Institute History
Description
In their signature upbeat comedic style, Daniel Gold and Judith Helfand weave an entertaining, character-driven, behind-the-scenes tale about the mother of all problems: global warming.
Against a distinctly American backdrop of denial, deception, and delay, a group of global-warming messengers/prophets fervently searches for the right language and strategy to propel a reluctant, disaster-fatigued citizenry and its elected officials into action. Among this cast of characters are a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who repeatedly tries to retire but can't, the Weather Channel's first climatologist with a "global-warming beat" who must pack her Ph.D. into 30-second sound bites, two "bad boys" who aim a radical critique at the environmental movement, and a public servant who blows the lid off the White House's manipulation of key climate-change research.
Intercut throughout this strikingly shot journey are the trials and tribulations of a snow groomer turned biodiesel entrepreneur working on a solution, and the story of an Inuit Alaskan community that must decide whether to stay and risk getting washed into the sea or move their entire village. Hurricane Katrina blitzes the Gulf, U.S. consciousness on climate makes a seismic shift, and America finally "gets" global warming. Or do we? The way we're acting, one would think everything's cool.