16 Min Https Liberal Institutions Tackling Clima

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16 Min Https Liberal Institutions Tackling Clima

WATCH:

Movie Title: Dry Season -part of a series called Years of Living Dangerously (58 min)

Environmental degradation, economic policy and war: in this documentary, these areas, while seemingly disconnected from each other, are all linked to climate change and its impact on the world.

After watching this week’s movie, briefly address the questions below:

  1. What role should the US play when it comes to making policy addressing climate change?
    • consider America’s withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement, its focus on “America first” under the previous administration and its withdrawal as a perceived leader on the global stage.
  2. America’s absence as a leader in the global community left a vacuum that will inevitably be filled by other nations/regions – which nation do you think will fill this role and why?
  3. Will American leadership regain its place on the global stage under the new administration? Explain.
  4. Which IGO or NGO do you believe can be used as a vehicle to bring consensus on the issue of climate change in the world community and why?

{IN ANOTHER FILE}



WATCH: Selling ideologies: War and Propaganda (16 min): https://fod-infobase-com.eu1.proxy.openathens.net/…

In this short program, we encounter the ultimate weapons wielded in the Cold War – propaganda and disinformation. Tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union are underpinned by their fundamentally opposing ideologies of Capitalism and Communism. This is an engaging investigation of the prevailing propaganda themes and messages over the course of the Cold War and the role played by mediums like film, television and print media.

During the late 1940s, 1950s and through the early 1980s, both the US and the Soviet Union engaged in various forms of propaganda in order to advance their respective ideologies: Capitalism vs. Communism. This propaganda was sometimes subtle, often banal and even cartoonish, but very effective in convincing Americans and Soviets that “the other” is the enemy, as well as a political and economic adversary.

Propaganda was a successful tool then, and it remains a successful tool today. The difference, however, is that during the Cold War the mediums used were film, radio and television, as well as printed media (newspapers, publications, posters etc.). Today, however, propaganda and misinformation is thousands of times easier to disseminate because the Internet (think social media) is cheap, easily accessible, and very difficult to control.

Compare the propaganda from the Cold War with the propaganda of today.

  1. What was easier about disseminating misinformation during the Cold War compared to today?
  2. What was more difficult (compared to today)?
  3. Do you think most people who read blatant misinformation are on some level aware that the information is exaggerated or fabricated? Explain.
  4. Why do you think it is easier to spread propaganda and misinformation vs. real facts?