Cool It
Ondi Timoner's new documentary, Cool It, opens with a chorus of elementary school children pontificating on how the world would end one day soon due to climate change. Thankfully, Bjørn Lomborg, the controversial environmentalist, statistics expert and subject of the film, chimes in to reassure us that this is not to be taken seriously. Perhaps scared that they might be misunderstood, Timoner and him spend the rest of the film arguing that statements of that ilk, concerning an impending, epic ass-kicking from Mother Nature if we don't stop using her like a soiled dishrag, are ridiculous coming out of anyone's mouth, never mind those who are still grappling with the radical concept of short division.
"If something doesn't happen in five years, I'll be very disappointed" is what one scientist, studying water-splitting technology, says about future funding for research and development concerning green technologies and energy alternatives. It's a measured, rational response to the rat's nest of political interests reacting to the problem and Lomborg takes it as something of a sacred creed. In 2001, Lomborg's first book, The Skeptical Environmentalist, was published and, as it refuted much of the urgency given the topic, caused the environmental lobby, college professors and a legion of amateur environmentalists to get their undergarments into a twist. Some seven years later, still reviled by most outspoken proponents, Lomborg wrote the follow-up which gives Timoner's film its name.
Lomborg's general thesis, which Timoner and he go through in what very nearly feels like a point-by-point presentation accompanied by swelling, inspirational music, is that the current budget for climate change research ($250 billion, roughly) can be used in more pervasive, forward-thinking ways than those spouted by Al Gore's disciples. And unlike An Inconvenient Truth, which is referred to endlessly throughout Cool It, Timoner and Lomborg make this a communal affair, bringing out their own legion of scientists working on disputed, unpopular, and ambitious alternatives to fossil fuel and ways of reversing global warming. The scientists give convincing testimonials, not to mention show off some neat gadgets, and they lend credence to Lomborg's rarely argued merits, which are often cast off as dubious without much in the way of proof.
Not that Lomborg needs cover: He has Timoner. Cool It creates a dialectic for many who have not read much about climate change but who have seen An Inconvenient Truth or The 11th Hour or both, for that matter. For this, it deserves some recognition but it fails miserably to engage or portray Lomborg in a realistic, level fashion. We learn a few things about the Dutch adjunct professor: He is a vegetarian, he was always very smart and he is a loving, caring son, as evidenced by a trip to visit his Alzheimer-stricken mother. Those who disagree with him - Stanford professor Steven Schneider is the most vocal -- are viewed generally as angry, ignorant kooks while those who agree with Lomborg are shown as composed, friendly kooks. The end result both resembles a well-constructed PSA and an epic-length campaign ad for Lomborg's as head of the EPA.
There are good, important ideas and ways of thinking being discussed in Cool It which makes its histrionic plea for its subject's sainthood so disquieting, especially following Timoner's far more interesting and complex We Live in Public, about internet pioneer Josh Harris. Near the end of the film, one of Lomborg's defender's refers to An Inconvenient Truth as propaganda, seemingly oblivious to the fact that the film he is being interviewed for dabbles in its own eco-evangelism.
"If something doesn't happen in five years, I'll be very disappointed" is what one scientist, studying water-splitting technology, says about future funding for research and development concerning green technologies and energy alternatives. It's a measured, rational response to the rat's nest of political interests reacting to the problem and Lomborg takes it as something of a sacred creed. In 2001, Lomborg's first book, The Skeptical Environmentalist, was published and, as it refuted much of the urgency given the topic, caused the environmental lobby, college professors and a legion of amateur environmentalists to get their undergarments into a twist. Some seven years later, still reviled by most outspoken proponents, Lomborg wrote the follow-up which gives Timoner's film its name.
Lomborg's general thesis, which Timoner and he go through in what very nearly feels like a point-by-point presentation accompanied by swelling, inspirational music, is that the current budget for climate change research ($250 billion, roughly) can be used in more pervasive, forward-thinking ways than those spouted by Al Gore's disciples. And unlike An Inconvenient Truth, which is referred to endlessly throughout Cool It, Timoner and Lomborg make this a communal affair, bringing out their own legion of scientists working on disputed, unpopular, and ambitious alternatives to fossil fuel and ways of reversing global warming. The scientists give convincing testimonials, not to mention show off some neat gadgets, and they lend credence to Lomborg's rarely argued merits, which are often cast off as dubious without much in the way of proof.
Not that Lomborg needs cover: He has Timoner. Cool It creates a dialectic for many who have not read much about climate change but who have seen An Inconvenient Truth or The 11th Hour or both, for that matter. For this, it deserves some recognition but it fails miserably to engage or portray Lomborg in a realistic, level fashion. We learn a few things about the Dutch adjunct professor: He is a vegetarian, he was always very smart and he is a loving, caring son, as evidenced by a trip to visit his Alzheimer-stricken mother. Those who disagree with him - Stanford professor Steven Schneider is the most vocal -- are viewed generally as angry, ignorant kooks while those who agree with Lomborg are shown as composed, friendly kooks. The end result both resembles a well-constructed PSA and an epic-length campaign ad for Lomborg's as head of the EPA.
There are good, important ideas and ways of thinking being discussed in Cool It which makes its histrionic plea for its subject's sainthood so disquieting, especially following Timoner's far more interesting and complex We Live in Public, about internet pioneer Josh Harris. Near the end of the film, one of Lomborg's defender's refers to An Inconvenient Truth as propaganda, seemingly oblivious to the fact that the film he is being interviewed for dabbles in its own eco-evangelism.
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