weather
Did anyone else catch the series of documentaries on Channel 4 regarding climate change?
very interesting and informative stuff. Quite an eye opener.
"War on Terra" Episode one - "The End of the World as We Know It"
This was an excellent documentary. The reporter became more and more visibly worried as the report went on and the future started to look a lot bleaker. He interviewed loads of people about the changing climate, polution and global warming. The Chairman of Shell oil was silenced half way through the interview by their PR woman as he was saying lots of potentially damaging stuff to the company - such as stating something had to be done to stop emissions immediately before it is too late.
He also interviewed James Lovelock, the chap who came up with the gaia theories and the Father of the green movement and he basically said the only way to save the planet was to either turn everything off which will never happen or to switch to nuclear power as other eco-friendly power such as wind and solar would never meet demand. He also travelled around the globe looking at signs of global warming such as the indian vilages which have moved 3 times due to rising sea levels and the houses in alaska where they are all sinking into the ground as the permafrost melts.
"War on Terra" Episode two - "7 days that shook the weathermen"
This was good too. The reporter covered some of the most amazing and devastating weather in the last decade.
1. The European heatwave claims thousands 2003
2. Flash floods in Boscastle 2004
3. 2004 Hurricane Season
4. Widespread flooding in England and across Europe 2000
5. 2002 Larson B Antarctic ice shelf twice the size of Luxemburg breaks apart in less than a month
6. 2003 - 298 tornados in one week. The most since records began
7. Massive storm hits south England.
It looked at the pattern of freak weather recently and suggested that the weather across the globe will become more extreme as it becomes hotter and more humid. Sea levels are rising and floods, violent storms and extreme heat waves will become the norm.
"War on Terra" Episode three - "What would Jesus drive"
This was nowhere near as good as the other two but was still interesting. It covered the love of the United States on gas guzzling SUV’s, Hummers and other big engine vehicles. Interviewing 6 car families and visiting the showrooms of various manufacturers. Some of these cars do as little as 10 miles per gallon. It also interviewed some of the environmentalists and showed TV ads implying that buying an SUV helped terrorism. They interviewed vehicle manufacturers such as ford who made it clear they thought they were all wonderfully environmentally friendly as they had planted hundreds of sunflowers. The attitude in the US to fuel consumption and global warming in general is terrible. One guy interviewed at a motor show said "we own Iraq why are we still paying top dollar at the pumps?"
US greenhouse gas emissions are increasing and they will not even entertain the Kyoto agreement. A large percentage of these emissions are from their gas guzzling vehicles.
All in all, if the scientists and environmentalists are correct the future looks extremely bleak for the world and climate change is happening far faster than they originally thought.
very interesting and informative stuff. Quite an eye opener.
"War on Terra" Episode one - "The End of the World as We Know It"
This was an excellent documentary. The reporter became more and more visibly worried as the report went on and the future started to look a lot bleaker. He interviewed loads of people about the changing climate, polution and global warming. The Chairman of Shell oil was silenced half way through the interview by their PR woman as he was saying lots of potentially damaging stuff to the company - such as stating something had to be done to stop emissions immediately before it is too late.
He also interviewed James Lovelock, the chap who came up with the gaia theories and the Father of the green movement and he basically said the only way to save the planet was to either turn everything off which will never happen or to switch to nuclear power as other eco-friendly power such as wind and solar would never meet demand. He also travelled around the globe looking at signs of global warming such as the indian vilages which have moved 3 times due to rising sea levels and the houses in alaska where they are all sinking into the ground as the permafrost melts.
"War on Terra" Episode two - "7 days that shook the weathermen"
This was good too. The reporter covered some of the most amazing and devastating weather in the last decade.
1. The European heatwave claims thousands 2003
2. Flash floods in Boscastle 2004
3. 2004 Hurricane Season
4. Widespread flooding in England and across Europe 2000
5. 2002 Larson B Antarctic ice shelf twice the size of Luxemburg breaks apart in less than a month
6. 2003 - 298 tornados in one week. The most since records began
7. Massive storm hits south England.
It looked at the pattern of freak weather recently and suggested that the weather across the globe will become more extreme as it becomes hotter and more humid. Sea levels are rising and floods, violent storms and extreme heat waves will become the norm.
"War on Terra" Episode three - "What would Jesus drive"
This was nowhere near as good as the other two but was still interesting. It covered the love of the United States on gas guzzling SUV’s, Hummers and other big engine vehicles. Interviewing 6 car families and visiting the showrooms of various manufacturers. Some of these cars do as little as 10 miles per gallon. It also interviewed some of the environmentalists and showed TV ads implying that buying an SUV helped terrorism. They interviewed vehicle manufacturers such as ford who made it clear they thought they were all wonderfully environmentally friendly as they had planted hundreds of sunflowers. The attitude in the US to fuel consumption and global warming in general is terrible. One guy interviewed at a motor show said "we own Iraq why are we still paying top dollar at the pumps?"
US greenhouse gas emissions are increasing and they will not even entertain the Kyoto agreement. A large percentage of these emissions are from their gas guzzling vehicles.
All in all, if the scientists and environmentalists are correct the future looks extremely bleak for the world and climate change is happening far faster than they originally thought.