Sea Level Rise Focus of ‘This is Not Cool’ Video

Major sea level rise reports forecasting trouble ahead for much of California and the Atlantic seaboard, coupled with blistering heat records across much of the U.S. … Cap it all off with a witty Stephen Colbert commentary and you’ve got the makings of another ‘This is Not Cool’ Yale Forum video.

A late-June report from a National Academy of Sciences committee finding that much of California will face higher sea level increases over the coming century than the projected global average …

A report from the U.S. Geological Survey, also in late June, saying Atlantic sea level rise from North Carolina to north of Boston is likely to be higher than anywhere else in the world …

Early July local temperatures across the U.S. on a record-breaking pace across much of the Midwest and Northeast and Atlantic coast, and coming after a June that also had set numerous local temperature records …

Efforts in several state legislatures to limit consideration of sea level rise as a result of a warmer climate …

Add to it all a biting look at the North Carolina example by Comedy Central satirist and humorist Stephen Colbert …

These feed into this month’s “This is Not Cool” video, the work of independent video producer Peter Sinclair for The Yale Forum.

Sinclair’s video commentary draws on outtakes from Penn State climatologist Richard Alley’s “Earth: The Operators’ Manual” public broadcasting documentary, directed by Geoff Haines-Stiles, who graciously made available footage shot with Admiral David Titley, the U.S. Navy’s Chief Oceanographer. The video points to a commentary by Bill Chameides, dean of the Nicholas School of the Environment, Duke University, suggesting that some state efforts, in addressing sea level rise, are seeking to repeal the laws of physics, and it links to Colbert’s witty satire on a North Carolina sea level rise legislative initiative.

AUTHOR | Peter Sinclair is a veteran videographer who originated the “Climate Crock of the Week” series and now contributes regularly to The Yale Forum.