September 15, 2009

Imaging Global Warming

Photo by James Balog, the Extreme Ice Survey.

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“I don’t really know what a ton of carbon dioxide looks like.” US Representative Michael Burgess,  R-TX, during markup of HR 2454, House Committee on Energy & Commerce.

It should surprise no one that Representative Burgess voted against the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 (ACES) when the historic climate bill narrowly passed the US House, just a day or so after the Texas Republican complained that he couldn’t see the offending green house gas. If you can’t see it; how do you know it’s real?

Now there’s help for all those people who, like Rep. Burgess, are firm believers in the old maxim, “Seeing is believing” (and in its corollary, “Not seeing is not believing”). It couldn’t have come too soon, as the Senate begins new hearings this week on a climate bill of its own.

Photographer James Balog and his colleagues at the Extreme Ice Survey, used time-lapse photography to create a moving (in both senses) video of glaciers receding before your eyes.

Even if you’re the kind of weirdo who analyzes data or, say, can determine if something is true or not simply by reading a few books, the video is compelling. It gets to you at a visceral level.

You can see the video here.

Maybe Harry Reid should declare movie night at the Senate sometime soon. That way, members can screen James Balog’s astonishing video — before voting on a climate bill.

There is precedent for a successful “movie lobby.” In April 2006, President Bush was so enthralled by a documentary filmed by Jean-Michel Cousteau, about the beautiful but unprotected 1,200-mile-long Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, that two months later the president designated the entire area a national monument. It was only the second such designation Bush had made since taking office five-and-a-half-years earlier.

The United States Senate passing a bold yet reasonable bill to fight global warming. Now, that I’d like to see.

Note: Support “Watch The Video” to get Senate screening. Tweet #WTV with your reason why Senators should see this video. Include URL http://bit.ly/199utV.

Sample: Because seeing is believing! Pass a climate bill now. http://bit.ly/199utV #WTV Plz RT!

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Osha Gray Davidson is a contributing blogger at Mother Jones and publisher of The Phoenix Sun, an online news service reporting on solar energy. He tweets @thephoenixsun.

 

 

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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