Less than 24 hours after Monday night’s final presidential debate wrapped up without even one mention of the words “climate change”, PBS aired a fascinating FRONTLINE report from correspondent John Hockenberry entitled “Climate Of Doubt“.
As The New York Times writes in their review, “Very little of the production is about the science of climate change. The focus is rather on the ideology and political heft of the skeptics’ movement, and the way it found new life as the economy fell to pieces and the Tea Party arose from the wreckage.” As any defender of Mother Nature watches the hour-long episode, there may be moments where they cringe at how much time Hockenberry gives to the right-wing skeptics of climate change. But as the report wraps up, we come to realize that Hockenberry’s heavy focus on ideology and lack of focus on science is a mechanism to help the viewer understand that scientific facts are of zero importance to the skeptic’s world. “The takeaway from ‘Climate of Doubt’ is that science and its evidence are of secondary importance in the skeptics’ world. It’s more about fighting what they see as an ideology that wants to subordinate their rights to the authority of the federal government.”
You can read the full review of FRONTLINE’s “Climate Of Doubt” by visiting The New York Times, and be sure to visit the series’ home for more information at PBS.org.
