Years of Living Dangerously is a documentary television series about climate change and global warming produced by Joel Bach and David Gelber. The first season, consisting of nine episodes, aired on Showtime in April of 2014. The entire first season is available for viewing on YouTube (see links to episodes below).
A second season of the documentary consisting of eight episodes aired October 30 through December 14, 2016 on the National Geographic Channel.
In addition to providing an in depth look at climate change, the series takes a close look at the ideological debate and why some groups, primarily conservatives and Evangelical Christians, are so skeptical of the climate science.
- In Plainview, Texas, the Cargill meat packing plant closed because of severe drought (drought makes it impossible to raise cattle). The local people, predominantly conservative, don't believe in the climate science because a), they attribute the climate and what happens to it to God, and b) they don't believe what liberals or non-conservatives say. One of the key issues is how to separate politics and religion (ideaology) from the science.
- A drought in Syria, which preceeded the current civil war, was a significant factor in the war. Farmers and people couldn't survive and felt they were not supported by the government (the war is about freedom and the hungry).
- In Indonesia, forests are being burned and destroyed in order to grow palms for palm oil (economic reasons). The burning is a "double whammy" because not only do you lose the trees which absorb CO2 in the atmosphere, but the burning process itself releases an incredible amount of CO2 back into the atmosphere (peat, the ground on which much of the forests exist, burns as well). The Indonesian government has not been effective in stopping the destruction.
- Unilver, the largest user of palm oil in the world, was the target of Greenpeace protests in 2008. In 2013, Wilmar (the source for Unilever's palm oil) announced a "no deforestation, no peat, no exploitation" policy (No Deforestation, No Peat, No Exploitation Policy | Wilmar). In 2015, Unilver vowed to get its palm oil from only sustainable sources.
- Harrison Ford meets with the Indonesia Forestry Minister and gets him to agree to saving 50% of Tesso Nilo National Park from destruction for purposes of growing palms for palm oil.
- The deforestation has had a major impact on the local orangutan and elephant population.
- In the U.S., forest fires are becoming larger, requiring more money and resources to fight.
- As a result of drought, mountain pine beetles continue to thrive and move northward in the western U.S. and Canada, killing more and more pine trees, which releases more CO2 into the atmosphere, accelerating global warming.
Indonesia's Forest-Fire Problem Is Nowhere Close to Being Solved. Here's Why | Time
Exclusive Look Into How Rare Elephants' Forests Are Disappearing | National Geographic
As the Global Demand for Palm Oil Surges, Indonesia’s Rainforests Are Being Destroyed | Audubon
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In Staten Island, New York, super storm Sandy's flooding was a result of a one foot rise in sea level over the past 100 years (due to climate change), and the high tide and cycle of the moon at the time the storm hit.
Michael Grimm (Republican-New York), a U.S. congressman for Staten Island when Sandy hit, was extensively interviewed by Chris Hayes of MSNBC's All In during this episode. Initially, Grimm says he believes that climate change is real, but he's skeptical of how much humans are to blame. Grimm also expresses concern about government regulations that might come about to address climate change (representative of many Republican's distaste for government control in general).
Later on, Grimm seems to have had a change of heart, after speaking with former Representative Bob Inglis (Republican-South Carolina) who believes in the climate science and the often-touted figure that 98% of climate scientists say humans are at least partially to blame. Grimm makes the comment that in politics "it's always a fight". In an interview with Hayes, Grimm goes on to say:
Washington is not real life. See, you're talking the substance and the science. And my point to you is - irrelevant. Irrelevant! You have to first get them to the table to say let's work together...What I'm telling you is it's, it's much bigger than me. I don't think that humans in American, Americans, have the will to do it.
- Coral research has been conducted on Christmas Island over a 17-year period by Dr. Kim Cobb. By examining living coral core samples and radiocarbon-dated samples of dead coral found on beaches, Cobb has been able to put together a 7,000-year history of El Niño which shows that in the 20th century El Niños are 20% stronger than in the past 7,000 years. Cobb also says that El Niño events over the past 30-40 years are historically larger and more frequent. Cobb goes on to say that the "strong inference" is that this change in El Niño is a result of increased CO2 in the atmosphere.
- Regarding the politics of climate change, it's noted that past Republican U.S. presidents were engaged in environmental issues (Nixon, Reagan, George H.W. Bush). In 2009 a climate change bill was passed, but the fossil fuel industry lobbied to stop it from becoming law.
- Inglis concludes the episode with the following:
You know, if politicians don't feel any support underneath them, then they, they don't lead. The thing that encourages me is I know that a good number know better. They know that we've really got to pay attention to the science.
Experience is a very effective, but often harsh teacher. We are being taught now about climate change. The question is whether that can be coupled with the hope that there's something that can be done.
Bringing Climate to the Classroom | climateclassroom.org
Michael Grimm (politician) | Wikipedia
- Leslie Stahl, a reporter for the CBS News program 60 Minutes, visits Greenland. She reports that glacier ice in Greenland is melting at a rate five times faster than 20 years ago.
- Since 1980, 40% of Arctic sea ice has disappeared. This clearing of the ice has made it possible to access oil deposits beneath the Arctic sea floor. The clearing also helps to accelerate global warming because what was once ice (which reflects sunlight), is now water which absorbs it.
- Speaking to Stahl, former Secretary of State John Kerry said that what we need in the U.S. is a grassroots movement to make the U.S. government do more to address climate change and to create a "responsible energy policy".
- Ian Somerhalder travels to North Carolina to speak with Anna Jane Joyner, the daughter of Morningstar Ministries founder Rick Joyner. Rick is an Evangelical climate science skeptic. Ian and Anna Jane make an effort to influence his thinking. Anna Jane thinks that many Evangelicals are skeptical of science in general.
- Ian, Anna Jane, and Rick visit an oyster fisherman, who for many years has successfully harvested oysters in Apalachicola Bay on the northwest coast of Florida. Oyster production in the bay has declined dramatically because of a) drought in the southern U.S. in 2010, 2011, and 2012, and b) a rise in sea level, both of which have increased the salinity of the water in the bay, which is attributed to climate change ("Commerce Secretary Pritzker declares fisheries disaster for Florida oyster fishery").
- Ian, Anna Jane, and Rick talk to Richard A. Muller, a physicist and scientist who was previously a climate change skeptic ("The Conversion of a Climate-Change Skeptic"). In early 2010, Richard and his daughter Elizabeth founded a non-profit called Berkeley Earth. Richard explains to Rick that extensive analysis of the earth's atmosphere temperature data over the past 250 years, along with other analysis, has shown that CO2 is the primary cause of temperature increase and that humans are primarily to blame, but Rick is still not convinced.
- Bob Inglis (see Episode 3) says that some people think it's "arrogant" of mankind to think that we can affect the longevity of the earth because it's "invading the province of God".
"ASHEVILLE COAL PLANT RETIREMENT MARKS 190TH OF BEYOND COAL CAMPAIGN"
- Super storm Sandy, which hit Union Beach, New Jersey, in 2012, put 2,600 people out of their homes and resulted in an estimated loss of $38 billion in the local tourist industry. Mark Bittman, a reporter for The New York Times, goes to Union Beach to investigate.
- Bittman reports that immediately after Sandy, then Governor Chris Christie treated the possible climate change aspect of it as a "distraction".
- Climate change experts weigh in (Michael Oppenheimer, Benjamin Strauss), saying higher sea levels, a result of global warming, contributed to the impact of Sandy.
- Analysis of the effect of one additional foot of sea level rise (the amount of rise that has occurred on the New Jersey shore over the past 100 years), shows that over 25 additional square miles of land is affected, accounting for about 40,000 additional people. The projection for sea level rise by the end of the century is for an additional two to seven feet.
- A key question at the time was, is it wise to rebuild, given the existence of climate change and the possibility of another flood in the future?
- Christie decided to rebuild, and he implemented new buildings standards, some of which included the building of elevated homes. Mark Mauriello, former head of the Department of Environmental Protection for the state of New Jersey, says elevating homes gives homeowners a "false sense of security" because Christie's new building standards are based only on past data and don't take into account future projections.
- In 2005, then New Jersey Governor Richard Codey created an Office of Climate Adaptation to address the issue of climate change. Governor Christie, elected in 2010, systematically dismantled the office. On Christie's first day in office he issued four executive orders targeting the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection.
- Olivia Munn travels to Olympia, Washington to investigate how Washington Governor Jay Inslee has been working to bring climate science to bear on the Washington state government.
- Inslee believes that the economy and climate change go "hand in hand", and that climate change creates new jobs.
- Prior to becoming governor, Inslee was in the U.S. House of Representatives for the state of Washington. During that time he worked on a Climate Change Committee. He says that most of the Republican members on the committee did not believe the climate science.
- In 2008, the state of Washington passed a Climate Action Bill (SB5802) which creates an executive work group, elected by the governor, to work on a plan to significantly decrease green house gas emissions by 2020. In hearings leading up to the passage of the bill, members of the state GOP argue against the bill and call on Don Easterbrook, former professor at Western Washington University, to testify. Easterbrook says that global warming ended in 1998 (the earth is now cooling), and that NOAA and NASA data that suggests otherwise was "manipulated". Immediately after Easterbrook's testimony, his former department at Western Washington University wrote a letter disavowing his testimony. In the end, SB5802 is passed (37-12), but with all references to "climate change" removed from the bill. When the work group starts working, Republican members express concerns about what the proposed changes will mean to to economy and about the cost of regulations. The end result is that nothing productive comes out of the group.
- Another segment of this episode discusses how the city of Rotterdam in the Netherlands has chosen to deal with climate change and a rising sea level. One-third of Rotterdam is below sea level and two-thirds of its population is in the flood plain. After the epic North Sea flood of 1953, Rotterdam built massive dikes and levees. In 1990 there was massive river flooding. The Netherlands government created a new plan called "Living with the Water", where people were relocated out of the river flood plain.
With Eye on 2016, Christie Resists Climate Change Plan | The New York Times
Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative | RGGI
Climate Scientist Who Got It Right Predicts 20 More Years of Global Cooling | CNS News
Don Easterbrook's Heartland Distortion of Reality | Skeptical Science
- David Crane, former CEO of NRG says that power plants are the single largest source of emissions. Crane also says that renewable energy makes "good business sense".
- Lancaster, California Mayor R. Rex Parris says his goal is to get the city of Lancaster to "net zero" (no carbon footprint).
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Actress America Ferrera travels to Kansas to investigate how cattle rancher Pete Ferrell and the state of Kansas are employing wind energy. In 2009, Kansas passed the Renewable Energy Standards Act (HB 2369) which created a state renewable portfolio standard (RPS) requiring energy utilities to generate or purchase at least 20% of their energy from renewables by the year 2020. Over half of U.S. states have similar laws (renewable portfolio standard (RPS)).
Rancher turns to wind | Investigative Reporting Workshop
Kansas Makes Renewable Energy Standard Voluntary | Forbes
Ferrera introduces James Taylor, a senior fellow for environment and energy policy at The Heartland Institute. In conjunction with the American Legislative Exchange Council Taylor has been working diligently to supress efforts by state governments to promote renewables.
According to Taylor:
...hundreds upon hundreds of peer-reviewed studies that show that humans are not causing, that global warming is not causing, an increase in extreme weather events.
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In 2003, Dr. S. Fred Singer and the Science & Environmental Policy Project (SEPP) formed an organization called the Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change (NIPCC).
The Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change (NIPCC) is an international panel of nongovernment scientists and scholars who have come together to present a comprehensive, authoritative, and realistic assessment of the science and economics of global warming. Because it is not a government agency, and because its members are not predisposed to believe climate change is caused by human greenhouse gas emissions, NIPCC is able to offer an independent "second opinion" of the evidence reviewed – or not reviewed – by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) on the issue of global warming.
NIPCC seeks to objectively analyze and interpret data and facts without conforming to any specific agenda. This organizational structure and purpose stand in contrast to those of the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which is government-sponsored, politically motivated, and predisposed to believing that climate change is a problem in need of a U.N. solution.
Source:
"About the NIPCC". NIPCC. Retrieved 2017-08-09.
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In 2008, SEPP and The Heartland Institute published a report entitled "Nature, Not Human Activity, Rules the Climate". In 2009, 2011, 2013, and 2014, the NIPCC released a series of reports entitled "Climate Change Reconsidered". In late 2015 the NIPCC released a report entitled "Why Scientists Disagree about Global Warming". View all of these reports here.
View the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) website here.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is the international body for assessing the science related to climate change. The IPCC was set up in 1988 by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) to provide policymakers with regular assessments of the scientific basis of climate change, its impacts and future risks, and options for adaptation and mitigation.
Source:
(August 30, 2017)."IPCC Factsheet: What is the IPCC?". IPCC. Retrieved 2017-08-09.
American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) | Wikipedia
Exposing ALEC: How Conservative-Backed State Laws Are All Connected | The Atlantic
ELECTRICITY FREEDOM ACT | ALEC
Why ALEC's Attacks on Renewable Energy Failed Nationwide | EcoWatch
The Loophole That's Letting Conservatives Manipulate Renewable Energy Standards | Think Progress
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Ferrera travels to California to speak with Lisa Graves, executive director for the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD), and Brendan DeMelle, executive director and managing editor of DeSmogBlog.com. Ferrera is told that as of 2007, The Heartland Institute, a small part of a "vast climate denial network", no longer discloses its donors, but through "leaked internal documents" and"public tax records" it's been discovered that a good portion of donor dollars come from Exxon Mobil and Koch Industries.
Ferrera is also told that organizations like The Heartland Institute serve to "muddy the waters" on the climate science, much like the tobacco industry cast doubt on the science behind the dangers of smoking cigarettes many years ago. She is also told that James Taylor is a lawyer, not a scientist.
Ferrera meets with James Taylor. Taylor tells her that he agrees that carbon dioxide causes warming, "...but the best evidence out there, the best scientific evidence and data show that the moderate warming that is occurring is beneficial to human welfare, as it always has been throughout human history." When asked about the sources of funding for The Heartland Institute, Taylor says he makes a point not to know.
When asked about renewables, Taylor cites statistics that say 1.4 million birds, bats, and endangered species are killed each year by wind turbines. He also mentions the amount of land required to accommodate enough turbines to produce the same amount of energy as a conventional power plant. He also says "...the science indicates that it's [global warming] not a very serious problem."
Finally, Taylor mentions the Oregon Petition, released in 1998, a highly-controversial document referenced by climate change skeptics as evidence that there is no scientific consensus.
On climate change, consider the source: Letter to the editor | The Oregonian
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Ferrera makes the point that many of the decisions regarding energy are made at the state government level, and not in Washington, D.C. Ferrera meets with Kimberly Swatti, a consultant for the wind energy industry in the state of Kansas. When questioned about the claim that consumer energy bills are significantly higher for renewables (versus fossil fuels), Swatti says that in Kansas renewable rates are in fact no more than 1.7% higher (a percentage backed up by a report from the state of Kansas). Ferrera makes the point that although renewable energy is more expensive in some states, overall the cost of renewables has decreased over 50% from 2008-2012. Ferrera also states that in Kansas, renewable energy has generated "tens of millions of dollars for landowners, brought in billions in investments, and helped create over 12,000 jobs". Swatti goes on to say that organizations like The Heartland Institute have put out misleading information about the cost of wind and renewable energy in Kansas.
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Mark Bittman (former columnist for The New York Times, and current fellow for the Union of Concerned Scientists) travels the U.S. to investigate natural gas production (fracking). Bittman discovers that according to the natural gas industry, natural gas is cleaner burning than coal (but some question that claim). Bittman states that about 35,000 new fracking wells are drilled each year in the United States. He also learns that burning natural gas produces about one-half the amount of carbon dioxide as burning coal.
In Fort Lupton, Colorado, Bittman meets Gabby Patron, a scientist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) who noticed high levels of methane in the atmosphere in the Denver Basin (north of Denver) in 2008. Using a mobile methane sensor vehicle, Patron and her colleagues collected leakage data from the Denver Basin area for two years, and they were able to determine that the source of the high methane leakages were the fracking well areas. The results of this study were published in a peer-reviewed paper which said overall leakage from the wells in the Denver Basin was 4% of the total gas produced. The natural gas industry responded by saying the study was an anomaly and not representative of the industry as a whole.
In Utah, another methane leakage study was conducted, again with sensory vehicles (employing sensing equipment produced by Picarro), in the Uinta Basin, covering about 700 square miles and thousands of fracking wells. The study showed methane readings that were "sky high" (3-5 times background levels) over hundreds of square miles, with a leakage rate of 11%.
Another study conducted in the L.A. Basin (an area with both gas and oil wells) showed a leakage rate of 17%.
Another concern is the amount of leakage in the U.S. from commercial and residential buildings using natural gas.
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Bittman meets with Anthony Ingraffea, one of three scientists who in March of 2011 published their analysis of methane leakage from shale formation fracking wells in a letter entitled "Methane and the greenhouse-gas footprint of natural gas from shale formations" (often referred to as the "Cornell Study"). Ingraffea and his colleagues spent two years analyzing data acquired from the U.S. EPA, the U.S. Department of Energy, and gas companies.
Ingraffea reiterates to Bittman what is said in the abstract of the letter which states:
Natural gas is composed largely of methane, and 3.6% to 7.9% of the methane from shale-gas production escapes to the atmosphere in venting and leaks over the lifetime of a well.
The natural gas industry says this percentage is 1%, not the 3.6% to 7.9% reported in the letter.
Ingraffea tells Bittman that the general consensus on methane leakage is that 3% is the percent at which any greater percentage makes the leakage as bad as burning coal.
Ingraffea also tells Bittman that the analysis done by he and his colleagues was done with the "best available scientific estimating methods", but that there is no way to actually measure the leakage.
In April of 2011, when interviewed by Stacey Shackford (a staff writer in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Cornell University), Ingraffea further states the following:
We do not intend for you to accept what we've reported on today as the definitive scientific study in regards to this question. It's clearly not. What we're hoping to do with this study is to stimulate the science that should have been done before. In my opinion, corporate business plans superseded national energy strategy.
Source:
Shackford, Stacey. (April 11, 2011)."Natural gas from fracking could be 'dirtier' than coal, Cornell professors find". IPCC. Retrieved 2017-10-28.
Smeared But Still Fighting, Cornell's Tony Ingraffea Debunks Gas Industry Myths | DeSmog
Five Facts about Ingraffea and Howarth’s Latest Methane Study | Energy in Depth
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Bittman meets with Mark Boling, a top executive with Southwestern Energy (the 5th largest natural gas producer in the U.S.). Regarding methane leakage from natural gas wells, Boling says his company does something called "green completion" to capture leaking gas. Boling goes on to say:
We are not going to let those profits go up in the air...We'd be fired if we allowed our leak rate to be that high [as reported by Ingraffea's study].
Boling also says that Infraffea's study looked only at the dirtiest wells.
Bittman says the U.S. EPA declined to talk about the subject of leakage rates, but he says the EPA tends to agree with industry estimates (EPA says it's 1.5%). The estimates, which are referred to as "emission inventories", are derived from "industry-supported data" and are not independently verified. Joseph Bosch, a man who previously worked at the EPA for 38 years and who developed the technique for estimating methane leakage from natural gas wells says the leakage estimates are just guesses because the EPA did no actual measurement.
"Southwestern Energy Executive Mark Boling Admits Fracking Link to Climate Change"
THE GREEN EVANGELIST WHO SCARED THE ENERGY BUSINESS STRAIGHT | Vanity Fair
Meet the Four Horsemen of the Climate Apocalypse | GreenBiz
Can A City Get To Net Zero? Lancaster, California Mayor Thinks So | Forbes
ALTERNATIVE ENERGY | City of Lancaster
Episode 7: Revolt, Rebuild, Renew
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