Earth: the climate wars

If you missed the BBC series Earth: The Climate Wars, I’d recommend catching it on iPlayer while it’s still up. Presented by Iain Stewart, it tells the story of how scientists discovered climate change. It’s been given the big-screen treatment – Stewart can’t mention a word like ‘volcano’ or ‘ocean’ without triggering a wave of time lapse footage, but it’s all very watchable and informative. 

There’s lots of archive footage too, and as you see how climate change was gradually investigated you can’t help but feel frustrated that we’re still fighting the same battles now as we were thirty years ago. The US government sciencific panel JASON were commissioned to study global warming in 1978, and their predictions remain credible today. Unfortunately, under Reagan climate change was ‘kicked into the long grass’, to use Stewart’s expression. 

I’ve only seen part one so far, but I’ve got the others recorded. At three hours running time across the three parts, there’s plenty of time to elaborate, or to forage out an anecdote or two. Among the interesting features in the story so far are Camp Century, the huge US military base under the Greenland ice. (who isn’t fascinated by underground bases?)  Then there’s the unfortunate Thomas Midgeley, inventor of both CFC gases and leaded petrol. And Margaret Thatcher giving a speech calling for “changes and sacrifices so that we do not live at the expense of future generations.”

Part one – the battle begins

Part two – new challenges

Part three – fightback