If you didn't see PBS Frontline's excellent documentary Heat on Climaticide tonight you owe it to yourself to visit the Frontline web site and watch the complete 2-hour video . The documentary was filmed by Martin Smith who "has won every major award in television including two duPont Columbia Gold Batons and four Emmys". Smith doesn't hold back any punches. If you were optimistic about the eventual outcome of our struggle to halt Climaticide, Heat should cure you once and for all of that illusion. Although there remains a tiny window of opportunity left, pessimism is the inevitable emotion that one takes away from the show.
In scene after scene Smith, exposes the lies, deceptions, ignorance and self-deluding, self-serving hypocrisy of fossil fuel companies, automakers, and politicians who try to paint themselves as green but do not have the political courage to act. The failure of leadership, particularly American leadership is made completely manifest in this powerful report.
I do not believe that it is hyperbole to state that the fate of the world may rely on Barack Obama: first on his being elected, second on his being willing to provide the political leadership that can provide the only way out of the Climaticide problem. Changing light bulbs and recycling are all fine, but only political leadership and sound policies are going to give us any chance of survival at this now way-too-late stage of the game. Eighteen months in the making, the documentary examines how the world's government and corporate leaders in both the developed and developing are responding to the global climate crisis. The news is frightening. Once again short-term economic and political gain are triumphing over science and and long term policy considerations. As Smith himself says:
Despite increasing talk about "going green," across the planet, environmental concerns are still taking a back seat to shorter-term economic interests.
The show aired today, Tuesday October 21, 2008 at 9 to 11 P.M. ET You can watch an except below or click on this link to watch the entire program (RECOMMENDED)
Learn a lot more and watch the full video here.
Watch the show, then take action, political action and if the politicians ignore you, try civil disobedience. And if you engage in civil disobedience and get arrested, don't plead guilty like the Dominion 11 did recently in Virginia. Plead innocent, defend yourselves and win as they did at Kingsnorth in the UK. There can be NO legal justification for Climaticide. And it is not an exageration to say that the fate of our civilization hangs in the balance.
Crossposted at Climaticide Chronicles