[Vision2020] "Heat:" PBS FRONTLINE On Climate Change Tonight

[Ted Moffett]

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/heat/

*FRONTLINE GLOBAL INVESTIGATION REPORTS WHAT BIG BUSINESS IS DOING TO
ADDRESS CLIMATE PROBLEM*

*FRONTLINE Presents
HEAT
Tuesday, October 21, 2008, from 9 to 11 P.M. ET on PBS*

Melting glaciers, rising sea levels, fires, floods and droughts. On the eve
of a historic election, award-winning producer and correspondent Martin
Smith <http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/us/smithm.html> investigates
how the world's largest corporations and governments are responding to
Earth's looming environmental disaster. *HEAT* , part of "PBS Vote 2008"
election coverage, confronts the defining story of our time in a two-hour
FRONTLINE investigation airing Tuesday, Oct. 21, 2008, from 9 to 11 P.M. ET
on PBS (check local
listings<http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/programs/localized/pbsv.html>
).

"I have reported on the Cold War, the breakup of the Soviet Union, the rise
of Al Qaeda, and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan," says Smith. "But nothing
matches climate change in scope and severity."

The world needs to dramatically cut the carbon emissions responsible for
wreaking havoc on the planet's climate, according to Dr. Rajendra Pachauri,
whose organization, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC),
shared last year's Nobel Peace Prize. "If we don't take action immediately,
we face a crisis," Pachauri tells Smith. "Climate change is caused by human
actions, and we need to do something about it. The sooner we realize that,
the better."

With that sense of urgency in mind, Smith traveled to 12 countries on four
continents to investigate whether major corporations and governments are up
to the challenge. *HEAT* features in-depth interviews with top policy-makers
and with leading executives from many of the largest carbon emitters from
around the world, including Chinese coal companies, Indian SUV makers and
American oil giants. The report paints an ominous portrait. Despite
increasing talk about "going green," across the planet, environmental
concerns are still taking a back seat to shorter-term economic interests.

Smith's journey begins at the epicenter of new industrial development:
China. In the midst of unprecedented growth, the Chinese are clearly moving
in the wrong direction. He visits Shenhua Energy, one of the largest and
fastest-growing power companies in the world--a coal conglomerate with a
huge carbon footprint. But its CEO, Ling Wen, tells Smith that he answers
not to the public but to his shareholders. "We must create money, not lose
the money," Ling says. "It's my responsibility as a CEO of this company."
And when pressed whether he should make climate change a higher priority,
Ling says that he would if his shareholders asked him. But, he says, "I'm
afraid maybe all the shareholders, they cannot accept that concept." In the
meantime, China continues to build two new coal-fired power plants every
week.

Smith finds a similar situation in India, where rapidly rising income levels
have prompted an explosion in the demand for new cars. Automakers are
thriving, pushing out new models, including the Nano, a small car aimed at
helping even the poorest citizens get behind the wheel--no small thing, as
India stands to overtake China as the world's most populous country by
mid-century. With several hundred million new drivers taking to the streets,
India's carbon emissions will soar.

And with new cars, of course, come new roads, linking crowded cities and
fueling a construction boom across the developing world that drives
emissions ever higher. The manufacture of cement is the third-largest
industrial contributor of greenhouse gases in the world. Supplying more
cement for buildings, roads and bridges makes big emission reductions
impossible. This presents a core dilemma for all large emerging nations,
from China to India, Indonesia, Russia, Mexico and Brazil: how to grow
without inflicting more damage on the environment.

"I think the difficulty we have is that countries that have developed and
have done the polluting part are now asking the countries that are
developing, 'OK, you can't pollute,'" says Hameed Bhombal, of Aditya Birla
Group, an Indian megaconglomerate. "It has to be done in a way that's fair."


According to Dr. Pachauri of the IPCC, the onus is on the developed world to
lead the way. Now, with gas prices spiking, there is an additional incentive
for American car companies to offer smaller, more efficient vehicles. But
will they respond? Their record is discouraging. Smith asks Beth Lowery,
head of environmental affairs at General Motors, why Toyota beat GM to the
Prius. Lowery replies that GM looked at hybrids from a "business case" and
asked, "Can this vehicle make money?" GM banked instead on trucks and SUVs
and is now suffering its worst performance in 50 years. GM is now playing
catch-up and investing billions in a new hybrid, the Chevy Volt, which is
scheduled to be released sometime this year.

There is also the problem that while hybrid cars may emit less CO2 than
their gas-guzzling cousins, they still require electricity to run. So,
making cars like the Volt part of a campaign to seriously reduce emissions
will mean finding a new, cleaner power source. Currently, more than half of
American power comes from coal. Coal is cheap and reliable, but dirty.

The answer, the industry says, will be "clean coal"--a complex process by
which the burnt-off carbon will be captured and buried in the earth's crust.
But as Smith investigates, he finds there are serious doubts about whether
"clean coal" will ever work. When pressed, utility CEO David Ratcliffe of
Southern Company, one of the world's largest emitters of greenhouse gases,
concedes that "we haven't even come close to defining what are the legal
liabilities and what are the permitting requirements" for removing carbon
from coal and burying it underground. Recently, several "clean coal"
projects in the U.S. have stalled over these and other uncertainties. As
Jeffrey Ball, environmental news editor at *The Wall Street Journal*, tells
Smith, "There was huge, rosy optimism about it. What's wrong is that reality
is intruding."

On the campaign trail, both Sen. John McCain and Sen. Barack Obama have
announced their plans for a new energy policy that will cut carbon
emissions. Optimistically, they suggest that the "greening" of American
business heralds a new era of sleek technologies and opportunities for
innovation. What they tend not to emphasize is cost and, on the part of
every consumer, sacrifice.

In his interview with FRONTLINE, California's attorney general, Jerry Brown,
reminds Smith that it won't be easy. "Our wealth, our society, our being is
driven by oil and carbon. It's intellectually dishonest to somehow say we
can get some light bulbs or get a Prius, and then we're all done. No, this
is going to take massive technological innovation. It's going to take
changes in the way we live and work. And it's going to take cooperation of
unprecedented degrees among business and government and among countries.
That's where we are, and that's why there's no other word except 'daunting.'
I'm hopeful. I'm cautiously optimistic. But I would have to say one has to
approach this with great humility."

Author and journalist Jeff Goodell adds, "We seem incapable of grasping
what's at stake here, perhaps because so much is at stake. Addressing this
really means reinventing the engine of our lives--which is fossil fuels."

*HEAT* is a FRONTLINE co-production with RAINMedia, Inc. The producer,
writer and reporter is Martin Smith. The co-producer is Chris Durrance.
Funding for FRONTLINE is provided through the support of PBS viewers. Major
funding for FRONTLINE is provided by The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur
Foundation. Additional funding is provided by the Park Foundation. Major
funding for *HEAT* is provided by the FRONTLINE Journalism Fund, with a
grant from Hannelore and Jeremy Grantham and the Grantham Foundation for the
Protection of the Environment, and additional support from Scott Nathan and
Laura DeBonis. Additional funding for *HEAT* is provided by the Kendeda
Fund, the Nathan Cummings Foundation and the Wallace Genetic Foundation,
Inc. FRONTLINE is closed-captioned for deaf and hard-of-hearing viewers and
described, for people who are blind or visually impaired, by the Media
Access Group at WGBH. FRONTLINE is a registered trademark of WGBH
Educational Foundation. The executive producer of FRONTLINE is David
Fanning.

PBS goes behind the headlines throughout the summer and fall with the "PBS
Vote 2008" election lineup, offering Americans a unique opportunity to
explore the presidential election. PBS' trusted news brands and
personalities bring viewers in-depth information and insight into the issues
and candidates. PBS' election coverage will be led by *The NewsHour with Jim
Lehrer*, *Washington Week with Gwen Ifill & National Journal*, *NOW on PBS*,
*Bill Moyers Journal* and *Tavis Smiley*, and enhanced by programming from
other trusted PBS sources, including* American Experience*, FRONTLINE, *Nightly
Business Report* and *P.O.V.* PBS.org's election hub page,
pbs.org/vote2008<http://www.pbs.org/vote2008>,
will provide further perspectives. The site will aggregate video from PBS,
feature syndicatable content from across public media, and highlight
innovative Web-only projects from PBS producers and stations.

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Vision2020 Post: Ted Moffett
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