Can Obama Save the Planet?
Wednesday January 20, 2010 at 10 pm ET/PT on CBC News Network
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America is locked in a battle between an army of climate campaigners and an army that opposes them. Can Obama Save the Planet? sets the stage for President Obama's much anticipated appearance at the UN Climate Conference in Copenhagen by questioning how his dream of leading the world in the battle against climate change resonates with Americans. In Can Obama Save the Planet? the savvy and often humorous BBC journalist Justin Rowlatt takes an ambitious 6,500 mile "low carbon" journey around the United States talking to Americans about their President's environmental ambitions, including many who adamantly oppose both his emission targets, and the entire notion of climate change and global warming.
He travels across the U.S. talking to coal miners and car manufacturers, activists and politicians. Along the way the sometimes comic Rowlatt goes ice fishing in Michigan, finds a thriving wind industry in the oil state of Texas, and in Detroit, test-drives a billion dollar car of the future.The White House has gone green-President Obama and his team have articulated ambitious goals for tackling America's emission problems. But Obama's opponents, like the coal miners who worry about job sustainability, view his plans as an attack on fundamental American freedoms. In Virginia, Rowlatt meets vitriolic opponents of Obama's plans who go as far as to threaten "bloodshed", and a right-wing radio talk show host screams his opinions at him.
The film includes the fascinating story of a 'dirty tricks' operation carried out just before a key vote about 'Cap & Trade' in the U.S. Congress. Anxious letters opposing the legislation poured into the offices of U.S. congressmen, but it turns out the letters were fraudulent and came, not from average Americans, but from a PR firm that had been hired by another PR firm that worked for a coal industry lobby group. An often humourous, but penetrating look at the challenges of climate change in a country that's addicted to cheap fuel and the jobs that come with it, Can Obama Save the Planet? is directed and produced by Sara Afshar for the BBC.
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