OPINION: 'Earth 2100' great for a good laugh

Mainstream journalism reached a new low Tuesday when ABC aired its highly promoted "Earth 2100," which host Bob Woodruff called "a different kind of journalism" that shows us what will happen if we don't act now. "Good Morning America" host Diane Sawyer imbued the show with journalistic credibility, telling her audience "we're not talking about sci-fi here."

"Earth 2100" was certainly different, only because it abandoned the American journalistic tradition of at least feigning respect for balance, substantiation and truth. It wasn't so different from outdated, Marxist-style propaganda. Apparently Woodruff and others at ABC haven't learned that tall-tales fabrication, packaged as "journalism," worked only in the day when media monopolies and tyrant governments could control the message. It doesn't work in a modern world of decentralized media. This isn't the 1980s, a time when big media had top-down control of information that was fed to a vulnerable crowd that counted on a handful of sources to tell them the truth. It's 2009, and consumers have countless sources of information and news. Propaganda just doesn't work like it did, so ABC's no-holds-barred attempt to generate fear and anxiety was nothing more than funny.

For the majority of readers who probably didn't see "Earth 2100," it was the fictional story of Lucy, a girl born this year, whose life is defined by the ravages of global warming. The story is told through Lucy's own narration, along with story-book illustration.

Lucy's world begins crumbling immediately, as the result of too much consumption by Americans who, of course, caused global warming and associated catastrophes. As a child, Lucy's in a world of devastating energy shortages and violence in the United States. Our country, during Lucy's life, is a place where mobs will attack a gas station attendant for running out of fuel.

As a young woman, Lucy becomes an EMT and marries an activist. Global warming and consumption have caused most fresh water supplies to go dry, so Lucy and her idealistic husband move to California. They move west to protest desalination factories, which are converting ocean water into potable water. Lake Meade and other Colorado River reservoirs are dry, and Las Vegas is gone. Desalination is necessary and good, given the absence of fresh water. Unfortunately, the greedy executives of the desalination corporations are charging too much for fresh water and the solution rests in '60s-style demonstrations.

Lucy, her husband and the other activists succeed at forcing the desalination companies to stop soaking consumers with high prices. By that time, American-made global warming has California in ruins. Lucy and her husband head for New York, with their young daughter. In New York, Lucy's husband will work as an engineer on a massive new sea wall society hopes will save the city from the rapidly rising sea level caused by global warming. On their way to New York, the family must drive through an angry mob that has been rendered desperate by global warming. Their daughter, who opened a car window, is threatened with a gun.

When the family gets to Kansas, they stop for a tourist visit at one of the only locations in the United States that isn't characterized by the despair and violence associated with global warming. It's the village of Greensburg (which really exists), 30-some years into the future. Greensburg is beautiful. Earthy-looking young people are shown growing all the town's food, and all power comes from the wind and sun. A video monitor at a visitors' center features former President Barack Obama praising Greensburg (which he did this year) for rebuilding green after a 2007 tornado flattened the town. Though most other places in the story resemble hell on earth, Greensburg is nothing short of paradise.

When the family reaches New York, it's another paradise. The progressive city had gone green while Lucy grew up, and skyscrapers were vertical indoor farms. The people who work in the buildings live in them, and the food they consume is grown in and on the buildings.

But Lucy and family aren't safe for long, because the Atlantic is rising. Her husband helps build the wall that would save everyone. Unfortunately, just before it's complete the ice caps suddenly melt all at once and the ocean rises quickly, probably because global warming caused the ocean to belch methane. Engineers try to close gates on the wall, but one gets stuck. Lucy's husband takes a boat to the wall in an effort to save the day, but he's killed by the rising waters of global warming.

Lucy's life goes downhill from there.

The whole thing smacked of self-righteous journalists looking down on the naive little people, trying to scare them into paying to resolve global warming. "Oh, brother," must have been the collective response. Next time, ABC, make the show even funnier. Tell the same story in claymation, recasting Lucy with Mr. Bill from "Saturday Night Live."

"Look, Spot, the iceberg is melting. But it's melting too fast. Ohhh, noooooooooooo!"