no diverse perspective here and no critics of the "scientific consensus" were even consulted. This immediately decreased its credibility with me. Everyone should have been a little taken back, however, by the documentary's hilarious politically correct angle by which "people of color" are more affected by climate change than anyone else. What a ridiculous thing to say. If the worst of these gloom and doom scenarios play out then there won't be anything left of any of us regardless of the individual melanin contents of our skin. Furthermore, air purity standards have improved over the course of the last decade which is a fact this documentary fails to reveal. Strategically, the documentary implies that the US was the only country not to sign the Kyoto Treaty but 155 other countries failed to do so as well. As for the signatories, not one is lowering carbon levels as a result of the protocol. The idea that we can set an example in the west and have it followed by communist China is risible. The Chinese or the Indians are going to go along with any global protocols like Kyoto. Here's another climate change movie rooted in the blame America first philosophy.