Rated
Apr 25 2007
•
2 reviews
•
environment, global warming, politics, video, frontline
• pbs.org
VIDEO
Frontline: Hot Politics
Website: PBS
First aired: April 24, 2007
See the whole FRONTLINE program ONLINE!
From the site: "Hot Politics goes behind the scenes
to examine the forces behind the inaction, including
a well-financed energy industry campaign that chal-
lenged the broad scientific consensus on the human
causes of climate change in an effort to stall federal
regulation. Fossil fuel companies funneled millions
of dollars to the institutes of global warming skeptics,
including former President of the National Academy of
Sciences Frederick Seitz, who cast doubt about the
science in media reports on climate change.
According to some whistleblowers, a parallel campaign
has occurred within the Bush administration, which
stifled the dissemination of key findings by government
scientists about climate change. "In my thirty-some
years in the government, I've never seen constraints on
the ability of scientists to communicate with the public
as strong as they are now," says top NASA climate
scientist James Hansen.
In interviews with scientists like Hansen and Seitz
and with political insiders including Whitman, Sen.
Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.), former Speaker of the House Newt
Gingrich (R-Ga.) and former senator and Kyoto negotiator
Tim Wirth, Hot Politics investigates why the U.S. federal
government lags so far behind much of the world in res-
ponding to global climate change.
And in special reports on FRONTLINE's Web site and
elsewhere, CIR and FRONTLINE go further, with features
including closer looks at the manipulation and suppres-
sion of science, a timeline of the politics and science
of global warming, and a map tracking U.S. CO2 emissions
and regulations state-by-state. "
