BLUE GOLD: World Water Wars
In every corner of the globe, we are polluting, diverting, pumping, and wasting our limited supply of fresh water at an expediential level as population and technology grows. The rampant over-development of agriculture, housing and industry increase the demands for fresh water well beyond the finite supply, resulting in the desertification of the earth.
Corporate giants force developing countries to privatize their water supply for profit. Wall Street investors target desalination and mass bulk water export schemes. Corrupt governments use water for economic and political gain. Military control of water emerges and a new geo-political map and power structure forms, setting the stage for world water wars.
We follow numerous worldwide examples of people fighting for their basic right to water, from court cases to violent revolutions to U.N. conventions to revised constitutions to local protests at grade schools. As Maude Barlow proclaims, “This is our revolution, this is our war”. A line is crossed as water becomes a commodity. Will we survive?
Corporate giants force developing countries to privatize their water supply for profit. Wall Street investors target desalination and mass bulk water export schemes. Corrupt governments use water for economic and political gain. Military control of water emerges and a new geo-political map and power structure forms, setting the stage for world water wars.
We follow numerous worldwide examples of people fighting for their basic right to water, from court cases to violent revolutions to U.N. conventions to revised constitutions to local protests at grade schools. As Maude Barlow proclaims, “This is our revolution, this is our war”. A line is crossed as water becomes a commodity. Will we survive?
AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH AUDIO
An Inconvenient Truth is a 2006 Academy Award winning documentary film directed by Davis Guggenheim about former United States Vice President Al Gore's campaign to educate citizens about global warming via a comprehensive slide show that, by his own estimate made in the film, he has given more than a thousand times.
Premiering at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival and opening in New York City and Los Angeles on May 24, 2006, the documentary was a critical and box-office success, winning 2 Academy Awards for Best Documentary Feature and Best Original Song.[4] The film grossed $24 million in the U.S. and $26 million in the foreign box office, becoming the 9th highest grossing documentary film to date in the United States.[5]
The idea to document his efforts came from producer Laurie David who saw his presentation at a town-hall meeting on global warming which coincided with the opening of The Day After Tomorrow. Laurie David was so inspired by Gore's slide show that she, with producer Lawrence Bender, met with Guggenheim to adapt the presentation into a film.
Since the film's release, An Inconvenient Truth has been credited for raising international public awareness of climate change and reenergizing the environmental movement. The documentary has also been included in science curricula in schools around the world, which has spurred some controversy.
Premiering at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival and opening in New York City and Los Angeles on May 24, 2006, the documentary was a critical and box-office success, winning 2 Academy Awards for Best Documentary Feature and Best Original Song.[4] The film grossed $24 million in the U.S. and $26 million in the foreign box office, becoming the 9th highest grossing documentary film to date in the United States.[5]
The idea to document his efforts came from producer Laurie David who saw his presentation at a town-hall meeting on global warming which coincided with the opening of The Day After Tomorrow. Laurie David was so inspired by Gore's slide show that she, with producer Lawrence Bender, met with Guggenheim to adapt the presentation into a film.
Since the film's release, An Inconvenient Truth has been credited for raising international public awareness of climate change and reenergizing the environmental movement. The documentary has also been included in science curricula in schools around the world, which has spurred some controversy.
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6-DEGREES COULD CHANGE THE WORLD
DESCRIPTION: This thought-provoking film tackles in startling detail the alarming changes that may face us all.
As the volume of greenhouse gases increases yearly, scientists are warning that the global average temperature could increase by as much as 6 degrees Celsius over the next century, which would cause our world to change radically. This documentary joins British author Mark Lynas and climate experts as they take a look at what effect each rise of 1ºC could have on the world.
Even if greenhouse emissions stopped overnight, the concentrations already in the atmosphere would still mean a global rise of between 0.5 and 1ºC. But what if the global temperature increased by another degree? According to Mark Lynas, author of Six Degrees, the changes would no longer be gradual. Greenland's glaciers and some of the lower lying islands would start to disappear. At 3ºC higher the Arctic would be ice-free all summer, the Amazon rainforest would begin to dry out and extreme weather patterns would become the norm. An increase of 4ºC would see the oceans rise drastically. Then comes the twilight zone of climate change, if the global temperature rises again by another degree. Part of once temperate regions could become uninhabitable, while humans fight each other for the world's remaining resources. The sixth degree is what is called the doomsday scenario as oceans become marine wastelands, deserts expand and catastrophic events become more common.
If we do nothing to reduce this threat, where will the tipping point be that may mean we are no longer able to stop global warming?
EPISODE GUIDE
As the volume of greenhouse gases increases yearly, scientists are warning that the global average temperature could increase by as much as 6 degrees Celsius over the next century, which would cause our world to change radically. This documentary joins British author Mark Lynas and climate experts as they take a look at what effect each rise of 1ºC could have on the world.
Even if greenhouse emissions stopped overnight, the concentrations already in the atmosphere would still mean a global rise of between 0.5 and 1ºC. But what if the global temperature increased by another degree? According to Mark Lynas, author of Six Degrees, the changes would no longer be gradual. Greenland's glaciers and some of the lower lying islands would start to disappear. At 3ºC higher the Arctic would be ice-free all summer, the Amazon rainforest would begin to dry out and extreme weather patterns would become the norm. An increase of 4ºC would see the oceans rise drastically. Then comes the twilight zone of climate change, if the global temperature rises again by another degree. Part of once temperate regions could become uninhabitable, while humans fight each other for the world's remaining resources. The sixth degree is what is called the doomsday scenario as oceans become marine wastelands, deserts expand and catastrophic events become more common.
If we do nothing to reduce this threat, where will the tipping point be that may mean we are no longer able to stop global warming?
EPISODE GUIDE
- Six Degrees Could Change the World From the geological, weather, biological, and human perspectives, we show you how the weather can affect our life as it gets one degree warmer?
- Six Degrees Could Change the World From the geological, weather, biological, and human perspectives, we show you how the weather can affect our life as it gets one degree warmer?
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Why Care About Water?
There is the same amount of water on Earth today as there was when the dinosaurs roamed. And just less than one percent of the planet's water is available to meet the daily drinking water, sanitation and food needs of nearly 7 billion people and millions of other species. Learn more about water in all its forms and how you can make a difference.
The Story of a Bottled Water
What If You Stopped Drinking Water?
Ingredients for Life: Water
GUIDE QUESTIONS:
1. Why is water considered an essential ingredient for life?
2. Why are scientists rethinking where life might be found?
3. Why we are searching for evidence of past life on Mars?
4. Might Jupiter's moon Europa contain water beneath the vast ice sheet that covers it? Why or why not?
5. What types of life might be present on other planets in other solar systems? What conditions would need to be met for them to occur?
1. Why is water considered an essential ingredient for life?
2. Why are scientists rethinking where life might be found?
3. Why we are searching for evidence of past life on Mars?
4. Might Jupiter's moon Europa contain water beneath the vast ice sheet that covers it? Why or why not?
5. What types of life might be present on other planets in other solar systems? What conditions would need to be met for them to occur?
Arizona Water Story