The First Congregational United Church of Christ (Losey Boulevard & Main Street, La Crosse) will host screenings and discussions of three episodes of the award-winning ShowTime climate change documentary series, Years of Living Dangerously in January. The videos will be presented at 3 pm in the lower level of the church on three consecutive Sundays. Post-film discussions will be facilitated by Carlene Roberts and Tom Uphaus. The programs are free and open to the public.
Jan. 10 ~ Episode 4, Ice & Brimstone: Ian Somerhalder follows Anna Jane Joyner, the daughter of prominent Evangelical preacher, Rick Joyner, as she works to persuade congregations and preachers in North Carolina (including her skeptical father) to join the Evangelical fight against global warming and the Beyond Coal campaign to shut down a coal-fired power plant. Lesley Stahl visits Greenland to investigate the effects of global warming in the Arctic on global sea levels and the rush to develop oil and gas reserves there. Scientist Heidi Cullen explains that “if we don’t leave 30 percent of our oil and gas reserves untapped, large parts of our planet will become unlivable.” Stahl meets with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who has called climate change “perhaps the world’s most fearsome weapon of mass destruction.”
Jan. 17 ~ Episode 5, True Colors: Olivia Munn learns about ocean acidification and the proposed West Coast coal export terminals that would nearly double US coal exports. She follows the governor of the State of Washington, Jay Inslee, as he makes the fight against global warming a top priority in his first year in office. Inslee “urged the media to be more aggressive in covering climate threats since we face ‘civilizational suicide’ if we fail to act.” Columnist Mark Bittman of The New York Times follows up on the post-Hurricane Sandy rebuilding story, the global rise in sea level, and what is being done to better prepare the East coast for storms and surges. He examines the Dutch system of flood management and concludes that, in New Jersey, rebuilding so close to the ocean is environmentally and financially unsustainable. Gov. Chris Christie refused “to acknowledge the role that climate change played in amplifying the impacts” of Sandy.
Jan. 24 ~ Episode 6, Winds of Change: America Ferrera reports on how public policy has supported the growth of wind and solar power in Kansas, and how oil and gas companies, with lobbyists and allies like the Heartland Institute and the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) oppose these policies. Meanwhile, Mark Bittman discovers that extracting natural gas through fracking delays our transition to renewable energy and that fracking wells leak a large amount of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, which makes fracked natural gas as dirty as, or dirtier than, burning coal.
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