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Politics : The Environmentalist Thread -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Crocodile who wrote (3136)	2/17/2004 8:23:03 PM
From: Raymond Duray	Respond to of 36917

Crocodile, Thanks for the review of the "Nature of Things" series. Re: Rather unfortunate that our CBC television shows don't seem to be picked up by any of the US channels. Perhaps they're just not the kind of "reality TV" that people down there want to see. (o: I suspect it is almost exclusively a matter of management decision as to what we do and do not get to see from CBC. Recently Oregon Public Broadcasting did a few segments of the David Suzuki series, though I missed the one that you describe. Perhaps it will air later this year.

To: Crocodile who wrote (3136)	2/20/2004 7:58:59 AM
From: Crocodile	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 36917

Part 4 of "The Nature of Things" series on the impact of global warming in the Canadian Arctic was entitled, "Washed Away" -- an episode which looked at the threat of rising waters in the Arctic and throughout the world. The show began with footage from an Inuit village which is trying to find ways to combat rising water levels. The people were building breakwaters along the shorelines, in order to try to halt the erosion which is taking place due to rising water levels, longer summers with greater storm activity, and the breakdown of the shorelines due to softer shoreline soil caused by melting of the permafrost. The buildings of the village are being moved back from the coast using bulldozers and sledges as each becomes threatened with falling over the edge of the land into the ocean. The show then cut away to visit Tuvalu, an island in the South Pacific. The leader of the community showed examples of the island being progressively swallowed up by the ocean. Many of the inhabited South Pacific islands are like Tuvalu -- low in elevation, with narrow causeways joining sections, and with smaller, usually uninhabited islands located off-shore, which help to break up the erosion caused by violent wave action during storms and high tides. With the world's rising water levels, many of the islands have already suffered extensive land-base losses, and causeways and breakwater islands are often now submerged. (More info on this subject at the following link). eces.org The show then moved to NYC to interview two scientists who are considered specialists in the effects of global warming. One of the scientists led a walk out onto the beaches of the lands between the city and the ocean -- low flats which help to break up the ocean waves during storms along the Atlantic seaboard. He demonstrated where water levels would probably be in relation to the land within 10 or 20 years, 40 years, 80 years, etc... Basically, he feels that the devastation of rising waters will be extensive in NYC and many other coastal cities, and that planners should already be trying to incorporate water level protection into all structures now...before it's too late. Cut to the leader of Tuvalu coming to NYC to speak to the UN about Global Warming. After, he is interviewed and also goes to visit the scientists. He says that many of the political leaders at the UN didn't seem to be taking the rising levels of the ocean very seriously. He was very frustrated. He asked the scientists if there was any hope at all that the trend of the rising waters might stop or possibly even reverse. They both said that they wished they could offer that hope, but that among most of their colleagues, there are few that think the melting of the polar ice can be halted. They offered some explanations for why it is difficult to immediately stop the trend of the melting -- and why it would take so many years for the trend to reverse. Both said that nations are waiting too long to take action and that these delays may lead to untold devastation around the world. The show wrapped up back in the Arctic, with footage of the most recent building to be skidded away from the ocean. The people were hauling it over the tundra, which, rather ominously, is very flat for miles. One has to wonder what is going to happen when the waters rise to the level of the tundra. Next week: The last episode of the series, "Climate on the Edge" will look at the global impact of climate change. Director Alain Belhumeur talks to scientists who predict a series of upheavals with devastating results. In the Arctic, the most acute indication of impending disaster is the melting of the permafrost - resulting in the shoreline release of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane, putting the survival of the Arctic ecosystem at great risk. Airing February 25 at 7 p.m. Excellent series. croc