Product Description

In a special broadcast event National Geographic explores the startling theory that Earths average temperature could rise six degrees Celsius by the year 2100. In this amazing and insightful documentary National Geographic illustrates one poignant degree at a time the consequences of rising temperatures on Earth. Also learn how existing technologies and remedies can help in the battle to dial back the global thermometer.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DOCUMENTARIES/NATURE & WILDLIFE UPC: 727994752837 Manufacturer No: 1000036970

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #6749 in DVD
• Brand: Warner Brothers
• Released on: 2008-04-08
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.66:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .10 pounds
• Running time: 90 minutes

Amazon.com
In the 2004 eco-thriller The Day After Tomorrow, director Roland Emmerich dramatized the potential consequences of accelerated global warming. By combining stock footage with computer-generated imagery, the National Geographic special Six Degrees Could Change the World serves as a sort of nonfiction counterpoint. As NASA climate scientist James Hansen cautions, even two degrees Celsius represents a tipping point (from which there is no return). Based on Mark Lynas's Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet and narrated by Alec Baldwin, the program roams from the bushfire-ravaged suburbs of Southern Australia to the drought-stricken farmlands of Nebraska to the rapidly melting glaciers of Greenland. In the process, aerospace engineers, marine biologists, and ordinary citizens share their experiences and predictions. In the end, it's the actual events--rather than the speculative scenarios--that prove most alarming, like the 30,000 deaths that resulted from 2003's European heat wave. While a skeptic might dismiss that tragedy as a statistical anomaly, every continent bears the scars of climate change, like the deforestation of the Amazon and the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina. In order to inject some levity, Six Degrees detours to look at a British grape grower who has actually benefited from his country's drier environment and the carbon footprint involved in the creation of that all-American favorite, the cheeseburger (suffice to say, it's considerable). While some of the special effects are hokey--Hansen sitting at a floating desk, for example--the preponderance of compelling data helps to compensate for such lapses. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

Also of Interest

Six Degrees Could Change the World on Blu-ray

More DVDs About Global Warming and Climate Change

More National Geographic DVDs

Stills from Six Degrees Could Change the World (click for larger image)

Customer Reviews

Informational but a little boring
The video has some very good, researched information, but it wasn't as thrilling as Planet Earth. It is still a very good video though and I learned a lot.

The ultimate alarmist's exaggeration, based on "what if" scenarios the latest IPCC's 2007 Report no longer supports
I just can believe a reputable source as National Geographic supported this documentary. This is the kind of message that only helps to increase the distrust and more undesirable controversy regarding the theory of man-made global warming, and exaggerations not based on sound science only serve to provide ammunition for the radicals in the other side of the issue.

Any forecast up to 6 degrees for 2100 is completely outdated and corresponds to projections from previous IPCC's reports. The average surface temperature forecast in the 2001 Report (TAR) was an increase between 1.4 to 5.8°C over the period between 1990 to 2100, with a sea level projected to rise by 0.1 to 0.9 meters over the same period. On the other hand, the 2007 Report (AR4) now predicts that sea levels will probably rise by 18 to 59 cm! The best estimate temperature rise is predicted between 1.8 to 4.0°C, for best and worst case scenarios (B1 and A1FI respectively), with the intermediate more realistic scenarios ranging between 2.4-3.4°C, and correspondingly see levels from 20-51 cm (see table SPM3 of the Summary for Policymakers) Just check by yourself on the IPPC's 2007 Report (AR4) Climate Change 2007 - The Physical Science Basis: Working Group I Contribution to the Fourth Assessment Report of the IPCC (Climate Change 2007) (the PDF version is available for free through the web) or just read the Summary for Policymakers.

This is a documentary not worth watching, unless you are interested in science-fiction or a documentary continuation of the 2004 film The Day After Tomorrow (Widescreen Edition).

Must see!
Very thought provoking! It's hard to believe that some people actually deny that there is a problem with global warming. A must see for everyone.