Heat - documentary on climate change

I watched some good TV last night - the documentary on climate change called HEAT which was produced and reported by Martin Smith.

It opens with a good quote from Sunita Narain from the centre for Science and Environment, New Delhi:

“We're standing at the precipice of hell. If everybody else was to live like an American, then the planet is doomed” she said.

And then Barack Obama is shown saying this:

“We can't wait to solve one of the greatest crises that mankind has ever faced and roll back greenhouse gases global warming!”

Then the announcer says the documentary “is an investigation of the resistance to change inside major corporations” and “the resistance to change within Washington”.

The first part of the documentary is called “Watching the World Change” and uses the example of comparing photographs of Mount Everest taken in 1921 to those taken today.

Figure 1: British explorer George Mallory took his photograph of Everest in 1921. At the foot of the mountain, the main Rongbuk glacier, a frozen river of ice that flows from Everest's north side.
.
Now have a look at the photo taken now below:
..
Figure 2: Mt Everest today (Note: much less glacier present - lost up to 40% of its ice).
.
And the effect of this?
.
RAJENDRA PACHAURI, IPPC:
.
"Over a period of time, about 500 million people on the subcontinent are going to suffer from water scarcity as a result of the melting of those glaciers, and 250 million people in China. In terms of the impact on the lives and livelihoods of people, we're turning thousands of years of human history around and perhaps leaving people with no choice now."

.

Anyway, you get the general idea.

.

Well worth watching, it also has some good interviews with industry leaders from Exxon Mobil, General Motors, Arch Coal and America's two largest utilities, American Electric Power and Southern Company among others. It also tried to speak to a representative from a major ethanol industry leader, but they declined to discuss the fact that ethanol from corn was perhaps not very good for the environment* and was blamed for driving up food prices** (as Obama has recently come to realise).

.

*If you look at the net energy or EROEI (energy returned on energy invested) of corn ethanol, it is actually a net energy loser.

.

** this is not entirely true as other factors such as a rise in oil prices and fertilizers were some of the main factors involved.

.

Transcript available here

.

More info and link to watch the full documentary