The Truth About Climate Change [DVD]

At one point a sceptic of the environmental impact of humans, Sir David Attenborough has more than redressed the balance with this fascinating two hour documentary, The Truth About Climate Change.

It’s split into two parts, as the first half of The Truth About Climate Change examines some of the high profile natural disasters of the past few years, and questions how much of a part humans had to play in them. Attenborough also discusses various other lower profile environmental changes too, and what kind of impact they’re having. It’s intelligently done, without, crucially, coming across as preachy.

The rest of The Truth About Climate Change is then taken up by looking ahead, to what the long-term impact on the planet is likely to be, and things we can do to make sure those worse case scenarios simply don’t come true. Given the strengths of the arguments made before the documentary arrives at this segment, it’s not something you’ll want to ignore.

The Truth About Climate Change is no Saturday night watch, but it is a thoughtful documentary that certainly offers an unsettling amount of food for thought. Fortunately, it does remember, through Attenborough, to spend enough time working through the actions after it’s outlined the damage that’s being done. And that makes it a rounded, interesting piece of work.--Jon Foster

Sir David Attenborough undertakes a personal journey to discover how global warming is changing the planet he knows so well. The Truth About Climate Change is a two part documentary presented by David Attenborough who asks the question What is the future for our world? In programme one, Sir David searches the EVIDENCE FOR GLOBAL WARMING to establish what is causing it. Some extraordinary phenomena have taken place in recent times; Hurricane Katrina, the heat wave of 2003, polar bears swimming in search of ice and vast swarms of insects enveloping an African village. But are these isolated incidents or are they omens of a greater global change? Sir David discovers that the world is warming at an unprecedented rate, and finds out why this is now far beyond any normal allowance for cyclical fluctuation. And as ice crashes into the sea, Professor Ian Stirling darts and weighs polar bears, showing that a shorter hunting season caused by diminishing ice is affecting their breeding and health. The world that David brought to the screen in Life in the Freezer may be about to disappear. But are humans to blame? These changes are already in motion whatever we do now, but Sir David believes that we may be able to act to prevent a catastrophe. In programme two, Sir David ASSESSES THE PREDICTIONS FOR GLOBAL WARMING to discover what may happen to our world in the future and asks what we can do to save it? How can we lessen the impact on future generations? People around the world are having to adapt their way of life as the climate changes; the Inuit in the Arctic whose hunting is now limited, the Pacific island inhabitants forced to move as their homes disappear beneath the waves, and the Siberian homes slowly sinking into the permafrost. The programme investigates some of the possible scenarios for the future, including rise in sea level, insect plagues and an increase in diseases. The Truth about Climate Change is a call to arms by the man who has shown us so much over the years of our rapidly changing planet.