San Antonio College Library

Based on Mark Lynas's Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet, this program explores the theory that Earth's average temperature could rise six degrees Celsius by the year 2100. One poignant degree at a time, the consequences of rising temperatures on Greenland's ice sheet and Himalayan glaciers, tropical coral reefs and the Amazon rainforest, and elsewhere across five continents are illustrated. In addition, some of the world's top climate researchers...

Due to its entanglement in America's Vietnam war, Laos is frequently cited as, per capita, the most bombed country in the world. This program shows how a conflict that officially ended over three decades ago still kills and maims innocent civilians. Viewers meet several families decimated by unexploded munitions, or "bombies" in the local vernacular, that were dropped between 1964 and 1973. As the film demonstrates, these explosives are often accidentally...

Dramatic changes over the past 20 years have created a tech-savvy Indian middle class. This program details the economic strength of the "new" India, its ongoing problems of unemployment and poverty, and how these issues are linked to overpopulation. Outlining the country's 5,000-year history, the video focuses on the southern city of Bangalore, also known as the Silicon Valley of India, and the daily influx of rural job-seekers it faces. Conversations...

The UN Environment Program has identified approximately 150 dead zones in the Earth's seas-some more than 40,000 square miles in size. Examining causes ranging from too many partially cremated bodies in the Ganges to defunct sewage systems in Nairobi, this program explains how watercourses flowing into the seas are being polluted and coastal areas are being destroyed. The catastrophic effects on marine habitats as well as on the health and livelihoods...

As climate change lays waste to the Niger River, the great Malian city of Timbuktu increasingly resembles a desert landscape. The same is true for much of land-locked Mali, which could, in a worst-case scenario, find itself without water altogether. Incorporating discussions of poverty, population growth, and other issues, this film examines the impact of desertification on two of the nation's indigenous peoples - the fishing-dependent Bozo, who have...

While international corporations boast of newfound environmental stewardship, toxic materials are still produced on a worldwide scale-with underdeveloped nations serving as the planet's dump site. This program explores the issue, traveling to Asia, Africa, and Latin America to illustrate the effects of industrial waste on the environment, social systems, and human life. Viewers will gain an understanding of several topics: the impact of pesticides...

Whether they arise from human causes or forces within planet Earth itself, natural disasters threaten life and civilization with what seems to be growing frequency. This album of NewsHour segments studies troubling developments in marine, arctic, wetland, and urban environments--highlighting research opportunities that may help prevent future catastrophes. Coral reef decay, Everglades habitat loss, polar ice disappearance, and global warming are all...

Close to the Russian border, far removed from Mongolia's polluted and overcrowded capital city of Ulaanbaatar, an ancient herding culture fights to maintain its identity-and its survival. This program examines the nomadic communities of the Mongolian plains and their resistance to change, despite growing pressure on many herders to modernize and migrate to urban areas. Viewers meet some who hold fast to the old ways and some who have already moved...

Nothing is so familiar, and yet so elusive, as water. A running faucet would require 136 trillion years to discharge the Earth's 326 million cubic miles of water, but only fresh water-less than three percent of the global supply-can sustain life. As we transport, utilize, and consume water, we are tempted to view it as eternally plentiful. But its protracted cycle of falling from the sky, seeping into the ground, resurfacing, and evaporating is a...

Forests protect and nurture humanity in a variety of ways. Why, then, does deforestation continue? Who is responsible for it? This program analyzes the problem through a socioeconomic lens, drawing connections between corporate interests, food security concerns, and annihilation of the planet's woodlands. Outlining the history of deforestation from Roman times to WWII, the film focuses on the rise of clear-cut and slash-and-burn practices associated...