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The film Six Degrees: could change the world was directed by Ron Bowman and produced by National Geographic. It was released in 2008.

The purpose of the film was to educate the viewer on what would happen if the world warmed by six degrees Celsius. The argument is that the temperature is rising from global warming and that it has already risen almost one degree Celsius. The film takes the viewer through all the stages of warming going by one degree each time. It focuses on different areas of the world so that the viewer can see the effects on the northern regions as compared to southern arid regions.

The film brings forth a number of sustainability problems, the most important one being global warming. It shows the cause of the global warming being increased greenhouse emissions sending more co2 into the atmosphere and causing global warming. This global warming creates a rising temperature of the earth and a feedback loop where the warmer it gets, the faster it gets warmer. The film then goes on to describe the matrix of problems that are caused by the increased temperature including, much more common natural disasters, a melting of ice sheets and glaciers causing a lack of water availability, and water cleanliness, and a changing of climate all over the world so some areas become deplete of all natural resources and become wastelands while others become fertile. Species extinction will become more common especially marine animals because the levels of co2 in the water are rising. Coastal cities will begin to be overtaken by water as the ice sheet and glaciers melt and the ocean rises many feet. One of the effects that affects us most is the breaking down of photosynthesis in some plants and trees because of the overwhelming amount of co2 in the air. As photosynthesis breaks down there will be increased co2 and decreased oxygen and the global warming process will speed up.

The most persuasive and compelling parts of the film for me was the imagery; the combination of images of current events and location, historic events and advertisements, and future renderings. The persuasiveness of the sense of urgency for global warming to be turned around in ten years was apparent. The film, through its array of studies, different localities, and research was able to provide a stronger argument that encompassed the whole world, not just one region. It was persuasive as a “call to action” to change our ways.

One thing that was not too convincing about the film was the section about solutions. The film only briefly describes possible interventions, and would have benefitted from showing more examples of ways one can help. The film described the one house and how sustainable it was but it did not go into specifics in how it was sustainable and the methods employed. It also consistently stated that we can change and turn the problem around but the only solutions it gave were complex and overwhelming to most people. The film also argues that co2 is the only cause of the global warming. It could benefit from showing the controversy in order to make its argument stronger.

Six Degrees Could Change the World appeared to be a film that would be directed to an audience whom was educated and had a general knowledge of basic scientific processes. For instance, an audience with knowledge of photosynthesis, temperature, geography, and with a scientific vocabulary to understand better the importance and criticality of what could/is happening. This film also benefits from the viewers being people with critical thinking skills in order to develop solutions to many of the problems presented. It is a good film for people who have some exposure already to the matrix of problems presented to give them a more in depth explanation of consequences/effects while they will already be familiar to the cause.

This film is a very well done sustainability awareness video. The sense of urgency that the video calls for increases its educational value and it does a good job of showing the effect side of the cause and effect chain. Many videos shown only show the cause, the problem that we’re continuing to feed. It is nice to see a film that shows where the viewer will be in possibly ten years. For educational purposes the film would not be good for younger children as they may be intimidated by the scare tactic aspect of the film and unable to understand some of the concepts and explanations.

In regards to interventions/solutions/and prevention methods, the film described a few global changes and some individual changes as well. For one, we must turn around our emissions; individually, as a country, and worldwide. At the same time we must increase our efficiency in order to reduce the energy that produces co2 emissions. The section of the movie that describes the interventions possible in the household was the most interesting. I never realized the importance of “Vampire Loads” and that section described very well a simple fix to help same energy. The film also touched briefly on solar energy emphasizing the fact that the energy efficient house runs on only 120 watts. Nationally, the film argues for the use of nuclear energy as a primary source of energy because of its extreme power. It also argues that wind power is good but not a good solution because an excessive amount of wind turbines is needed to compensate for the coal energy. Another solution is to increase the gas mileage of cars. A global approach is that the wealthy countries need to take the lead on sustainability issues and the developing countries will follow.

This film prompted me to search out new information about global temperatures rising. One of the sites I found was NASA’s global climate change site. [climate.nasa.gov] I thought it was interesting that they have a top bar showing the parts per million of carbon dioxide in the air, the sea level rise since 1993, the global temperature rise in 1880, the percent that the arctic ice minimum has dropped per decade, and the cubic miles per year of land ice in Greenland that has dropped per year. NASA’s site also has pages on solution, causes, effects, and links to other organizations and more information

Another thing the film prompted me to look up was more information about the dinosaur age and crustaceous period and the global temperature of the earth during this period ending with a mass extinction. I found that at the end of period as it was heating, sea surface temperatures were 31 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than they are at present. This age did not have a happy ending though for many of the species living at the time.