Customer Reviews

NOVA/Frontline - What's Up With the Weather? [VHS]

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I really enjoyed this video. It discusses whether or not human released greenhouse gases are responsible for global warming. The views of the skeptics and people who believe greenhouse gases warm the earth are presented. After watching the film you will wonder why anyone would actually be skeptical of man induced global warming. It presents a great deal of scientific evidence that not only has the earth been warming since the industrial revolution, but it is because of carbon dioxide released in the air from the burning of fossil fuels. It also discusses the problem of developing countries and how regulation of fossil fuel burning will affect them. This video is a must for anyone who is not sure what to believe and for anyone who wants to show their conservative friends that the current administration's view of global warming is irresponsible and idiotic.

Anyone who teaches climate change or who has an interest in this topic owes it to themself to watch this documentary. Unlike An Inconvenient Truth (which I also recommend), this movie presents both sides of the global warming debate ("CO2 causes warming"..."CO2 is plant food"). Through interviews with some of the leading climate change scientists and climate "skeptics", it presents the scientific evidence for climate change and the arguments for and against human-caused global warming. I imagine that climate change skeptics would cliam that the contrary evidence is minimized but the documentary raises several important questions and points out what we know and what we don't know. It is especially interesting to watch this video several years after it was made and to see how careful and conservative some of the scientists' estimates were. We have learned a great deal in the time since this video was made and the case for finding solutions becomes even more urgent. The video addresses the science of the greenhouse effect, the causes of increases in atmospheric CO2, the possible consequences of global warming, and the limitations of biofuels and nuclear fuels for solving the problem. I show this video over two class sessions and test my students over it at the end. It has a great accompanying web site, too.