Too Hot NOT to Handle? HBO Special worth a watch

Seattle got treated to the premiere of a new HBO Earth Day special called "Too Hot Not to Handle" the other night. A packed audience of 260 in the Seattle Public Library saw the one-hour show, which will air at 7 p.m. Saturday, Earth Day, on the cable channel.

It's worth a look, even for dedicated greenies. It has a cogent, easily understood explanation of global warming and the greenhouse effect, it features scientists who know their stuff but can speak in clear English and use great metaphors to explain the crisis. And it covers most of the bases in a very short time.

Some factoids: In the U.S., heat waves lasting four days or longer have nearly tripled over the past 50 years.

Snowpack is hurting...big time. Look at what killed a lot of past civilizations, folks: Drought. 75 percent of western states rely on snowpack for their water supply. And 75 percent of the nation's fruit comes from those states. Snowpack generally has declined up to 60 percent since 1950.

Over half of U.S. residents live within 50 miles of an ocean.

Is the show alarmist? I liked the fact that it didn't take on a scary tone. Much of it just lays out the facts, and those are scary enough. But there's also hopeful looks at solar, wind and ethanol, the dark cloud (literally and figuratively) being all the coal that still lies in the ground, waiting to be milled for polluting energy.

One issue that emerged in Q&A with the show's co-producer, Laurie David, is the personalization of green solutions. David, wife of Seinfeld creator Larry David, is perky and buoyant, but not to a fault. She just likes to tackle global problems with an effervescent charm.

She hopes people will take away a few things they can personally do to fight global warming. You need to set an example, she told the audience, and not be quiet about it. She talks about how when the Davids have Hollywood guests over for a dinner party, "the place looks like a Prius dealership. Nobody will drive anything but hybrid cars to our house!" For the record, she and her husband both drive Priuses.

On a recent trip to Washington, D.C., David was told our esteemed congressional leaders are doing nothing about global warming. "Not a hearing, not a briefing, not a discussion at all in Congress going on!" she exclaimed. "It floored me. But at the same time it made me more resolved. There is no other option but to have hope. There is no other option but to solve this thing."

David and former VIce President Al Gore have also teamed up on a feature film, "An Inconvenient Truth," to be released in May. See the trailer here.

— Paul Andrews, GreenforGood

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