Turning up the heat

At the SICB meeting I had a chance to see Flock of Dodos and sit in on some discussions with filmmaker and former scientist Randy Olson. He revealed that he has another movie coming out, a comedic documentary about global warming called Sizzle.

The film isn't listed on IMDB's database yet, so just consider this your insider entertainment scoop for the day.

In it, Olson describes how he tried to subvert the normal science documentary process, which is to take cameras to campuses and film a bunch of scientists talking. Interviews start out that way, but then a "skeptical" cameraman starts throwing in questions about climate change. Olson said it was really interesting to watch the dynamic change at that point...

Olson also said that he thought that people who saw both films would find the similarities. The data and the issues are different, but the kinds of people who argue against the scientific consensus and the kinds of arguments they use are almost identical. Olson mentioned that the skeptics / deniers in both the intelligent design issue and the climate change issue are very fond of conspiracy theories, for instance.

I'm really looking forward to it.