'Cool It' Brings Different Approach to Global Warming

4 Feb, 2011 By: Ashley Ratcliff

Cool It

Bjørn Lomborg has taken a lot of heat for his alternative ideas about the climate change debate. The Danish economist’s controversial book, “The Skeptical Environmentalist,” challenged the consensus, and he continues his common-sense crusade in the documentary Cool It.

Lionsgate will release the film on DVD March 29 (prebook March 2, $27.98), arriving in time for Earth Day. Cool It also will be available as a digital download and on demand.

In Cool It, Lomborg advances the notion that, while climate change is occurring, the outlook has been exaggerated through the rhetoric of some politicians and environmentalists, as well as in An Inconvenient Truth, former Vice President Al Gore’s 2006 documentary about global warming.

“There’s actually a lot of things that are getting better. … This is not a doomed planet; this is a place where we, in general, leave the next generation in a better state rather than a worse state,” Lomborg said in the film.

Lomborg argues that there’s a “smarter” way of dealing with the multibillion-dollar problem. In the film, he raises a number of questions: Why is the United States government so focused on spending so much money on green initiatives that will make little difference? Is global warming really the most important issue facing the planet when issues such as starvation and disease run rampant in the Third World?

“What makes Cool It so great is that it is a mature film in that it asks all these complex questions and presents a detailed, complex answer, but in a way that is engaging,” said Amanda Kozlowski, a marketing director with Lionsgate. “I think that is what we’re going to see more of — these films that try to tackle hot-button issues without necessarily trying to create one-line answers.”

For his efforts, Lomborg has been named one of the 50 “people who could save the planet” by The Guardian and one of the 100 “most influential people” in the world by Time magazine.

“What intrigued audiences is that [Cool It] is a more reasoned approach that looks at global warming, as an issue, from all different angles and, specifically, Bjørn Lomborg … has a really interesting perspective, which is that he’s an economist by trade,” Kozlowski said.

“He really looks at the issue from a dollars-and-cents approach, which is a unique way of thinking and a timely way of thinking,” she added.

The DVD offers 15 minutes of deleted scenes that keep the environmental conversation going.