"Connections" is James Burke's personal, alternative view of change. And "Thunder in the Skies" marks the place where the series really gets rolling. This and the next three episodes are both fun and informative.
"Thunder in the Skies" is also a neat retrospective look of 1970s fearmongering. Burke gives us several 1970s notions that have gone the way of 'fros, bell-bottom trousers, and open shirts with bling on hairy chests. He touches on two things I was taught in school in the '70s that have relevance today: climate change and natural resources. Only, the climate change Burke presents in this episode is real.
When I was in grade school in the 1970s I was taught the Earth was spiraling into another "deep freeze" ice age. And Burke, always happy to jump on any passing bandwagon, says, "How will we manage if the cold comes again?" And he takes us through twelfth century global cooling.
Any significant study of history will reveal that climate change is the rule rather than the exception. The Earth gets hotter, the Earth gets colder . . . and sometimes it happens quickly. Thirty years, going on forty, from "Thunder in the Skies" we've forgotten the Ice Age scare so much that certain political lobbies can fan the fires of fear of "global warming."
Maybe "global warming" is happening. Probably not. "Thunder in the Skies" should make one feel more secure. Or insecure, depending on one's level of fear. It makes one realize that whether the climate gets colder or hotter or stays the same . . . there's not a damn thing we can do about it. All we can do is adjust, as the Viking settlements in Greenland could not. They moved into Green-land when it was green. When the climate chilled the glaciers advanced and Green-land became white, the Norsemen abandoned it. Yet the Norsemen were not driving around Greenland in SUVs or using the wrong kind of light bulbs.
I haven't seen James Burke recently. Three decades after scaring viewers about what happens "when the cold comes again" he may be on the global warming bandwagon.
Another issue Burke raises in "Thunder in the Skies" the very 1970s notion I was taught as an innocent schoolboy, that we had to leave our precious oil in the ground because our natural resources were nearly depleted.
Twenty-first century technology has proved that the U.S. is sitting on seas of oil. Tapping it with modern, safer methods than were used in the 1890s, where the anti-oil lobby's mindset is stuck, would free the US from dependence on the middle east, and would drop gas prices to a pittance. But again, the fearmongerers have changed their tactics. No longer are we getting colder, we're getting hotter. Rather than leaving our seas of oil where it is because we are "depleting" it, we have to leave it in the ground because of godawful things it does to the planet (and the climate, which some people seem to think we can control like a tap!).
And yet, in his typically whimsical way, Burke explains how the discovery and use of oil as a fuel saved the whales! How? Well, watch "Thunder in the Skies" to find out. If you're a political animal more emotional than thoughtful about your politics, you may not be able to take the retrospective challenge of "Thunder in the Skies," which tells you that the world may get colder (brrr). And if you like whales it explains how you can thank oil men for saving them rather than Greenpeace.
And at the end you get to see some really neat vintage cars in action!
It's a shame "Connections" really does not "heat up" until episode six. But "Thunder in the Skies" is definitely worth watching, and its lessons are worth taking to heart. Open your mind, and maybe you'll learn something from James Burke in this episode.
"Thunder in the Skies" is also a neat retrospective look of 1970s fearmongering. Burke gives us several 1970s notions that have gone the way of 'fros, bell-bottom trousers, and open shirts with bling on hairy chests. He touches on two things I was taught in school in the '70s that have relevance today: climate change and natural resources. Only, the climate change Burke presents in this episode is real.
When I was in grade school in the 1970s I was taught the Earth was spiraling into another "deep freeze" ice age. And Burke, always happy to jump on any passing bandwagon, says, "How will we manage if the cold comes again?" And he takes us through twelfth century global cooling.
Any significant study of history will reveal that climate change is the rule rather than the exception. The Earth gets hotter, the Earth gets colder . . . and sometimes it happens quickly. Thirty years, going on forty, from "Thunder in the Skies" we've forgotten the Ice Age scare so much that certain political lobbies can fan the fires of fear of "global warming."
Maybe "global warming" is happening. Probably not. "Thunder in the Skies" should make one feel more secure. Or insecure, depending on one's level of fear. It makes one realize that whether the climate gets colder or hotter or stays the same . . . there's not a damn thing we can do about it. All we can do is adjust, as the Viking settlements in Greenland could not. They moved into Green-land when it was green. When the climate chilled the glaciers advanced and Green-land became white, the Norsemen abandoned it. Yet the Norsemen were not driving around Greenland in SUVs or using the wrong kind of light bulbs.
I haven't seen James Burke recently. Three decades after scaring viewers about what happens "when the cold comes again" he may be on the global warming bandwagon.
Another issue Burke raises in "Thunder in the Skies" the very 1970s notion I was taught as an innocent schoolboy, that we had to leave our precious oil in the ground because our natural resources were nearly depleted.
Twenty-first century technology has proved that the U.S. is sitting on seas of oil. Tapping it with modern, safer methods than were used in the 1890s, where the anti-oil lobby's mindset is stuck, would free the US from dependence on the middle east, and would drop gas prices to a pittance. But again, the fearmongerers have changed their tactics. No longer are we getting colder, we're getting hotter. Rather than leaving our seas of oil where it is because we are "depleting" it, we have to leave it in the ground because of godawful things it does to the planet (and the climate, which some people seem to think we can control like a tap!).
And yet, in his typically whimsical way, Burke explains how the discovery and use of oil as a fuel saved the whales! How? Well, watch "Thunder in the Skies" to find out. If you're a political animal more emotional than thoughtful about your politics, you may not be able to take the retrospective challenge of "Thunder in the Skies," which tells you that the world may get colder (brrr). And if you like whales it explains how you can thank oil men for saving them rather than Greenpeace.
And at the end you get to see some really neat vintage cars in action!
It's a shame "Connections" really does not "heat up" until episode six. But "Thunder in the Skies" is definitely worth watching, and its lessons are worth taking to heart. Open your mind, and maybe you'll learn something from James Burke in this episode.