Planet in Peril and scary eco-docus

What is your tolerance for doom and gloom documentaries about the environment?

Because I've reached mine. I reached it like six months ago -- and hit the wall so hard I still haven't seen "The 11th Hour," even though I could've gone to some free screenings.

Yes, I know -- "The 11th Hour" covers important stuff. But here's a partial list of enviro- and social justice-oriented films I have watched since "An Inconvenient Truth": "Who Killed the Electric Car?" "Sicko,"  "The Breast Cancer Diaries," "Crude Impact," "The Corporation," etc. etc.

And that's just the films -- I read a lot of books too, and of course, newspapers and blogs. At a certain point, you have to start thinking about your own sanity.

Which is why I wonder why I keep seeing -- more and more docus about the environment that lead with the doom and gloom message. Whose idea was it, for example, to call CNN's new two-part docu "Planet in Peril"?

I want to make clear that I agree the issues highlighted in "Planet in Peril" are important. I'm just tired of this eco-docu format: heavy doom and gloom for 1.5 hours, then ray of hope for the last 10 minutes. I haven't seen all of "Planet in Peril" (you can watch a 20-minute excerpt here), but I'm actually afraid to turn it on. Topics covered: climate change, deforestation, species loss and overpopulation. Fun!

Then again, maybe the show WILL be fun. Starre of Eco-Chick rues that all the hosts are male, but is psyched that they're all hot. GreenStrides's pumped that the show'll air in HD.

"Planet in Peril" airs on CNN tonight, Tuesday, Oct. 23, and Wednesday, Oct. 24, from 9 to 11 p.m. (ET/PT).

In the meantime, the next post here will be about all the fun doom and gloom messages hitting my bloglines.

Comments

[Don]

It's kind of funny that you posted this since I had just read the "daily downers" and found myself thinking that all of this was rather catatonia inducing...

[Siel]

Ha -- So did you end up watching Planet in Peril?

[Robert 'Groby' Blum]

Why all the doom& gloom? Because fear sells best. It's a cheap thrill. And the 10 minutes 'ray of hope' at the end let you go home feeling good, because somebody is gonna fix it. (Most likely those scientists. Even though they're mostly damn 'libruhls', they're always good for fixing things)

[Don]

I don't end up watching much television of any sort. This is assisted somewhat by the fact that our cable package is "CableLatino" which features the broadcast channels. public access and a number of basic cable-level Spanish channels. Through in the PVR so that what I do watch is time-shifted and even if there is something interesting on, I seldom hear about it.

[Siel]

But don't you think that at some point people reach their limit on this type of cheap thrill?

Don -- I don't watch TV myself -- at least not on TV (I stream some stuff online).

[Robert 'Groby' Blum]

But don't you think that at some point people reach their limit on this type of cheap thrill?

At this point, the defense would like to enter exhibit A into the record: Fox Network. Entirely built on cheap thrills. (Wildest Car Chases!). No, sorry, appealing to base instincts *always* works.

(P.T. Barnum: "Nobody ever went broke underestimating the average citizens intelligence" )

[Deli Korkmaz]

I'm with the Girl. I'm a huge news junkie but I never waste time on something unless I'm pretty sure it has a high proportion of new information. My attitude is, tell me something I don't already know. I was a little kid when i stopped watching nature shows because every last one of them had, "but the greatest enemy of is not , but...Man."

Yeah, I know. We suck. The world is ending in hours. And I don't even mean this facetiously. Does anybody wonder where all the religious fundamentalists came from?

[Siel]

Wild car chases are hardly the same thing as "we are all going to die and there's v. little you can do about it" type stuff.... I think the speed with which The 11th Hour went out of the theaters speaks for itself --