Truth be told, it’s not always fun learning about global warming. It’s kind of like eating that one green vegetable you don’t like: If you’re doing it, you’re doing it because you know it’s good for you. Even though it makes you feel kind of bad at the time.
But NPR has unexpectedly done the impossible: They’ve made global warming slightly amusing, with their animated series, Global Warming: It’s All About Carbon. It stars a playful carbon atom who is referred to as a polygamist: All he wants to do is bond with two oxygen atoms. Makes sense, right? The series breaks down the greenhouse gases into science that’s easy to understand, for kids and for maybe some of us who missed the original lesson. Plus, plenty of gratuitous polar-bear-on-melting-ice-caps footage spliced in. It’s all very cute, trust me. And honestly funny too, unless you find Robert Krulwich to be a mood killer.
The latest episode is about carbon storage and sequestration.
Hi Lindsay,
When I was boy, occasionally my mother gave me castor oil for what was ailing me. This substance was revolting and literally sickening. I wondered if getting cured was worse than the having the ailment with which I suffered. Learning about global warming has left me with a similar sense and the same fear.
As a consequence, in our effort to get hold of one of knottiest problems I have ever considered: TO ACKNOWLEDGE, ADDRESS AND OVERCOME THE CHALLENGE OF GLOBAL WARMING, let us remember a thought from someone most respected………….
“No problem can be solved from the same consciousness that created it. We must learn to see the world anew.” - Albert Einstein.
Always,
Steve
Very cute cartoon - global warming is such a gloomy topic that most media presented on it reflects it and isn’t at all fun to watch. This series at least approaches the topic in a way you can digest - a spoonful of sugar, as opposed to the green vegetable or castor oil effect.