Heavy Weather

Short Synopsis

Heavy Weather is a one-hour radio documentary that examines the connections between climate change, urban sprawl and increasingly devastating occurences of extreme weather. It investigates how land use policies and patterns exacerbate the impacts of extreme weather and place communities at risk.

Description/Treatment

Heavy Weather, a one-hour radio documentary, explores the connections between climate change, rural and urban land use policies and practices and increasingly devastating occurences of extreme weather. How do we ensure that segments of our communities are not left vulnerable to natural disasters that in part were created by shortsighted land use policies? Along with rethinking where and how we design new urban/suburban communities, the program examines the radical cultural and infrastructure changes we need to make within established communities, if we are to seriously reverse three centuries of human-induced climate change. It also examines how the threat of global warming creates an opportunity to change the paradigms that have shaped our post-modern industrial culture and challenge us to think up entirely new ways to organize society. The program looks at the importance of local initiatives to reduce energy consumption such as reinvigorating locally grown food networks and creating new urban designs that discourage automobile use by encouraging walking, biking and mass transit. This sound-rich documentary inter-cuts the voices of climate change experts, environmental activists, urban designers and planners, ecologists, writers, community energy advocates and political leaders, with minimal narration, evocative ambient sound and original music.

While there have been some recent conversations about how climate change and land use policies are connected, so far there has been little interaction between climate scientists and land use planners. Heavy Weather addresses this problem by initiating dialogues between scientists and planners and bringing together these voices in a public forum. Through this cross-disciplinary discussion, Heavy Weather explores ways to forge links between climate science and urban planning. The program investigates the conundrum we face as we continue to push urbanization into forests and farmlands. For as we transform these lands from carbon sequesters to carbon emitters are we amplifying conditions that will create more frequent and violent weather disturbances? If we don’t build in flood or slide-prone areas, are we not only keeping people out of harm’s way, but also protecting important ecosystems and habitat? The project will research and compile existing studies that shed light on the potential circular relationship between climate change, land use and extreme weather events and present these studies in an accessible form to the general public. Through the medium of radio broadcast and internet podcasting, this program will reach a wide audience that if educated, can participate in a collaborative effort to press for local, state and federal policy and management changes to protect our cherished open spaces and fragile ecosystems.

Over the last three years we have produced a cycle of hour-long radio documentaries presenting environmental stories, using as a lens the four elements: water, earth, fire and air. The programs include Salmonlands (water), which shows how salmon have shaped and defined the ecology and biodiversity of the Pacific Northwest as well as its culture, economy and spirituality; Urban Green (earth), which examines the connections between protecting urban watersheds and sustaining local foodsheds, through supporting local farmers, farmers' markets and urban gardens; and Sculpted by Fire (fire), which explores the role that fire played in creating the forests of the North American West. Heavy Weather completes this quartet of the elements, as it focuses on air, the element at the core of the growing climate crisis. With the completion of this final hour, we will redistribute the entire series as a four-part package. The three previous programs have been well received and extensively broadcast, but adding the fourth element gives them an interesting new context for distribution.