Discovery Channel visited global warming tipping points across the planet, talked to the world's leading experts, and examined the latest evidence about global warming for GLOBAL WARMING: WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW. Produced by Discovery Channel, the BBC and NBC News Productions, and hosted by award-winning journalist Tom Brokaw, the two-hour special presented the facts and encouraged viewers to determine their own opinion about global warming.
The two-hour special decoded the buzzwords and armed viewers with an arsenal of clear definitions and visual depictions to explain the greenhouse effect, carbon dioxide emissions, CFCs, effects on weather and rising sea levels. CGI and cutting-edge climate computer models helped viewers see into the future at a world significantly changed by unchecked global warming.
GLOBAL WARMING: WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW took viewers to global warming hot spots where the planet is most affected by climate change - into rushing subterranean rivers deep in Patagonian glaciers, into the drought-stricken Amazon, on coral reefs ravaged by rising ocean temperatures, into a massive Chinese coal mine, and many more.
The international team of experts, including NASA's top climate scientist Dr. James Hansen, and Princeton University professors Michael Oppenheimer and Stephen Pacala, discussed the current realities of global warming and predicted the future of the planet. Many of the experts addressed natural warming and cooling cycles going back 600,000 years, and discussed if the present warming trend is unnatural.
GLOBAL WARMING: WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW demonstrated how much carbon dioxide the average American family produces and presented a graphical timeline of global warming throughout history. Finally, the special looked at technical solutions, both great and small, from giant gas injection rigs in the ocean, to more efficient architecture in cities, to what the average American family can do to slow global warming.