“Years of Living Dangerously” – Tune In!

I watched the first episode of “The Years of Living Dangerously,” which aired Sunday night on Showtime.

James Cameron (of Titanic fame) and an all-star cast – think Harrison Ford, Don Cheadle, Matt Damon and others – have created a big-budget, beautifully-filmed series about climate change. Its multiple episodes do justice to the scope and complexity of the topic.

“Years of Living Dangerously” brings climate change to life.

And it’s really good stuff. No dry charts of rainfall. No impenetrable scientific models. This series shows you climate change in action – the fires, the floods, the food insecurity that can spark a civil war.

You see the pictures of smoke – viewable from outer space – rising over the Philippines because they are burning down their forests to plant palm oil plantations.

You hear the story from Lubbock, Texas where a meat-packing plant closed down. The drought in Texas has decimated beef herds. The focus is not on cute cows. The focus is on the good people of Lubbock who are now unemployed because the meat plant – employing 10% of the population –  is gone.

You listen to Syrian farmers who talk about the connection between the civil war in their country and the unprecedented drought that has decimated their farms.

So tune in. There are no sound bites here. Just lots of good information and visually stunning footage of the reality of climate change right now. A tip of the hat to James Cameron and company, and to Showtime for creating and airing this.

I know where I’ll be Sundays at 10 pm eastern for the next 8 weeks!