2020 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #27
A chronological listing of news articles linked to on the Skeptical Science Facebook Page during the past week: Sun, June 28 through Sat, July 4, 2020
Editor's Choice
'2040': A funny, entertaining, upbeat climate documentary
A timely Australian documentary takes a 'solutions' approach, with the filmmaker inspired by visions of his young daughter as an adult.
Australian filmmaker Damon Gameau did not create “2040” for viewing during the coronavirus pandemic. Although only now being released, online, in the U.S., the documentary premiered in Australia in the spring of 2019.
Nevertheless, the film fits well with this summer 2020 moment. For a nation wondering what post-pandemic life will look like, “2040” provides an optimistic vision of a new normal, one that addresses issues of social justice while meeting challenges posed by climate change.
As such, “2040” is the most upbeat documentary about climate change since climatologist Richard Alley’s PBS series “Earth: An Operator’s Manual.” And it’s often funny, entertaining, and, in a family sitcom sort-of-way, touching.
“2040” begins with the movie-poster scene of Gameau planting a tree with his 4-year-old daughter, Velvet. In a voiceover, Gameau explains that he worries about how climate change will affect his daughter’s future. He knows the science; he briefly explains it using the heating, plumbing, and refrigeration systems of his house as analogies for different parts of the carbon cycles. And he says he often has felt overwhelmed by the doom-and-gloom depictions of climate change in popular media.
He wants to change this: “As a father, I think there’s room for a different story, a story that focuses on solutions.”
To write this new story, Gameau poses a question: “What [would] the world look like in 2040, if we just embraced the best that already exists?” And for “already exists” Gameau adopts a cardinal rule: “Everything I show in this 2040 has to exist today in some form. I can’t make it up.” Having laid down these ground rules, Gameau begins the work of assembling “the best that already exists” into a plausible depiction of his daughter’s life as an adult in 2040.
Click here to access the entire article as originally posted on the Yale Climate Connections website.
2040': A funny, entertaining, upbeat climate documentary by Michael Svoboda, Article, Yale Climate Connections, June 29, 2020
Articles Linked to on Facebook
Sun, June 28, 2020
- Government climate advisers running scared of change, says leading scientist by Matthew Taylor, Environment, Guardian, June 26, 2020
- Global Warming Is Melting Our Sense of Time by David Wallace-Wells, Intelligencer, New York Magazine, June 27, 2020
- The chance of a La Nina forming has doubled, Bureau of Meteorology says by Ben Deacon, ABC News (Australia), June 24, 2020
Mon, June 29, 2020
- Crushed by Covid-19, Airlines Lobby for a Break on Emissions Offsets by Kristoffer Tigue, InsideClimate News, June 26, 2020
- CCC: UK risks ‘egg on face’ unless it accelerates climate plans by Simon Evans & Josh Gabbatiss, Carbon Brief, June 25, 2020
- Millions of Americans think they’re safe from flood waters. They aren’t. by Kyle Bagenstose, Dinah Pulver & Kevin Crowe, USA Today, June 29, 2020
- California Passes Historic Clean Truck Rule by Maxine Joselow, E&E News /Scientific American, June 29, 2020
Tue, June 30, 2020
- Even the South Pole Is Warming, and Quickly, Scientists Say by Henry Fountain, Climate, New York Tines, June 29, 2020
- The wetter world ahead will suffer worse droughts by Tim Radford, Climate Home, June 29, 2020
- Scientists shed light on human causes of North Atlantic’s ‘cold blob’ by Robert McSweeney, Carbon Brief, June 29, 2020
- Why Is the South Pole Warming So Quickly? It’s Complicated by Chelsea Harvey, E&E News/Scientific American, June 30, 2020
Wed, July 1, 2020
- The Newest Threat to a Warming Alaskan Arctic: Beavers by Bob Berwyn, InsideClimate News, June 29, 2020
- Ocean sensitivity may lower carbon emissions cuts by Tim Radford, Climate News Network, June 30, 2020
- Some new climate models are projecting extreme warming. Are they correct? by Jeff Berardelli, Article, Yale Climate Connections, July 1, 2020
- A potentially deadly weather pattern is setting up across the central US by Pedram Javaheri, CNN, July 1, 2020
- House Democrats’ Climate Plan Embraces Much of Green New Deal, but Not a Ban on Fracking by Marianne Lavelle, InsideClimate News, July 1, 2020
Thu, July 2, 2020
- Airlines’ climate obligations postponed as UN body endorses industry proposal by Chloé Farand, Climate Homes News, July 1, 2020
- Why it’s so damn hot in the Arctic right now by Umair Irfan, Vox, July 1, 2010
- Global heating will make it much harder for tropical plants to germinate, study finds by Graham Readfearn, Science, Guardian, July 1, 2020
- Warming temperatures threaten hundreds of fish species the world relies on, study finds by Drew Kann, CNN, July 2, 2020
Fri, July 3, 2020
- House Democrats eye 2021 with comprehensive climate action plan by Dana Nuccitelli, Article, Yale Climate Connections, July 1, 2020
- BP and Shell Write-Off Billions in Assets, Citing Covid-19 and Climate Change by Nicholas Kusnetz, InsideClimate News, July 2, 2020
- Explainer: How the rise and fall of CO2 levels influenced the ice ages by Zeke Hausfather, Carbon Brief, July 2, 2020
- An update on Facebook's climate denial loophole by Emily Atkin, Heated, July 1, 2020
Sat, July 4, 2020
- UK gives go-ahead to giant windfarm project off Norfolk coast by Jillian Ambrose, Environment, Guardian, July 2, 2020
- 12 books for 'virtual' summer travels by Michael Svoboda, Review, Yale Climate Connections, June, 25, 2020
- We need to talk about racism in the climate movement, Commentary by Tonny Nowshin, Climate Home News, June 30, 2020
- 2040': A funny, entertaining, upbeat climate documentary by Michael Svoboda, Article, Yale Climate Connections, June 29, 2020
Posted by John Hartz on Saturday, 4 July, 2020
