Environmental Studies Certificate LibGuide: Library videos

From Academy Award-winning filmmaker Fisher Stevens and Academy Award-winning actor, environmental activist and U.N. Messenger of Peace Leonardo DiCaprio, Before the Flood presents a riveting account of the dramatic changes now occurring around the world due to climate change, as well as the actions we as individuals and as a society can take to prevent catastrophic disruption of life on our planet.

Bill Nye is feeling down. He's visiting his therapist - Dr. Arnold Schwarzenegger - wondering why he just doesn't feel like himself lately. He's been trying to push past it, but he feels as if a horrible weight is on his shoulders, and life seems so empty, so meaningless. The therapist listens sympathetically, and diagnoses the cause: Bill is suffering from grief. Climate change grief. Thus begins the most unorthodox hour ever devoted to the subject of climate change. With the encouragement of Dr. Schwarzenegger, Bill Nye will walk through the five stages of climate change grief - from denial to acceptance - and along the way, he'll explore what's gone wrong with our planet and how we can start to turn things around.

The largest domestic natural gas drilling boom in history has swept across the United States. The Halliburton-developed drilling technology of "fracking" or hydraulic fracturing has unlocked a "Saudia Arabia of natural gas" just beneath us. But is fracking safe? When filmmaker Josh Fox is asked to lease his land for drilling, he embarks on a cross-country odyssey uncovering a trail of secrets, lies and contamination. A recently drilled nearby Pennsylvania town reports that residents are able to light their drinking water on fire. This is just one of the many absurd and astonishing revelations of a new country called GASLAND. Part verite travelogue, part expose, part mystery, part bluegrass banjo meltdown, part showdown.

50% of the world's population lives in urban areas. By 2050 this will increase to 80%. Life in a mega city is both enchanting and problematic. Today we face peak oil, climate change, loneliness and severe health issues due to our way of life. But why? The Danish architect and professor Jan Gehl has studied human behavior in cities through 40 years. He has documented how modern cities repel human interaction, and argues that we can build cities in a way, which takes human needs for inclusion and intimacy into account. THE HUMAN SCALE meets thinkers, architects and urban planners across the globe. It questions our assumptions about modernity, exploring what happens when we put people into the center of our planning.

A decade after An Inconvenient Truth brought climate change into the heart of popular culture comes the follow-up that shows just how close we are to a real energy revolution. Vice President Al Gore continues his tireless fight traveling around the world training an army of climate champions and influencing international climate policy. Cameras follow him behind the scenes in moments both private and public, funny and poignant as he pursues the inspirational idea that, while the stakes have never been higher, the perils of climate change can be overcome with human ingenuity and passion.

The director eloquently weaves the science of global warming with Mr. Gore's personal history and lifelong commitment to reversing the effects of global climate change. A longtime advocate for the environment, Gore presents a wide array of facts and information in a thoughtful and compelling way.

Inspired by Water & Power: A California Heist, Parched is a new series that takes an investigative approach to find out who really controls the world's fresh water. From an expose on the relationship between water and money, to an investigation into corporations that contaminate fresh water resources and the lengths to which they will go to cover it up, Parched shines a light on the lack of regulation in place in the U.S. The series also goes global, looking at how water has become a weapon of war, a cause of mass migrations and how increasingly, access to safe fresh water is dividing the world into the "haves" and the "have nots."

Part of the Breakthrough documentary series.
Planet Earth is often called "The Blue Marble". From space, it practically glows with a bright blue hue and swirls of white clouds. From a distance, it appears to be full to the brim with water. It's not until you take a closer look that you discover that despite its surface being covered with water, there is very little water to drink. Saltwater oceans dominate 97% of the water on Earth. Glaciers at our polar caps lock up 2% of our fresh water. Our population of 7 billion people and millions of animal species share just 1% of the water available on our planet. With climate change savaging weather systems and our population steadily rising, scientists and engineers all over the world are struggling to create local solutions for the growing global water problem.

In Episode 1 of the Arctic Meltdown series, we see the changes that are upsetting the scientific predictions of the impact of climate change on the Arctic. Now, one sobering forecast is that the Arctic Ocean will be seasonally ice free by the summer of 2013. This possibility is what drives environmentalists to identify ways to minimize the changes affecting this snowy land. But for prospectors like Gordon McCreary, climate change brings new opportunities. He is part of the rush to claim the riches beneath the Arctic's ice: deposits of metals, gold, diamonds, and oil and gas. Episode 1 showcases how Arctic nations are racing to claim control over the Arctic's resources and shipping routes. Dr. Ruth Jackson, from the Bedford Institute of Oceanography in Nova Scotia, leads the Canadian team racing to map the seabed to support Canada's claim. Scientists too are now becoming victims of the Arctic's icy politics. A Canadian-led, international team of researchers is thwarted on camera when their deal to hire a Russian nuclear icebreaker falls through.

Episode 2 of the Arctic Meltdown series explores the Northwest Passage and how these dangerous waters are suddenly becoming accessible to businesses and shipping. Ports like Churchill, Manitoba and Murmansk, Russia expect to see business grow in years to come. Until recently, only a few ships braved travel through these ice-strewn waters. More and more ships cross these seas each year and with more traffic come higher risks — in particular for the Inuit who worry about the lack of ports and emergency support.

Episode 3 of the Arctic Meltdown series from The Nature of Things tracks two different Arctics — one that is the storybook land of ice, snow and polar bears and the other that is covered with petroleum plants and pipelines carrying fossil fuels. Bylot Island is a national park and for 20 years a team of Canadian scientists have come every summer to measure the impact of climate change on snowy owls, lemmings, snow geese and Arctic foxes. Here they have discovered that even tiny, hardy plants are being affected, causing a cascade of changes through the ecosystem.

Many climate experts say a serious drought is on its way — unlike anything Canadians have ever seen. What’s more, this one will last not just a few seasons, but years and years. For the Canadian prairies, and its farmers, a drought of this magnitude will be devastating. In interviews with a glaciologist, water ecologist, leading prairie climate expert and a beef farmer besieged by water trouble, The National’s Margo McDiarmid examines the very clear warning signs of drought already appearing in southern Alberta.

Beginning on the Prairies, David discovers how farmers are faring as shrinking glaciers wreak havoc with their water supply. In BC he comes face to face with the mountain pine beetle. This tiny deadly insect has already swallowed B.C.’s trees and now it’s checking out Alberta's, threatening the economy in both provinces. In BC's Okanagan wine region, vineyards are reaping the benefits of warmer weather, but also learning to negotiate a vulnerable water supply. And in the North, as new shipping routes open, sleepy port towns are waking to the siren call of profits.

Hot Times in the City takes the pulse of three major Canadian cities as they grapple with one of the planet’s greatest threats to human health — global warming. For years Toronto has struggled with crumbling infrastructure, urban sprawl, traffic gridlock and pervasive smog. In Vancouver, a pre-Olympic building boom ignores the fact that areas below or at sea level are slowly sinking. Because of shifts in Atlantic weather patterns, Halifax now sits squarely in a hurricane route.

The government of Nunavut embraced the 1997 Kyoto Accord, signed by 160 countries, to stop global warming. The territory's leaders say climate change is ruining the Inuit way of life. Not everyone agrees. Some argue the new way of life lies in tapping the resources of the land. This conflict is causing a massive rift among the territory's people, forcing them to re-consider what they think should be their way of life.

The polar bear has become the new poster child for climate change, the perfect photogenic symbol for selling an environmental message. Polar Bear Fever takes us on a journey to meet the people who are obsessed with the bear. Few can resist the bear’s red-hot image — scientists and zookeepers, photographers and filmmakers, environmentalists and politicians, marketing mavens and advertising giants.

Global warming has forced the polar bears of Canada's Hudson Bay to confront this reality and the possible threat of extinction. Experts from the Canadian Wildlife Service track and monitor the polar bears and show how their shrinking environment leads to less food, starvation and in many cases, death. The far reaching consequences of global warming is clearly illustrated in this enlightening documentary.

Summer snowstorms. Disastrous flooding. Devastating wind and ice storms. Rampaging wildfires. Ruinous drought. Our weather has taken a turn for the extreme. And it’s going to get worse. As intense and unpredictable weather becomes the new normal, how can we adapt and survive? As a result of climate change, the new global buzzword is “adaptation,” as cities and citizens scramble to protect themselves. Weather Gone Wild travels to Calgary, Toronto, New York, Miami and Rotterdam to detail the dangers of the destructive new weather patterns, and show the innovative plans in each city to protect people and property from the weather’s devastating effects.

Is it possible to live a life of zero waste? Host Torah Kachur talks with scientists and innovative people who believe it's only a matter of time. People like Willie Franke, who has generated only one bag of garbage in the last decade.

This episode of The Green Interview features James Hoggan, the author of Climate Cover-Up: The Crusade to Deny Global Warming. He explains how oil and gas companies and their PR firms manufactured the false debate on climate change. Hoggan, who works in the public relations industry himself, explains how public relations techniques allow businesses to use psychology to shape public opinion. Hoggan discusses the climate change deniers, the use of industry-sponsored propaganda and how ethical business should be conducted.

Join scientists on a quest to better understand the weather and climate machine we call Earth. Why do scientists overwhelmingly agree that our climate is changing, and how can we be resilient - even thrive -in the face of enormous change?

Rented by the BP oil company to drill an oil well in the Gulf of Mexico, the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig explodes on April 20, 2010, before sinking into the ocean and causing a gigantic oil spill. At issue: negligence in the maintenance and in the tests carried out. On September 19, after months of unsuccessful attempts, the spill is finally declared sealed. But the harm has been done: this incident has generated the biggest marine oil disaster in history, tragically impacting the local ecosystems and economy.

Arctic Circle, is a key region for studying climate change—and not just the impacts. Certainly, with boreal forest fires growing more frequent and boreal permafrost melting dramatically, the area is responding very visibly to the rise of carbon in the atmosphere. Yet the trees and permafrost themselves are vast reservoirs of carbon. Ecologists like Scott Goetz of the Woods Hole Research Center and Ted Schuur of the University of Florida are keen to understand how climate change is altering the way the boreal biome adds to and takes up carbon from the atmosphere. This science bulletin highlights ongoing experiments in Alaska that aim to unravel these complex feedbacks so scientists can better predict outcomes as climate change continues. From the American Museum of Natural History.

The planet’s ecosystems enable the sustenance of an incredible diversity of life. This series examines ecosystems, vital processes that occur within them, human impact, and the role of science and technology in sustaining natural environments.

The world's battle against global warming became considerably more difficult after President Trump announced that the United States would exit the Paris Agreement, but does that make it a lost cause? This Bloomberg QuickTake explains what the fight against climate change looks like now.

Native Americans from Maine to Washington state convened for a conference at the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian. Their mission: to discuss the effects of climate change on tribal communities.

Would a fresh bouquet of flowers lose its appeal if it didn’t smell? Or what if you could no longer buy your favorite perfume? Find out why scientists are studying how pollution is interfering with flowers’ scents.

In a unique science "experiment," Dr. George McGavin and Material Scientist Zoe Laughlin tell the extraordinary history of rubbish and explore how what we throw away tells us about the way we live our lives. With unprecedented access to one of the UK’s largest landfill sites, the team of experts spends 3 days carrying out tests all over the site revealing the secret world of rubbish. They also carry out three other "archaeological" digs into historic landfills to chart the evolution of our throwaway society. Ultimately, their quest is to discover if the stuff we throw away today has any value for tomorrow’s world?

Polar bears struggle for survival on the melting Arctic ice and move inland toward humankind. This ABC News film investigates the effects of polar bears descending on an Alaskan village and the race to save a vulnerable species.

A documentary that gives scientific context to the controversy and debate on climate change. Accessible interviews with climatologists, glaciologists, astrophysicists and oceanographers, juxtaposed with stunning footage, bring understanding to the impact of the melting of the Arctic permafrost and release of greenhouses gases that affect our whole planet.

In this feature documentary, Swiss citizen Yves Delaunay seeks to understand how the Inuit are coping with the mutation of the Arctic as it is caught in the violent sway of climate change. In Sachs Harbour, an Inuit village on the fringes of the Earth, he discovers a small community attached to its land, conscious of the importance of its traditions and culture, which struggles daily to face the challenges of modernity by way of carving out a place within it.