global warming theorem on youtube

sorry to post so close to class...

a while ago i was sent a video about global warming. here it is:



there are a few things i think are particularly interesting about this. first, the speaker starts by asking people to respond to his video and tell him their thoughts. he asks for critical responses in the same way a scientist with a theorem would send it to fellow scientists for criticism and responses. by doing this on youtube, however, he is opening this dialogue up to a greater community of internet users, all of whom can comment with the same power to their responses.

second, at the end of the video, the speaker aknowledges the power of his medium. he speaks to the ultimate global warming questions of "what can i do" as he explains that the key is having a spreading knowledge. he states that, in a society such as ours, with so much information technology, there are tremendous opportunities for people to "speak" (or post) and be heard by many others.

third, i noticed that in the description section, the movie's creator wrote a long message about how you should not watch this video. he explains that, based on the comments he recieved, there are holes in his argument. becuase of this, he has made a much longer video series, addressing all of the comments brought up by people who watched the video. he explains that he is leaving up the video anyways, because it preserves a record of this dialogue: an example of an effective use of youtube for socio-political discourse.

finally, i looked at the comments on the video. i found that many of the first bunch were elementary school students of the man who made the film. as they all left rave reviews, it became clear to me that the video was powerful in multiple ways. he has a well-articulated argument in favor of taking action against global warming, but he has also showed many students how easy it is to share thoughts and beliefs using public media like youtube - a lesson these students will hopefully take advantage of as they learn and grow.

~julia