Search - Everything's Cool on DVD

Even better than "An Inconvenient Truth"

Preston C. Enright | Denver, CO United States | 01/03/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I think "An Inconvenient Truth" deserved all the accolades and awards it received, but "Everthing's Cool" is even better. This film brings us into the struggles and the triumphs of several people who have been sounding alarms around climate change for years - including award-winning authors Ross Gelbspan Boiling Point: How Politicians, Big Oil and Coal, Journalists and Activists Are Fueling the Climate Crisis--And What We Can Do to Avert Disaster and Bill McKibben Fight Global Warming Now: The Handbook for Taking Action in Your Community. I've had the good fortune to hear both of them lecture on C-SPAN and "Alternative Radio." This DVD made me more aware of their personal struggles with what can be very depressing information, and the fossil fuel industry's public relations efforts to cast doubt upon this issue. People should be skeptical of everything, but it would be prudent to take steps now to avert what could be an environmental catastrophe. "Everything's Cool" follows Gelbspan and McKibben to various encounters with the corporate media, their homes, activist gatherings and other venues. It also provides an intimate glimpse into the effort that White House whistle-blower Rick Piltz has made to expose what was done to "doctor" his department's report on climate change.
Yet another interesting portrait this film provides is that of the Weather Channel's Heidi Cullen who has the task of covering climate issues for its tens of millions of viewers. Beyond climate change, "Everything's Cool" provides insight into the workings of the media, the PR industry and the actions of concerned citizens across the country - including a worker at a Utah ski resort who experiments with biodiesel and brings it to the resort that employs him.

This film is very well done, very entertaining, informative, and will provide ideas and inspiration for all sorts of constructive engagement on this issue. I hope the nay-sayers of climate change are right; but we should be wise and take action just in case. If nothing else, we would end up with sustainable energy, cleaner air, fewer oil spills and an array of other benefits from transitioning away from "dinosaur juice."

Here a couple related items:
Refugees of the Blue Planet
A Convenient Truth: Urban Solutions from Curitiba, Brazil
Worldchanging: A User's Guide for the 21st Century"

Climate Change Politics

Paul Moskowitz | Yorktown, NY | 01/28/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The list of events that we see that have been predicted by climate scientists is seemingly without end. According to the IPCC, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, before the end of this century we may live in a world of elevated temperatures, rising sea level, and extreme weather. However, as dire as the predictions are, the reality is much worse. The climate models are indeed inaccurate ... in their timing. Climate change has accelerated beyond the predictions of only one or two years ago. In his movie, An Inconvenient Truth, Al Gore states that the Arctic will be ice free in the summer in 40 years. That would put it about 2046. However, there have been news reports at the end of 2007 that NASA climate scientists are now predicting the summer of 2012 as the date for an ice-free Arctic. The ice in question is floating sea ice. Its melting will not raise the level of the world's oceans. However, an ice free Arctic Ocean will absorb more sunlight, increasing the Arctic warming trend.

This film documents the actions of those who are bringing the message of the reality of climate change to the public, and also those in our government and in private industry who would have us believe that there is a genuine debate about the reality of climate change. In fact, the "debate" has been artificially created by the fossil fuel industry. All you have to do to be convinced that we are in trouble is to look at the satellite view of the Arctic Ocean for September 2007. (See customer image) Forty percent of the area that had been covered by ice is now open ocean.

Although the majority of people in the US are convinced that we have to do something about climate change, there is still well financed opposition. I recently received a petition in the US mail. It included a 12 page color so-called scientific paper that claimed to prove that more CO2 was a good idea. Many people at universities have gotten this mailer. It costs a lot to send these out. I did a Google search. The authors of the paper are associated with the Marshall Foundation, whose president is from the Petroleum Institute. Marshall has received funding from the oil industry.

On the positive side, we do have the opportunity for green industries, to develop alternate sources of energy, to increase the efficiency of our energy use. Grass roots groups to fight climate change have grown up all over the US. The Weather Channel has expanded its coverage of climate change by expanding Forecast Earth to one hour. However, Heidi Cullen, who was one of the people featured in Everything's Cool, is no longer the host of the show. She now appears occasionally in her role as a climatologist.

This is a must-see movie. I also recommend the books: "With Speed and Violence: Why Scientists Fear Tipping Points in Climate Change",about recent scientific investigations and their implications for global warming, and Global Warning: The Last Chance for Change, which details the world politics of climate change.

PS. In November 2008, the Weather Channel, now owned by GE, cancelled Forecast Earth.
"

Must Watch

Peter Buck | Washington, DC USA | 01/21/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The film has a bit of fun with Society's blindness to the urgency of global warming. When it was over, I said "All my friends need to see this." It doesn't have the mountain of facts found in "An Inconvenient Truth", but it's a strong statement nonetheless."