Trailers and shorts
Christian parenti
Climate Madness and the Nature
of American Politics
In this short Christian Parenti discusses the dangerous climate policies pursued by Donald Trump, a president who was elected by a minority. Parenti argues that the US Right does not need the popular vote. They have the machinery of the ever-more depopulated interior states, operationalized in the electoral college, gerrymandering, vote suppression, and the Senate. The US right may be able to maintain minority rule for the foreseeable future.
Frederic hanusch
Democratic Efficacy or Eco-Dictatorship.
The Example of Canada
The case study of Canada’s Kyoto Protocol process from 1995-2012 is used to explain the mechanisms of democratic influence on climate change in depth. The Canadian type of democracy detected is characterized by a strong prerogative, diminished accountability, partially well-organized inclusiveness, a lack of participatory structures and, overall, low degrees of democratic quality. The Canadian process was one of missed opportunities. Undemocratically developed targets will neither get the legitimation nor the momentum to be translated into a climate change plan and will doubtless not be implemented in the form required to reach sufficient GHG reductions. Consequently, this lecture shows that overall stronger democratic qualities would have led to improved climate performances.
Frederic Hanusch did his Dr. phil. as part of the research group “Democracy and Climate Change” at the Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities in Essen (KWI). He worked from 2013-2016 at the German Advisory Council on Global Change (WBGU) and has since 2016 been a part of the project “Futurisation of Politics” at the IASS, the Institute for Advances Sustainability Studies at Potsdam. His research is focused on a combination of democracy research, global change research and the study of time. His most recent publication is Democracy and Climate Change (2017) published in the Routledge Global Cooperation Series.
Christian Parenti
Climate Change and the Problems
of Neoliberalism
In this short Christian Parenti argues that neoliberalism is closely linked with the climate crisis. What we need is a guided capitalism and an expansion of the public sector.
Christian Parenti has a PhD in sociology (co-supervised in geography) from the London School of Economics and is a professor in the Global Liberal Studies Program at New York University. His latest book, Tropic of Chaos: Climate Change and the New Geography of Violence (2011), explores how climate change is already causing violence as it interacts with the legacies of economic neoliberalism and cold-war militarism. The book involved several years of travel and research in conflict zones of the Global South.
Christian’s current research focuses on the environmental history of state involvement in American economic development, from the earliest days of the republic onward. As a journalist, he has reported extensively from Afghanistan, Iraq, and various parts of Africa, Asia, and Latin America. His articles have appeared in Fortune, The Washington Post, The New York Times, Middle East Report, London Review of Books, Mother Jones, and The Nation (where he is a contributing editor). He has also helped make several documentaries and has won numerous journalistic awards, including the 2009 Lange-Tailor Prize and “Best Magazine Writing 2008” from the Society for Professional Journalists. He also received a 2009 Emmy nomination for the documentary Fixer: The Taking of Ajmal Naqshbandi.
Christian Parenti
Christian Parenti – Climate change, regulation and the importance of the state
In this short academic and investigative journalist Christian Parenti argues for the role of the state in mitigating the climate crisis.
Christian Parenti’s books include: Lockdown America: Police and Prisons in the Age of Crisis (2000), a survey of the rise of the prison-industrial complex from the Nixon through Reagan Eras and into the present; The Soft Cage: Surveillance in America From Slavery to the War on Terror (2003), a study of surveillance and control in modern society. The Freedom: Shadows and Hallucinations in Occupied Iraq (2004), is an account of the US occupation of Iraq. In Tropic of Chaos: Climate Change and the New Geography of Violence (2011), Parenti links the implications of climate change with social and political unrest in mid-latitude regions of the world. Parenti has also reported from Afghanistan, Iraq, Venezuela, Bolivia, Ivory Coast and China.
Michael E. Mann
The madhouse effect
Micahel E. Mann talks about the book he did with Washington Post editorial cartoonist Tom Toles. They target the ongoing campaign to deny the climate change threat through satire and where appropriate, ridicule, built around Tom Toles’ famously insightful, edgy, and provocative climate-themed cartoons.
Michael E. Mann is Distinguished Professor of Atmospheric Science at Penn State University, with joint appointments in the Department of Geosciences and the Earth and Environmental Systems Institute (EESI). He is also director of the Penn State Earth System Science Center (ESSC).
Stefan Rahmstorf
How Unstable are the Ice Masses on Greenland and Antarctica?
Natural climate changes in Earth’s history have been accompanied by huge sea-level changes: After the last Ice Age, global sea levels rose by 120 meters. We still have enough ice on Earth to raise sea levels by a further over 60 meters. How stable are these huge ice masses in the face of global warming?
Stefan Rahmstorf obtained his PhD in oceanography at Victoria University of Wellington in 1990. He has worked as a scientist at the New Zealand Oceanographic Institute, at the Institute of Marine Science in Kiel and since 1996 at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. His work focuses on the role of the oceans in climate change.
Stefan Rahmstorf
Sea Level Rise
Sea-level rise is one of the inevitable results of global warming, as warmer ocean waters expand and land ice melts and adds water to the oceans. Observations show that the seas are indeed rising and that the rise in the 20th century is unique in the context of the previous millennia. However, more difficult to answer is the question of how fast and how far sea level will rise in the future. The billion-dollar-question is: How stable are the ice sheets on Greenland and Antarctica?
Stefan Rahmstorf obtained his PhD in oceanography at Victoria University of Wellington in 1990. He has worked as a scientist at the New Zealand Oceanographic Institute, at the Institute of Marine Science in Kiel and since 1996 at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. His work focuses on the role of the oceans in climate change.
Stefan Rahmstorf
Surprising Extreme Weather
Humans have had to cope with extreme weather events throughout their history. However, the data show that the number of certain types of extreme events is on the rise in recent decades. For some types of extremes, such as heat waves, droughts and extreme rainfall events, this is an expected outcome of global warming. Other consequences have surprised climate researchers, such as changes in the jet stream and planetary waves in the atmosphere that have been linked to some unprecedented recent extreme events.
Stefan Rahmstorf obtained his PhD in oceanography at Victoria University of Wellington in 1990. He has worked as a scientist at the New Zealand Oceanographic Institute, at the Institute of Marine Science in Kiel and since 1996 at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. His work focuses on the role of the oceans in climate change.
STEFAN RAHMSTORF
The North atlantic cold blob
A slowdown or even collapse of the Gulf Stream System as a result of global warming has long been a concern of climate scientists and has fuelled the imagination of Hollywood. Regular direct observations of this giant ocean current system do not go back far enough to tell whether there is any long-term trend. However, in recent years indirect evidence is mounting for a remarkable slowdown over the 20th Century.
Stefan Rahmstorf obtained his PhD in oceanography at Victoria University of Wellington in 1990. He has worked as a scientist at the New Zealand Oceanographic Institute, at the Institute of Marine Science in Kiel and since 1996 at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. His work focuses on the role of the oceans in climate change.
Michael E. Mann
How close are we to dangerous
warming of the planet?
How Close Are We to Dangerous Warming of the Planet? A discussion of the concept of “equilibrium climate sensitivity”, what it tells us about future global warming, and the efforts we need to make to avoid catastrophic warming of the planet.
Michael E. Mann is Distinguished Professor of Atmospheric Science at Penn State University, with joint appointments in the Department of Geosciences and the Earth and Environmental Systems Institute (EESI). He is also director of the Penn State Earth System Science Center (ESSC).
Michael e. mann
Faux pause:
Global warming continues unabated
A discussion of the common but false claim by climate change contrarians that global warming has “stopped” or “paused”. In fact, global warming continues unabated, with record global temperatures have occurred several years in a row now.
Michael E. Mann is Distinguished Professor of Atmospheric Science at Penn State University, with joint appointments in the Department of Geosciences and the Earth and Environmental Systems Institute (EESI). He is also director of the Penn State Earth System Science Center (ESSC).
Jón Bragi pálsson
The root of the problem
The film The Root of the Problem: Iceland and Climate Change, made by Jón Bragi Pálsson, is a 30 minute documentary about the discourse of climate change in Iceland. The film targets solutions that are based on consumption and the idea that global warming is a positive thing for Icelanders. The documentary gives insight into the dilemma of living everyday life in a consumer’s world while dealing with the serious problems of global warming. It is based on interviews with scientist and professors in the field of climate change.