Category: environment

Discovery Channel backs down; will show global-warming episode after all

December 7, 2011 • 5:46 am

About two weeks ago I noted that the American Discovery Channel had purchased six of the seven segments of David Attenborough’s wonderful BBC One documentary, “Frozen Planet.” Tellingly, the unbought episode dealt with anthropogenic global warming and its devastating effect on polar life.  When I and other readers complained about this, the Discovery Channel dissimulated, saying that “the stories, messages and essence of all of the BBC’s seven episodes will be represented throughout the truly landmark series.”

Well, we weren’t the only ones to complain.  According to various sources, including Britain’s Telegraph and the American site MediaMatters, Discovery has backed down and will show the last episode after all.  Undoubtedly viewer complaints are the reason, particularly a petition by change.org that garnered nearly 84,000 signatures.  But our little bit may have helped, too.

A lot of people are going to watch this show, which airs in the U.S. in March. I only hope that the Telegraph’s assessment of this episode proves correct:

The airing of the final episode of Frozen Planet will have a huge impact on the ongoing debate about global warming.

Attenborough, after all, is seen as a reliable, trustworthy, and avuncular figure, not a tree-hugging firebrand. His opinion on this may do for global warming what Walter Cronkite’s opposition to the Vietnam war did to American feelings about our futile involvement in that conflict.

Discovery still seems to be spin-doctoring a bit, though.  MediaMatters reports:

Discovery had previously said they would make sure to include some discussion of climate change in the other episodes, which trace the exceptional seasonal cycle in the Arctic and Antarctica. But Dr. Mark Brandon, who served as an academic consultant on the series, said that  it’s important to put climate change information in a separate installment to make clear “the difference between the largest seasonal change on the planet and the observations of longer term change.”

Expect a cautious treatment of climate change in the episode. In a May hearing of the House of Lords, Attenborough — previously a skeptic of manmade climate change — said of Frozen Planet:

“I don’t believe it’s controversial, the only controversial element in climate change is to what degree it’s anthropocentric, what degree humans have been responsible, but the facts of climate change are scientifically established facts and I don’t think we go beyond that.”

Dr. Brandon has also indicated that the episode will not focus on the human influence on climate:

“If you were to imagine an episode where people just talked about, you know, humans are doing this, humans are doing that, that wouldn’t fit in with the rest of the story. What would make perfect sense if you’re telling the story of the polar regions is to talk about how they’re changing in the context of the animals and the environments that you’ve shown through the previous six hours of episodes.”

Brandon’s last sentence is pure weaselling. He sounds not like a scientist, but a politician—his incoherence resembles that of Sarah Palin. (Brandon is a lecturer in environmental science at the Open University.)

The “controversial” last episode, “On thin ice,” will air in the UK at 9 pm on BBC One today (and will be repeated on Sunday), so you Brits be sure to see it and report back.

h/t: Nick, Grania

The Discovery Channel dissimulates

November 30, 2011 • 5:43 am

This is how a recalcitrant television station responds to a complaint, trying to make a petulant viewer feel as if he’s been heard.

You remember that the Discovery Channel in the U.S. bought six episodes of the BBC One program, “Frozen Planet,” hosted and written by David Attenborough. But there were seven episodes.  The last one was on climate change—anthropogenic global warming, to be precise—which Attenborough sees, correct, as a threat to the wonderful polar ecosystems.  I urged readers to fill out a complaint about this naked pandering to special, antienvironmental interests (you can still do so here), and I finally got a response—or rather, a non-response. Here it is (several readers have posted it in their comments on the earlier post).

Dear Viewer: Thank you for contacting Discovery Channel. We appreciate your correspondence and for taking the time to share your thoughts and concerns with us about Frozen Planet. Frozen Planet will not be airing on Discovery Channel in the United States until early next year and many programming and scheduling decisions have yet to be made. We do know that the stories, messages and essence of all of the BBC’s seven episodes will be represented throughout the truly landmark series. Again, thank you for contacting Discovery Channel.

Sincerely, Viewer Relations Discovery Channel

Two points.  First, you can still complain until early next year, though I wouldn’t expect more than this formal response.  Second, how can the “programming and scheduling decisions” possibly include the last episode since it wasn’t purchased.  If Attenborough felt that the issue of global warming was adequately covered in the first six episodes, he wouldn’t have made the seventh.

A brinicle is formed: amazing video from Frozen Planet

November 25, 2011 • 12:26 pm

This brief video, from David Attenborough’s new series about polar life, Frozen Planet (discussed in the previous post about Discovery Channel’s refusal to show the climate change episode), makes me really want to see the show.

As described by PuffHo (yes, there’s sometimes good stuff there), a brinicle is an underwater icicle that forms from the surface down as dense, subzero-degree salt water (chilled by the air around sea ice) sinks, causing the warmer waters around it to freeze. Note how the brinicle forms a web of ice on the sea floor as it hits bottom, killing all the starfish and sea urchins it touches.

From PuffHo:

Hugh Miller and Doug Anderson filmed the stunning time-lapse clip below, which is apparently the first of its kind. Shot for the BBC’s “Frozen Planet,” the clip was recorded using a special time-lapse camera that caught the brinicle’s entire formation process.

Miller and Anderson captured the brinicle’s formation near Little Razorback Island, close to Antarctica’s Ross Archipelago. The duo found a number of fully formed brinicles close to the site before finding one in the process of forming.

These ice formations were known as ice stalactites until 1974, when Martin Seelye developed the now generally accepted theory of their formation.

The show’s website features a bunch of other nice clips, though I haven’t been able to view them in Spain.

BBC television episode reporting climate change won’t be shown in the U.S.

November 25, 2011 • 2:50 am

Okay, this is from the Daily Mail, but let’s assume it’s reliable. Backed by BBC One, David Attenborough wrote and presented Frozen Planet, a seven-part television series on the natural history of the polar regions.  The last episode, “On Thin Ice,” is about how humans are wrecking this environment via anthropogenic global warming.

Guess what? Although the Discovery Channel is showing the show in the United States, they bought only the first six episodes, omitting the one on global warming. The reason is obvious, even to the Daily Mail:

A poll earlier this year found that the majority of Americans believe that if climate change does exist, it is not caused by humans.

Fifty-three per cent of Republicans say there is no evidence of climate change, while the number is far higher among Tea Party supporters, with 70 per cent saying the theory is ‘junk science’ pushed by groups with a vested interest.

Both the BBC and the Discovery Channel are dissimulating on this one:

A spokesman for the BBC said it would not make sense to force television networks outside the UK to buy the episode as it features 85-year-old Sir David talking a lot of the time to camera, and in many parts of the world he is not famous.

He’s famous enough for his shows to be shown nearly everywhere, and they’re always shown in the U.S. So what’s the excuse for not making the U.S. buy the show as part of the package?

The broadcaster refused to say which countries had shunned ‘On Thin Ice’. They said it wasn’t included in the main package because it features Sir David ‘in vision’ which would make it hard for other countries to translate into their own language.

Yeah, whatever that means.  Need I add that Americans speak English too?

Discovery had dropped the full seventh episode due to ‘scheduling issues’, the spokesman added.

What a crock! Does anybody really believe that this is anything other than a television station bowing to potential political pressure? And this isn’t trivial, either—it’s the deliberate withholding of scientific information from the public because that information doesn’t serve certain special interests. It’s a travesty.

Attenborough has largely avoided politics to concentrate on nature, but when humans threaten his beloved planet, he speaks out. He’s done that before about population growth, and now is concerned about global warming. To present his first six episodes and omit the last is to leave out what, for him, is the moral of the tale.

I don’t urge reader action very often, but this is a worthy cause.  I seriously doubt that Discovery will bow under the trivial pressure that a website like this can exert, but we should nevertheless make our voices heard. If you’re American and object to the omission of the global-warming episode, go to the Discovery Channel’s “Viewer Relations” page and register your opinion. You’ll have to enter information on three separate pages, and give your cable provider (since that’s required, make one up if you don’t have one), your phone number, and so on, but they do promise to reply within a week, and believe me, I’ll post their reply to my own comment:

I strongly object to your not purchasing or showing the last episode, “On thin ice,” of the Attenborough show “The Frozen Planet”. This is nothing other than your channel’s withholding scientific information from the public in the service of certain private interests. It’s really a travesty, as I am a biologist and want all scientific information, particularly when it involves destruction of our planet, presented to the public. PLEASE reconsider your decision not to show this episode.

Here’s what the show is about, and tells you when the “controversial” last episode will air in the UK:

The show cost an estimated £16 million and took four years to make and has proved hugely popular.

It examines various aspects of the polar wilderness over the seasons and follows the lives of creatures from polar bears and wolves in the Arctic to killer whales and Adelie penguins in the Antarctic.

It has been produced by the BBC’s Natural History Unit in Bristol in conjunction with the Discovery Channel and The Open University.

The climate change episode will be aired on December 7 at 9pm.

h/t: Josh Ozersky