Greedy Lying Bastards

According to this documentary by filmmaker and activist Craig Rosebraugh, climate change has been anticipated for at least a couple of generations. In fact, segments from a 1950s educational video here predict much of what has come to pass, including melting ice caps, extreme weather phenomena, and out-of-control wildfires. That vintage excerpt also suggests the underlying reasons: namely, the unrelenting exploitation of fossil fuels. Greedy Lying Bastards asks a pivotal question: if we knew this was coming, why didn't we try to prevent it? Rosebraugh looks at decades of successful efforts by the oil and gas industries to shape public opinion and lead government policy away from the acceptance of climate change as a growing reality, denying everything while hiring legions of skeptics to testify that nothing is wrong. Entire careers in denial have been crafted, some of them bordering on the cartoonish, such as that of conservative British pundit Christopher Monckton, who denies global warming at every opportunity. Besides explaining how a concerted push by big business (including massive donations to the campaigns of key elected U.S. representatives) has won the day so far, the documentary also provides ample evidence of the ongoing destructive processes at work in the Arctic, in the drought- and fire-plagued U.S. West, and in the shifting everyday weather patterns across the globe. Climate change isn't just “coming,” we're reminded, it's already here. Recommended. Aud: C, P. (T. Keogh)