“Cool It” heats up the global warming debate
12:04 am in Environmental Politics, Uncategorized by E.
(Originally published in Creative Loafing/Tampa edition; 11/11/10) Cool It is a feature documentary indictment of the global warming issue. The film begins with a summation of the global warming meta-narrative. This introduction uses a child’s narration and stylized crayon drawings to effectively make this complex subject understandable and simultaneously, eerily haunting (i.e.: a child should probably never know so much about his planet being on the brink of destruction). However, this introduction is something of a red herring. Just when this reviewer was prepared for yet another environmental activist’s foray into why everyone everywhere should unplug everything immediately lest we all die, the film began to turn on itself.

A brief biography of Bjorn Lomborg, Danish author of The Skeptical Environmentalist, led to a crossfire examination of the relationship between humankind and the biosphere. This provides a thumbnail sketch of a plethora of global problems (disease, warfare, starvation, etc.) that each seems to dwarf the colossal problem of the introduction.
Then the grilling begins. Talking heads on both sides of the debate about global warming present opposing arguments on whether global warming is even a real phenomena and if so, what, if anything can or should be done about it. Lomborg, who’s quest is to get to the raw data concerning these global problems, is alternately called an environmental heretic by environmental activists and an alarmist, environmental nut by advocates of the industrial, free market establishment. Lomborg’s work challenges the contemporary consensus on both sides of the issue which makes him seem the lone man in the middle of the “green” storm. Read the rest of this entry →