After the Warming (1989– ) User Reviews

This show helped me avoid global warming panic

[neacorp · 9/10 · 25 January 2009]

I watched this show once in mid 90s on Discovery because I saw Connections before this and liked Burke as the narrator. He has the nag to compress data without watering it down or adding pointless drama to it. I remembered only the end and figured if global warming was to happen, Baltic would become the new tropics. This win-win situation helped me a lot.

A while ago I saw new Discovery show "Project Earth" with lamebrain ideas to stop global warming and prognoses that anyone can question. Because of their expansive (and none cost-efficient) impractical ideas that I remembered Burkes documentary and decided to review it. Oddly it was for free on YouTube and it was worth it.

The first part is based on history before 1990. It may not be perfect but it is worth to watch. I never thought that because of natural temperature change historical events happen. Temperature rise in 300BC melted the Alps for Rome to exploit all year round and then in 450AD it got colder and we got the dark ages. Vikings were dumb and proud to freeze to death rather than plant trees, adapt and survive. I didn't even know that ink could freeze and effect economy of the time. And I really underestimated the chimney. Who knows what you may discover form this show.

The only bad side is the second part with speculations about the future. Though after 20 years much was wrong, some thing did come true. Now everyone are consumers, overpopulation is a problem and oil prices went up creating wars for it. And now oil crisis helps make more efficient cars. The rest helps support against global warming speculations. Obviously many things did not happen and we shouldn't be scared by every bad prognosis.

The show isn't perfect but it has a lot of real science in it as well as simple cheap alternatives to the problem. I still couldn't figure out why not dump salt in the north of Atlantic to artificially regulate temperature? My favorite part is the ad where parents drive their kids to the dump so not to leave it up to them. I may not be perfect but its old stuff like this that made me more ecofriendly and I recommend this show to you and your kids.

Excellent! Enjoyable & educational.

[wsrw · 10/10 · 10 October 2006]

For anyone who's seen "An Inconvenient Truth", you'll recognize the same theories, evidence and message in this much earlier work. But there is sooooo much more. This program manages to include the entire environmental history of the world, but, coming from a future perspective, takes a good look at where we are now from a somewhat impersonal view.

Entertaining, enjoyable and packed FULL of information that's not dumbed down, but remains accessible. James Burke, as always, has a knack for making formidably complex issues understandable without talking down at you. Although an admirer of Al Gore's goals as an environmentalist, this is a far more intelligently organized and comprehensive piece of work.

If I was an earth science teacher, I'd require this for my classes.

If you believed anything about "An Inconvenient Truth" see this too.

[willbair · 10/10 · 2 January 2007]

More depth, and 20 years earlier than "An Inconvenient Truth" warning. Aired on public television, and hard to find these days. It should be on DVD and circulated to all environmentalists so they can share with their families and friend so they can help prevent a devastating future climate changes. Burke uses early computer enhanced predictions. Hypothasises How, Where and Whats of global warming. Will not make sense to those who refuse to believe in Greenhouse Effects, Ocean Warming, and pollution. Does not paint a rosy picture that would sell his film. It is a little bit more far reaching than the current "An Inconvenient Truth." I.M.H.O.

An interesting look at a possible future.

[Blueghost · 30 April 2013]

James Burke is nobody's fool, and does his best in this 1989 production to project a possible scenario where climatic change, energy and resource management goes in the usual human directions, and how the two collide and culminate in world wide environmental situations that pit the countries of the world against one another, but also force them to create alliances and force other nations to capitulate in order to save the world from itself.

Even so, and again this program was made with a late 80's perspective, there are a few more variables than I think mister Burke accounts for. He understands climate change very well, and shows us how climates alter local environments, but I'm not sure that his projected scenario is all that practical. Because for all of the scientific breakthroughs and revamping of energy and resource management, his solution on how to get countries to capitulate is somewhat Pollyannish.

I won't reveal specifics, but how do you enforce global litigation, particularly when some of the participants are at political odds with how you run your country? All wars are fought over natural resources. Whether it's two tribes or collections of cavemen fighting over a kill or watering hole, or the U.S. military leading a coalition to oust Saddam Hussein from Kuwait to keep the oil supply flowing. There are no exceptions. And if you're a country that's doing well in spite of the global catastrophe going all around you, and you have the will and military might to maintain your independence from the rest of the world, then why on Earth would you do anything the United Nations asks you to?

But that's always the problem of futurists and TV programs dedicated to projecting the future. Whether it's a feature film like "2001 One Space Odyssey" or a book text book or book written for masses telling about wondrous things that may happen with scientific achievement, they run into the trap that they might be wrong.

James Burke warns us about how the mechanisms in the naturally occurring climate model can only handle so much of man's activities, and how those activities, activities we, in theory, ostensibly control, will change the environment in which we live. The obvious conclusion is that we are the masters of our own destiny. This is assuming nearly all, or a good significant portion, of what James Burke, or whatever author in question, is correct.

Whether you believe him or not, whether you agree with the conclusions of the hard data on climate change or not, Burke's views are always highly entertaining and informative. Shot on video and using a split screen process to segue from an artificial future surrounding to live action shot on location, this series lends itself to science fiction. It's up to the viewer to decide how much science and how much fiction is in this piece.

Either way it is a snapshot on how a significant portion of the scientific community back in the 1980s viewed a possible future if their data and conclusions from that data was correct. My personal view? Well, I've had it brow beaten into me that during the age of the dinosaurs the Earth was predominantly warm the world over, and that that climate lasted for hundreds of millions of years--entire epochs of jungle or hot forest like conditions the world over. If that's the case, then how is it we're worrying about a climate that would appear to be going back to normal? But then I don't know anymore than your average layperson whose read a few books.

Give it a shot. It's dated, it might raise a grin because of it, but I think the program still holds up.

Enjoy.

2022 False Prophet Hilarity

[mcdstacy · 1/10 · 19 July 2022]

I enjoyed watching this in 2022, only for the comedic experience. Doom saying, malthusian human population nonsense that we still hear today 33 years later. Too many people in the world. A 15-20 temp rise where has that appeared ?. Famines throughout the third world ? Flooding. Mass immigration from flooding. Cow farts from 1989 - Oh no. The global control by an administrative authority to set a carbon foot print. The same old stuff from 30 years ago that we still read today that hasn't happened. I loved the bit where he said only the very wealthy will be able to afford a burger haha.

It is a wonderful testament to how far left ideology hasn't changed one bit in 30 years.

I Sing You To Sleep, Af-terrrr The Warming!

[ixtab9 · 21 November 2003]

Fans of James Burke may remember his excellent television shows THE DAY THE UNIVERSE CHANGED plus CONNECTIONS and it's sequels. In those programs Burke would follow unlikely winds and turns in scientific and cultural development in a very thought-provoking way.

**********POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD**************

In AFTER THE WARMING Burke turned his eyes to the future and speculated on what would happen if the world ignored environmental problems. Presented as a mock documentary in the year 2050 AD this special depicted the fictional way in which the Earth was saved from the catastrophic effects of Global Warming.

After a look back at how the Industrial Revolution put the world on it's current fluoro-carbon spewing path followed by some imaginative prognosticating about droughts and flooding and the like in the near future Burke moves into territory that threatens to make this the REEFER MADNESS of environmental warning films. We're told that the Earth was saved from Global Warming by establishing a worldwide dictatorship called the Global Planning Authority. Burke doesn't describe it that way, of course, but "a horned man's a monster, Iago" and he even depicts this GPA launching military invasions of countries who don't want to adjust their environmental policies to please the new overlords of the Earth. While laughing at the idea of a perpetually-torn global community standing united and willing to spill blood over environmental issues I do give Burke credit for acknowledging that not everyone in the world would willingly goose-step to the GPA's dictums. In an eerie bit he even refers to "a series of conflicts in the Middle East".

Typical of people pushing a single-issue Utopia Burke ignores dealing with the fallout of some of his proposals, like the widespread unemployment that would surely result from eliminating all the fossil-fuel-driven industries he wants done away with. Also, since scientists often disagree about what would truly be the most environmentally safe way of dealing with Global Warming you can't help but wonder how technical disagreements of this type would be handled. Apparently by letting the political hacks of the Global Planning Authority be the ultimate arbiters. Not exactly the safest way of settling scientific debate.

AFTER THE WARMING also contains some entertaining "What If?" bits of scientific speculation, like eco-farming, deserts covered with solar panels, homes that are super-efficient in their use of energy and genetically engineered vegetables like the "cactus potatoes" bred to withstand the higher temperatures of the future. Burke might have been on firmer ground emphasizing this aspect of the show rather than raising the ugly specter of global tyranny crushing all opposition, then glossing over it by ignoring the implications.

This two-part special is thought-provoking and entertaining at times, but in the end pretty laughable despite it's noble aims.

Brilliant view of the future of the planet

[rock_slabfist · 3 April 2006]

This is a very intelligent look at our planet and the forces (some natural and some man made) that have and are driving the climate.

While critics tend to be very harsh with Mr. Burke, I have yet to hear or read one of them show me that their expertise in historical matters approaches that of Mr. Burke.

The only other comment on this board is grossly unfair. I wonder if the poster has house insurance? If he does, he is showing his blatant hypocrisy. Why should the planet be denied the same protections that he feels his house is entitled to? The previous poster has offered no credentials, no concrete scientific statements of FACT to back up his claims, only wild speculation and partisan hackery.

One of the last things Burke says in this "documentary from the future" is that mankind avoided the problem by taking steps to avoid it. He says (I'm paraphrasing here) "It was a close run thing...but it DIDN'T HAVE TO BE".

Watch this for yourself and see what YOU think. Do some research and try and find a flaw in Burke's logic. While all his proposed scenarios might not be feasable, at least he's THINKING ABOUT THE PROBLEM, which is MUCH MORE than all his ostrich critics AREN'T!