James Burke : "After The Warming", 1/11

Watch Entire Show: http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=16E277DDB6723CC0&playnext=1

In typical "Connections" style, Mr. Burke takes a look at a possible future world where mankind has taken appropriate steps to forestall the ongoing trend of global warming, presumably primarily due to excess "greenhouse gasses". Burke takes a look at similar global temperature changes that had occurred in the past, of which there are two kinds.

One kind of global climate change happens in regular cycles having to do with alterations in the earth's orbital and also it's tilt with respect to the sun (the so-called minor and major "ice ages"). Burke examines periods in human history and development when these events occurred. Namely how they effected the entire human race, or individual societies.

The other class of changes happen through disruptions in the "temperature regulatory system" of the planet (these are like massive "rivers" deep beneath the oceans). This could happen for instance if a large "wall" of ice, acting as a dam for an even larger fresh-water lake, suddenly breaks releasing a lot of fresh water into a "salty" ocean. It turns out that the driving force behind this "oceanic circulatory system" is, in fact, salt. So if the salinity changes to a large enough degree, then the cycle alters, (or stops alltogether) and this can have dramatic effects on the earth's climate as a whole, and also over a very short period of time (less than a century).

Burke notes that climate change due to humans, being foreseeable, could be forestalled, prevented, or even reversed and presents the show as a news broadcast from the year 2050 wherein his ancestors (ie. our children) had the foresight to be able to prevent much of the catastrophic outcomes that normally result when major climate change occurs on Earth.

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[kcjenner1]

At 8:25 he speaks of 15,000 years ago where the TRUE Australians were land-locked on the continent. The aborigines.

I never saw or heard of this series. I have some videos I want to put up that are the "After Words" from 5 of the TDTUC from my PBS recordings of the mid 1980's but am fearful of violating copyright although they should qualify under clause 17 for Fair Use.

[JamesBurkeWeb]

This, or any small enough segment certainly qualifies. My channel doesn't unfortunately ;) but nobody seems to want to take it down which is, I think, a testament to Ambrose Video's maturity in this messed up "copy-wrong" world ;). I hope they are not losing money over it... but I know 3rd the world gains access to quality education through the channel (many mails from school teachers using the channel in their classrooms).

So Merry X-mas to Ambrose from JBW!

- JBW

[daddyans]

I was hunting for my video cassette of this I recorded off a PBS station during the 1st Bush/Gulf war. It dawned on me to see if it was here. Nice job on the uploads JBW. Zeitgeist/Venus Project re-ignited my desire to see this again and on the eve of the Copenhagen summit, the blogs have been smokin'! I notice there are people that are quick to denounce Al Gore and David Suzuki but never a mention of JB/ATW. Too bad because JB addresses the endless debate/reports/arguing. 20 Years!

[JamesBurkeWeb]

It is online in full (no 10min segments) for free download from Google's video service. That's how I found this.

[Klauwsawitzz]

LOOKS LIKE HE WENT OFF THE DEEP END IN HIS OLD AGE, HERE WE ARE IN 2012 AND THESE FILTHY OLD HIPPIES ARE STILL BABLING ABOUT THE PLANKTON DISAPEARING FROM THE OCEANS. NO, WE STILL EAT CATTLE??? YES THE RAIN FOREST IS STILL THERE, EVEN AFTER ALL THE DIRE PREDICTIONS. YES, THE GLOBAL WARMING COMMUNITY WAS CAUGHT AND EXPOSED AS TOTAL FUCKING LIARS JUST RECENTLY IN A LITTLE INCIDENT KNOWN AS "CLIMATE GATE" PROBABLY CENSORED FROM EUROPEAN MEDIA. EUROPEANS ARE LIKE SHEEP FACISTCOMMUNISTSOCIALIST=SHEEP

[oker59]

The world has five years before sustained heat waves and cold snaps wreck the world.

[hansenmv]

i had the tape -- still do somewhere---- future video mgmt tech...?!

[QuorkEx]

"A time when the Japanese weren't running everything".

Ahhh, the pitfalls of prediction.

[oker59]

@colinmaharaj

I don't know; watch out for the British!

[colinmaharaj]

It will be the Chinese running everything

[random007nadir]

BTW I recognise the synth used for a lot of the sound effects - I had a Korg M1 Wavestation for a long time. Owning synthesizers ruins so much music - you wouldn't believe... I think it is going to be too late. I think most major cities will be abandoned and most of the ability of the earth to produce food destroyed. But the species will survive. Good luck, descendants.

[68buickwildcat]

charlie sheen is WINNING!!

[hugstablebear]

Sadly, I believe that I can predict with confidence that it will be too little too late because that's what history teaches us. Just look at smokers, they know that smoking will in all likelihood be the cause of their deaths but they don't stop. Humans simply cannot see past the here and now. The inevitable result will be that the children being born today will reap the whirlwind. Full on nuclear exchanges are almost a certainty. I give mankind at most a 50% chance of reaching the next century.

[CarterReedy]

I watch this in 1989 and then went to a lecture by James Burke and met him. We talked about this issue at length. I was 14 years old and I've watched the predictions made in this series come true to a large extent. Please pay attention to solid science and reject the false debate about global warming. It's a fact and we need to deal with it.