'Nuisance Bear' leads Best Science/Nature Documentary at the Critics Choice Documentary Awards

I promised "more Critics Choice Documentary Awards coverage tomorrow as the Sunday entertainment feature," so here are the nominees for science and nature documentary.

BEST SCIENCE/NATURE DOCUMENTARY

The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist (Focus Features)
Ghost Elephants (National Geographic Documentary Films)
Lion (National Geographic)
Nuisance Bear (Mubi)
Secrets of the Bees (National Geographic)
Time and Water (National Geographic Documentary Films)

Nuisance Bear leads with five nominations, followed by Lion with four, The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist and Time and Water tied at two, then Ghost Elephants and Secrets of the Bees with just this one. I'm embedding their trailers in that order, beginning with NUISANCE BEAR | Official Trailer | Coming Soon.

Who is the real nuisance? Watch the official trailer for NUISANCE BEAR—the Sundance Grand Jury Prize-winning documentary from directors Jack Weisman and Gabriela Osio Vanden.

In theaters November 6 in Los Angeles, December 4 in New York, Canada and the UK. A MUBI Release.

This should look familiar to those of my readers who were following this blog in 2023, when it earned two News&Doc Emmy Award nominations and when I wrote that it had won Best Short Documentary at the 2022 Critics Choice Documentary Awards, so this electorate is familiar with it and liked it the first time. Remember, electorates matter. This is a feature-length treatment of the same material, and, based on its film festival awards, the expanded content is substance and not mere filler.

I can't recommend Nuisance Bear to my students, as it won't be available to them before the end of the semester, but I can recommend the next nominee. Watch LION | Official Trailer | National Geographic.

From “The Lion King” director Jon Favreau and BBC Studios executive producer Mike Gunton comes the extraordinary true story of a lion cub named Kio on his epic journey to become a king. Filmed over four years, this sweeping saga of family, hope and courage follows Kio as he grows from a vulnerable cub into a powerful leader. Along the way, he faces loss, exile and fierce rivals in a fight to survive. Combining cinematic storytelling with groundbreaking natural history filmmaking, this series captures the complete coming-of-age story of a lion — and the remarkable making of a king.

Welcome to the kind of project one can expect when Disney controls the National Geographic Channel. Fortunately, it looks like a hit with more than four million views on the trailer alone. It also looks like the kind of documentary series that would do well at next year's Creative Arts Emmy Awards.

I return to theaters with THE AI DOC: OR HOW I BECAME AN APOCALOPTIMIST - Official Trailer [HD] - Only In Theaters March 27 from Focus Features.

"The most urgent film of our time.” THE AI DOC: OR HOW I BECAME AN APOCALOPTIMIST is only in theaters March 27. Watch the trailer now.

From the Academy Award®-winning filmmakers behind Everything Everywhere All at Once and Navalny; a father-to-be tries to figure out what is happening with all this AI insanity. The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist is a hand-made, eye-opening documentary about the most powerful technology humanity has ever created... and what’s at stake if we get it wrong.

Holy crap! That was scary! It made me revisit what I wrote in 'Prophets of Doom' a dozen years ago.

Both [James Howard] Kunstler and Ruppert gave their familiar peak oil perspectives on the future. Of the rest, the one who worried about the farthest off catastrophe was De Garis, whose fear was of The Singularity, the surpassing of human intelligence by artificial intelligence. When he discussed his take on the future, I figured that Kunstler would likely have none of it. Sure enough, he told De Garis that he thought that the resources and finances needed to support the research for artificial intelligence would dry up before the technology reached that point. The result was that Kunstler didn't budge, but De Garis came away convinced that the other issues were fair more pressing than his particular worry. In particular, he became most concerned about water shortages.

Now I'm thinking De Garis was right and Kunstler was wrong. Based on his Wikipedia article, he became wrong about a lot of things in 2020, just after I stopped reading him. I'm glad I did!

Now the other nominee with a second nomination, Time and Water | Official Trailer | National Geographic Documentary Films.

Renowned Icelandic poet and author, Andri Snær Magnason, is chasing something elusive. As the glacial ice of his homeland melts, he constructs a cinematic time capsule to hold onto this moment and send it to the future, before everything he loves slips away. Using his own collected archives, his grandparents’ photographs and films as well as traditional songs and folktales, Andri interlaces his family’s story with that of the land around him. From Academy Award®-nominated director Sara Dosa, TIME AND WATER is a universal reflection on the power of home and what it means to be alive amid profound epochal change.

I can see the resemblance to Fire of Love, the personal meaning of natural phenomena. I can also recommend it to my students. Welcome to blogging as professional development.

I didn't embed Ghost Elephants | Official Trailer | National Geographic Documentary Films in 'Oceans with David Attenborough' tied with 'Mel Brooks: The 99 Year Old Man!' for Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special, but I'm embedding it here.

For over a decade, Dr. Steve Boyes, conservation biologist and National Geographic Explorer, has been in search of a mysterious, elusive herd of Ghost Elephants in the highlands of Angola, deep within its forests. From acclaimed director Werner Herzog (“Grizzly Man”), GHOST ELEPHANTS follows Boyes on an epic journey as he sets out with some of the best master trackers in the world, in pursuit of an animal long believed to be a myth.

I can hear why Herzog earned a nomination for Outstanding Narrator at the Creative Arts Emmy Awards. Too bad he didn't repeat here, but at least he earned a nomination for his film.

I'm recycling what I wrote in 'Secrets of the Bees' for World Honey Bee Day for the final nominee in this category.

I'm celebrating by sharing Secrets of the Bees | Official Trailer | Narrated by Bertie Gregory | National Geographic.

National Geographic Explorer Bertie Gregory explores the extraordinary lives of bees — among the planet’s most important animals. Over three years, special cameras opened a rare window into a single hive, revealing their hidden world. With more than 20,000 bee species pollinating one-third of the world’s food, this series uncovers their astonishing architecture and intelligence, unlocking their secrets.

This is part of the same series that includes Secrets of the Whales, Secrets of the Elephants, Secrets of the Octopus, and Secrets of the Penguins, the last of which won two News & Documentary Emmy Awards in May.
...
I'm looking forward to blogging about this show two or three more times, when it's nominated for Outstanding Nature Documentary and Outstanding Cinematography - Documentary next spring, on World Bee Day, and maybe when and if it wins an Emmy or two. In the meantime, I can recommend the series to my students. Welcome to blogging as professional development.

I didn't include the Critics Choice Documentary Awards, but here it is. Also, I have been recommending it to my students, although none has submitted any extra credit yet.

After watching the trailers, I think Nuisance Bear is the most likely to win with The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist and Time and Water as the most likely to upset it. Lion may have more nominations than either of the latter, but I think it's more likely to win the limited series category.

BEST FIRST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

David Greaves – Once Upon a Time in Harlem (Neon)
Baz Luhrmann – EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert (Neon)
Gabriela Osio Vanden & Jack Weisman – Nuisance Bear (Mubi)
Xander Robin – The Python Hunt (Oscilloscope Laboratories)
Poh Si Teng – American Doctor (Watermelon Pictures)
John Wilson – The History of Concrete (Magnolia Pictures)

Nuisance Bear and Once Upon a Time in Harlem co-lead this category with five nominations each, followed by EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert and The History of Concrete tied at four, then American Doctor and The Python Hunt tied at two. Two of these, The History of Concrete and The Python Hunt, don't have nominations in categories I will examine in the future, so I'm embedding them here, beginning with The History of Concrete - Official Trailer | Directed by John Wilson | In Theaters September 18.

Following the finale of his acclaimed HBO series “How To with John Wilson”, NYC documentarian John Wilson looks to the bedrock of his beloved New York City for inspiration and structure. Concrete, the world's most widely used building material, appears as an ever-present life force, and John sets out to make the definitive documentary on the matter. After attending a workshop on how to write and sell a Hallmark movie, he decides to use the industry-approved Hallmark formula to tell this seemingly drab story and increase his movie’s appeal. But his foundation soon begins to crumble—literally and figuratively—as he struggles to balance artistic freedom with the realities of the modern film industry.

Directed by John Wilson

This looks more interesting than I expected. Also, while there is definitely are science, technology, and infrastructure angles and I mention concrete in my lectures, I can't tell from the trailer if I can recommend this to my students. On the other hand, I'm sure I can recommend The Python Hunt - Official Trailer - Oscilloscope Laboratories HD.

In an attempt to save the threatened ecosystem, the Florida government hosts an annual competition to remove invasive pythons from the Everglades. For ten grueling nights, python-mania overtakes the ‘glades as an eclectic group of amateur hunters contends with unforgiving terrain, aggressive nocturnal creatures and their own desires and demons that push them into the swamp, searching for slithering glory.

Directed by Xander Robin
Produced by Xander Robin, Lance Oppenheim, Lauren Cioffi, Melissa Oppenheim

I blogged about the Florida python hunt three times and every time it looked like wild fun in the service of biodiversity and sustainability. I think my students will generally enjoy watching this as long as killing snakes doesn't bother them.

Two nominees also earned nominations for Best Documentary, Once Upon a Time in Harlem and The History of Concrete, so they're my picks to win Best First Documentary Feature. I think the former has the inside track, but I'll re-examine this category when I cover Best Historical Documentary and Best Archival Documentary.

BEST NARRATION

The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist (Focus Features)
Written by Daniel Roher & Caroline Lindy
Performed by Daniel Roher & Caroline Lindy

The History of Concrete (Magnolia Pictures)
Written by John Wilson
Performed by John Wilson

Lorne (Focus Features)
Written by Morgan Neville, Alan Lowe, Jake Hostetter
Performed by Chris Parnell

Nuisance Bear (Mubi)
Written by Mike Tunalaaq Gibbons
Performed by Mike Tunalaaq Gibbons

Rehearsals for a Revolution (Sony Pictures Classics)
Written by Pegah Ahangarani
Performed by Pegah Ahangarani

Remake (Music Box Films)
Written by Ross McElwee
Performed by Ross McElwee

I'm waiting until I hear all the narration from the trailers before making my pick in this category.

Follow over the jump for the categories I covered in 'The Food That Built America,' '30 for 30,' and other nominees at the Critics Choice Documentary Awards for World Food Day and National Sports Day.

'The Food That Built America,' '30 for 30,' and other nominees at the Critics Choice Documentary Awards for World Food Day and National Sports Day

I told my readers to "Stay tuned for the nominees of this year's Critics Choice Documentary Awards." Since today is World Food Day, I'm featuring the one category with food nominees.

BEST ONGOING DOCUMENTARY SERIES

30 for 30 (ESPN)
American Masters (PBS)
America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders (Netflix)
The Food That Built America (History)
Hazardous History with Henry Winkler (History)
Independent Lens (PBS)
Untold (Netflix)

30 for 30 has won this award four years in a row, so it's my pick to repeat. That works for today also being National Sports Day, as does the nomination of America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders, but I chose this category for The Food That Built America. In addition, American Masters includes chefs among the artists and performers it profiles, including Marcella Hazan last year, and Independent Lens has featured documentaries about food, including King Corn, which my students can watch for extra credit.

Speaking of my students, they watched Food, Inc. 2 this week. As I wrote on Talk Like A Pirate Day, I plan on writing a guide to answers to Food, Inc. 2 worksheet on National Food Day, but I'm linking to the entries now as a preview of coming attractions: Think about the fast food workers on National Fast Food Day, Vox explains 'The salmon dilemma', and New guidelines flip the food pyramid on its head. My students and I will go over the answers next week in lab, then I'll write the entry for anyone who missed class.

Follow over the jump as I shift gears from food to sports.

'The Bizarre Case of the Tully Monster' and other SciShow paleontology videos for National Fossil Day

Happy National Fossil Day! I'm celebrating with three SciShow videos about fossil organisms, beginning with yesterday's The Bizarre Case of the Tully Monster.

What is the Tully Monster? It might be a vertebrate, or it might not, but scientists have unable to agree for 70 years.

The first time I saw the Tully Monster, it was as a painting on the side of a U-Haul as the Illinois State Fossil. Wooster College has the image.


That's an unusual claim to fame. Since then, I've been curious about it, so of course I featured this video today. As for it being either a chordate or a mollusk, well, it would be even weirder than a conodont as a chordate and among the weirdest mollusks.

Speaking of weird mollusks, the next video declares Ancient Octopuses Were MUCH Bigger Than We Thought.

The Cretaceous Period is famous for enormous ocean-dwelling beasts. New research shows it boasted the biggest octopuses, and maybe the biggest invertebrates, of all time.

Hosted by: Savannah Geary (they/them)

Yikes! And I thought the Mesozoic oceans, particularly during the Cretaceous, were dangerous and scary enough. Oh, and the Tully Monster makes a cameo here.

The final video describes a fossil mystery even bigger, literally, than the Tully Monster, Those Ancient Giant Fungi Weren’t Fungi After All.

400 million years ago, Prototaxites might have towered high above all other terrestrial life. Ever since its discovery, we've been trying to figure out what this massive ancient organism could possibly have been. For a while the leading theory was that it was a fungus, but recent studies suggest Prototaxites might have been something we've never seen before...

Hosted by: Savannah Geary (they/them)

I showed a PBS Eons video about Prototaxites to my organismal biology students as an example of ancient fungus. If I were to ever teach that class again, I'd have to remove it. Good thing I'm retiring!

That's a wrap for today's paleontology holiday. Stay tuned for a musical post featuring both Randy Rainbow and the Marsh Family. Sing, dance, and laugh so we won't cry.

PBS Terra asks 'This Hurricane Should NEVER Have Happened… So How Did It?' Plus National Metric Day

I got off to a late start today and have hurricanes on my mind, so I'm sharing PBS Terra asking This Hurricane Should NEVER Have Happened… So How Did It?

For some reason, hurricanes are terrified of South America. In fact, as long as we’ve been keeping track, it’s only EVER been hit by ONE! Hurricane Catarina was the hurricane that, according to meteorology, never should have happened. So how did it? On this episode of Weathered, we take a tour of hurricane regions around the world to answer that question. And we find out what Catarina can teach us about how hurricanes really work, and how they’re changing.

Catarina features in An Inconvenient Truth as a possible example of climate change affecting hurricanes, typhoons, cyclones, and tropical storms: "Explain how the 2004-2005 hurricane seasons fit with predictions based on global warming." That no hurricane has formed in the South Atlantic since shows that it was most likely a fluke and may have nothing to do with climate change. That doesn't detract from what Maiya May and other meteorologist learned from it nor from the other predictions, that hurricanes will get stronger and rising sea levels will increase the amount of storm surge, making coastal flooding worse. That's the answer to a question I ask in Chasing Ice, which replaced An Inconvenient Truth: "What effect will rising sea level have on hurricanes and typhoons?" California is seeing that right now as a result of El Niño amplifying the waves of Tropical Storm Rachel, something I'll mention to my students next week.

Speaking of my students, I also teach them the metric system, which reminds me that today is NATIONAL METRIC DAY | October 10th - National Day Calendar.

October 10th is National Metric Day!
Marlo Anderson tells us some history and benefits of the metric system.

I'm recycling what I wrote in Discovery News and I rant in favor of the metric system for my reaction.

In my Environmental Science class, the lab I run is one to introduce my students to the metric system, which many of my students struggle with. In fact, their issues with it are such that I tell my students a joke about it. "There are only three groups of students in community college who understand the metric system, the science nerds, the foreign students, and the drug dealers." That never fails to get a laugh.

My job would be a lot easier and I could cover something else if the United States fully adopted the metric system.

My joke has changed a little over the past 13 years, as some gamers also understand the metric system thanks to their games using it, but my opinion hasn't.

That's a wrap for today. Stay tuned for the winners of Outstanding Reality Competition Program and related categories as the Sunday entertainment feature on National Coming Out Day followed by Indigenous Peoples' Day.

BBC and DW News on the 'Godzilla El Niño'

For today's "short evergreen educational entry," I'm revisiting PBS Terra and Vox explain the forecast 'super El Niño'. I begin with two videos from BBC News, starting with 'Strongest El Niño of the century' is coming. Should we be scared?

El Niño is a natural weather pattern that begins in the Pacific Ocean.

The event developing in 2026 could be the strongest in living memory, according to the Met Office.

But what does it mean, and what will it affect?

The answer to "should we be scared" is yes, at least a little. Calling it a "Godzilla" El Niño will just reinforce that feeling.

The above segment built upon El Niño set to be 'strongest in living memory', says Met Office.

The El Niño event that is developing over the Pacific Ocean is likely to be the strongest in living memory, the Met Office has warned.

The powerful natural climate phenomenon pushes up global temperatures and can increase the risks of extreme weather.

Added to the effects of human-induced climate change, the Met Office is warning that it is "very likely" to mean 2027 is the hottest year on record globally.

There is growing evidence that weather patterns around the world.

Hearing about all the effects El Niño is having on food supply and food prices reminds me of two of Commoner's Laws, "There is no free lunch" and "Everything is connected to everything else." I'll try to remember this when I teach Environmental Science one last time beginning next month.

Speaking of stories I tell my students, looking at the graph showing the effects of El Niño and La Niña on global temperature also reminds me of a question I ask in the worksheet for Chasing Ice, "How is increasing greenhouse gases like using performance-enhancing steroids?" They make extreme events more frequent and stronger. While climate change doesn't make El Niño more frequent, it is making the natural disasters it causes more frequent. Also, climate change is making El Niño at least appear stronger and El Niño is definitely increasing temperatures.

DW News features more expert commentary in A historic El Nino is forming. Here's why scientists are worried.

The UK's Met Office says this year's El Nino could unleash extreme weather, the likes of which the world has not seen in a century. The results could be record-breaking global temperatures in 2027 and a raft of natural disasters. DW's Sarah Kelly talks about the weather phenomenon with Liz Bentley, Chief Executive of the Royal Meteorological Society in the UK and President of the European Meteorological Society.

The graph shows that the Pacific sea surface temperatures are already 2^oC above normal and could reach between 3 and 4^oC higher than average by the end of the year. Will that be stronger than 1877? Maybe.

All of the above examined the weather globally with a focus on Europe. What about the United States? PBS Terra covers some of that in What El Niño Predicts for Snowfall This Winter.

With El Niño officially here, and predicted to get stronger, let's see how it's going to affect our snow forecast for this winter! Weathered host Maiya May breaks it down.

The pattern predicts less snow here in Michigan and more snow in the mountains of California and the arid Southwest. That's good news for both places, so not everything about El Niño is bad.

That's a wrap for today. Stay tuned for another brief evergreen educational entry tomorrow.

'Secrets of the Bees' for World Honey Bee Day

Happy World Honey Bee Day! I'm celebrating by sharing Secrets of the Bees | Official Trailer | Narrated by Bertie Gregory | National Geographic.

National Geographic Explorer Bertie Gregory explores the extraordinary lives of bees — among the planet’s most important animals. Over three years, special cameras opened a rare window into a single hive, revealing their hidden world. With more than 20,000 bee species pollinating one-third of the world’s food, this series uncovers their astonishing architecture and intelligence, unlocking their secrets.

This is part of the same series that includes Secrets of the Whales, Secrets of the Elephants, Secrets of the Octopus, and Secrets of the Penguins, the last of which won two News & Documentary Emmy Awards in May. Narrator Bertie Gregory mentioned that heritage in the ABC News interview 'Secrets of the Bees' reveals the genius nature of bees and their impact on Earth.

National Geographic explorer and narrator of "Secrets of the Bees" Bertie Gregory talks about the new miniseries "Secrets of the Bees," streaming on Disney+ and Hulu on April 1.

Gregory did a good job of explaining the series, which I expect will be nominated at next year's News & Doc Emmy Awards, but he'd better. That his series is on National Geographic and he's promoting it on ABC News is not a coincidence. Disney owns both. As I wrote most recently in 'The Mythology of the Backrooms Explained' by Storied plus 'Backrooms' box office, it's not just news value that's driving the story. I can say the same about Inside Nat Geo's 'Secret of the Bees' from Good Morning America, an ABC News program.

The new series uses cutting-edge technology to reveal the world of bees in a whole new way.

I'm looking forward to blogging about this show two or three more times, when it's nominated for Outstanding Nature Documentary and Outstanding Cinematography - Documentary next spring, on World Bee Day, and maybe when and if it wins an Emmy or two. In the meantime, I can recommend the series to my students. Welcome to blogging as professional development.

That's a wrap for today's biodiversity holiday. Stay tuned for a tale of the Retail Apocalypse as the Sunday entertainment feature.

Elephants as ecosystem engineers for World Elephant Day

Happy World Elephant Day! I found two videos for today that illustrate a point I make about elephants, that they are ecosystem engineers, foundation species that not only maintain an ecosystem, like keystone species such as sea otters, but can re-establish ecosystems. Watch World Elephant Day 2026 from American Humane Society.

Take elephants out of Africa, and the landscape itself begins to change. Their absence would be felt far beyond the herd, in the forests they help renew, the water sources they uncover and the habitats their movement creates for countless other species. Elephants are not simply part of Africa’s biodiversity; they are one of the forces that help sustain it. This World Elephant Day, help us protect these extraordinary animals and the living landscapes shaped by their presence.

India’s Elephants: Protecting a Legacy | World Elephant Day 2026 from India's Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change makes the same point.

India is home to more than 60% of the world’s Asian elephants—a distinction that comes with a deep responsibility.

From 33 Elephant Reserves and more than 150 identified elephant corridors to science-led monitoring and mitigation measures across 77 critical railway stretches, India continues to strengthen efforts for elephant conservation.

Technology, scientific research, frontline forest teams and local communities are all playing an important role in creating safer landscapes for elephants and people.

On World Elephant Day 2026, we celebrate India’s elephants and reaffirm our commitment to conserving the habitats and landscapes they call home.

That's a wrap for this story I tell my students on a biodiversity holiday. Stay tuned as I return to awards show coverage tomorrow.

SciShow recounts 'The Time England Ran Out of Bones,' a story of phosphorus

Usually, I blog about entertainment to take a break from serious subjects. I can't be all DOOM all the time. Today, I'm taking a break from awards shows to share SciShow and Hank Green telling the tale of The Time England Ran Out of Bones.

Britain's population exploded during the Industrial Revolution. To sustain that growth, they needed a lot of food and, therefore, a lot of fertilizer. Their ports were clogged with boatloads of imported poop and bones from all over the world, until they discovered a rock that was the best fertilizer of all. Ever since, our entire global food system has precariously teetered on access to a precious fossil resource: phosphorus.

This video serves as a companion to SciShow examines ammonia, a molecule that has fed billions through fertilizer, which I'm recycling as part of my response.

A fact I repeat to my environmental science students is that synthetic fertilizers are responsible for growing enough crops to feed at least one billion people and are the number one reason for increased crop production. It turns out I may have been understating their importance...fertilizers have helped feed billions. The BBC went farther, quoting Svein Tore Holsether, head of fertilizer company Yara, reporting that "He pointed out that half of the world's food production is dependent on fertiliser." That was in the context of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, about which Holsether told the BBC "Putin has weaponised energy and they're weaponising food as well." Yikes! That's a topic that deserves its own post.

This isn't that post. Darn.

SciShow did make up for a deficit I noticed three years ago.

SciShow didn't even mention the effects of excess fertilizer washing into the environment and causing eutrophication. That's a word I've never used on this blog before, which means I need to write a post about that, too.

Hank and SciShow at least included this effect as an result of (over)fertilizing crops. Count this as a down payment on that promise.

Hank pointed out that the current major sources of phosphorus are nonrenewable and will run out. That's something I've told my students, but it's not going to be fixed until we approach the production peak, much like petroleum. That might happen as soon as the middle of this century. I might not see that happen, but my students will, so they're the ones who will have to deal with it. In the meantime, they can watch this video and turn in a summary for extra credit. Welcome to blogging as professional development.

'Ontario is Getting Taller' and other features of glaciation from SciShow

I'm running behind on grading papers and not feeling like writing the next installment of the Critics Choice Super Awards today, so change of plans, I'm embedding SciShow's Ontario is Getting Taller instead.

Tens of thousands of years ago, large portions of North America and Europe were blanketed in ice. Although these glaciers have been gone a long time, they continue to shape our landscapes in some surprising ways.

There is also an AI summary.

Tom Lum explores how ancient glaciers fundamentally reshaped the Earth's landscape. From the formation of majestic fjords and the fertile soil of the American Midwest to ongoing geological shifts like isostatic rebound, this episode examines the enduring, transformative impact these massive ice sheets continue to have on our planet today.

I just finished lecturing and testing on glaciers and glacial features or I'd show this to my geology students. Maybe next semester, which should be my last.

I'm still going to blog about the Super Awards, so stay tuned.

'The Tale of Silyan' vs 'The Librarians' for Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking at the Emmy Awards

As I promised yesterday, I'm beginning my examination of this year's Primetime and Creative Arts Emmy Awards nominees today. Unlike past years, I'm not starting with the nominees for Outstanding Commercial. Don't worry, I'll get to the category. Instead, I'm kicking off the series by examining the nominees for Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking, of which there are only two, The Librarians (PBS) and The Tale of Silyan (Nat Geo). Watch their trailers, beginning with THE LIBRARIANS | Official Trailer.

America’s war on books is more than a war on words. THE LIBRARIANS, a new feature documentary from Academy Award® nominee and Peabody Award winner Kim A. Snyder.

In Texas, the Krause List targets 850 books focused on race and LGBTQIA+ stories – triggering sweeping book bans across the U.S. at an unprecedented rate. As tensions escalate, librarians connect the dots from heated school and library board meetings nationwide to lay bare the underpinnings of extremism fueling the censorship efforts. Despite facing harassment, threats, and laws aimed at criminalizing their work – the librarians’ rallying cry for freedom to read is a chilling cautionary tale.

That's powerful and an example of why I pay attention to awards shows; they bring films and shows to my attention that are worth watching for the subject matter.

Next, The Tale of Silyan | Official Trailer | National Geographic Documentary Films.

A down-on-his luck farmer develops a unique bond with a wounded white stork as he nurses the bird back to health.

This is a film I can recommend to my environmental science students, as it's about both wildlife and farming, two topics in that class. Welcome to blogging as professional development.

Between the two, I think The Tale of Silyan is the favorite. First, it has a second Emmy nomination for Outstanding Cinematography for a Nonfiction Program, which I'll examine over the jump, while The Librarians has only one. Second, it earned a nomination for Best Documentary at the Critics Choice Documentary Awards in addition to Best Cinematography. The Librarians also earned a nomination at the Critics Choice Documentary Awards for Best Political Documentary, but not Best Documentary. Third, The Tale of Silyan earned nominations at the Film Independent Spirit Awards and PGA Awards and wins at the Cinema Eye Honors Awards and Golden Trailer Awards. Yes, the trailer I embedded is a winner in its own right for Best Documentary Subject. Meanwhile, The Librarians earned nominations at the Satellite Awards and Cinema Eye Honors Awards. When the two films earned nominations at the same awards shows, The Tale of Silyan won awards and more and better nominations. Gold Derby hasn't created a predictions page for the Creative Arts Emmy Awards yet, but I don't have to wait until they do; I can tell which nominee is more likely to win, especially since this is a juried award. The experts will prefer the craft and storytelling of The Tale of Silyan over the subject matter of The Librarians.

Follow over the jump for The Tale of Silyan's other nomination.

Be Smart describes 'The New Kind of Heat Humans Can’t Handle'

I promised a climate post today, so I'm sharing Be Smart describing The New Kind of Heat Humans Can’t Handle.

It's getting hot in here… can we survive it?
...
I pushed my body to the edge in a climate & sports research lab to discover what extreme heat really does to us. Why humidity, not just temperature, can make heat deadly, and how climate change and city design are making dangerous heat more common.

The climate part of the video harkens back to PBS Terra explains why 'America’s Disaster-Free Zone Has a Dark Secret'.

I guessed...that the dark secret was the heat...[My] guess was dead on. That's no surprise, as I blogged about Phoenix being the hottest city in the U.S. in 2021 and mentioned its record heat in 2023 twice. What is surprising is that heat waves don't count as federal natural disasters covered by FEMA. The commenters found the reason dismaying: "You don't get disaster declarations for mortality. You only do it for economics." Ecurewitz responded "That’s the most American statement ever." RandomAngle9 commented "The fact that heat doesn't 'qualify' as a disaster because it doesn't destroy buildings, only people, says everything about how we value human life in policy."

This part is something I can show to my environmental science students. The other part is the physiology of disposing of excess heat. That would be useful to Human Structure and Function students. Unfortunately, I don't plan on teaching that class ever again. So much for blogging as professional development, just personal development. Just the same, I hope my readers find it as interesting as I did.

That's a wrap for today's brief educational entry I can share in August. Stay tuned for another post I can share next month tomorrow.

A late National Megalodon Day

A belated happy Megalodon Day! I feel I should have observed it yesterday. It probably would have been more fun than writing 'Secrets of the Penguins' wins two News & Doc Emmy Awards, although that was satisfying. I begin with National Day Calendar celebrating NATIONAL MEGALODON DAY | June 15.

Don't even think about getting a bigger boat! Let us know in the comments the largest fish you ever caught.

When Marlo Anderson mentioned that a Danish scientist had figured out that the "dragon's tongues" were really giant sharks teeth in 1666, I thought "that has to be Nicolaus Steno." It was.

In 1667, Danish naturalist Nicolaus Steno made a discovery that forever changed the way we viewed the oceans forever. The fossils were thought to have been the petrified tongues of dragons or snakes, but what Nicolaus realised was the truth was equally, if not far more terrifying. These strange objects were actually the fossilized teeth of the largest shark to have roamed the oceans, the megalodon.

I plan on lecturing on Steno's contributions to geology on Thursday and I will include this factoid. One of my students is really into sharks and he'll enjoy it.

I have more material, but I feel like being a good environmentalist and conserving my resources for next year. May I remember to celebrate on time then. In the meantime, stay tuned for the News & Doc Emmy Awards won by Underdogs for Wayback Wednesday.

PBS Terra shows 'We Saw What AI Data Centers Don't Want You to See'

Today's brief educational entry I can share in June features Overview on PBS Terra showing We Saw What AI Data Centers Don't Want You to See.

We investigated one of the world’s largest AI data centers, using thermal drone footage to reveal the hidden pollution powering the AI boom. As companies race to build the future of artificial intelligence, residents and experts warn that fossil fuels, secrecy, and weak regulation may be putting communities at risk.

I reproduced my usual warning about AI in TODAY reveals TIME's people of the year for 2025.

I'm repeating what I wrote about the Economics Nobel Prize in Science, peace, economics, and literature winners for Nobel Prize Day 2025.

This award is as much about technology as it is about economics. May it mean that AI be a net benefit for the economy. Right now, it looks like it's doing more destruction than creation.

If the projections are correct, it will be doing both, with 20% of people losing their current jobs while quintupling GDP. Yikes! That's an outcome the residents of Richistan would approve of. As for the rest of us, I'll repeat what I wrote a dozen years ago in Robots are coming for our jobs, "the loss of jobs to robots will be the major effect of the Singularity, not everyone becoming cyborgs or the machines enslaving or killing off humanity." It's not like we weren't warned.

That would be an end result. Joe Hanson is showing that getting there is already a risk in terms of increased consumption of land, water, materials to make the data centers and the power plants to run them, and natural gas, as well as increased production of waste in the form of greenhouse gases and other air pollutants. It reminds me of an equation I teach my environmental science students to describe environmental impact: "I=P*A*T, where I is impact, P is population, A is affluence, and T is technology." A.I., or at least the data centers to support it, are becoming an example of a technology that supports affluence but increases the impact of the population on the environment. I prefer technology that decreases the impact of an affluent population by being more efficient. Data centers aren't that, not until they use sustainable energy.

Overview's video is a follow-up to Floodlight News reporting We Caught Elon Musk’s AI Company Defying Federal Law two months ago.

Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company, xAI, is fueling its data centers with unpermitted gas turbines, according to a Floodlight visual investigation. Thermal drone footage captured in late January 2026 shows xAI running the unpermitted turbines at its custom-built power plant in Southaven, Miss., nearly two weeks after the Environmental Protection Agency reiterated that doing so requires a state permit in advance. The ad hoc gas plant's sole task is to power the data center behind Grok and an example of AI's growing reliance on fossil fuels. Investigative Producer Evan Simon breaks down the investigation and what the findings could mean for the AI buildout occurring across the country.

**UPDATE** Mississippi regulators approved xAI's permit application to run 41 gas powered turbines at its Southaven gas plant on 3/10/26. The decision comes despite heavy pushback from local community members and will result in the creation of one of Mississippi's largest fossil fuel power plants.

This got me to subscribe to the Floodlight News YouTube channel, "The only U.S. newsroom with the specific mission to investigate climate polluters." Expect to see more from them.

Another lesson I teach my students is about the principles for environmental policy. Two of them are human rights, in this case the right to clean air and an environment not permeated by harmful noise, and public participation. The United States is supposed to be a democracy within a republic, where the people decide and the government represents the people. The Floodlight News video shows that the way data centers are being installed and operated respects neither. That's also the point of yesterday's MS NOW video, Erin Brockovich on AI data centers: 'People aren't being heard'.

Americans on both sides of the aisle have found common ground opposing construction of AI data centers in their communities. In Texas, one lifelong conservative voter told MSNOW reporter Josh Einiger that the issue could flip the Senate. And longtime consumer advocate Erin Brockovich joins to lay out what she's learned since she started tracking the issue.

I'm surprised I've never mentioned Erin Brockovich in 15+ years of blogging. It's about time I did.

That's a wrap for today. I'm sure I'll have more to say on the matter. In the meantime, stay tuned for the Sunday entertainment feature.

'The Strike' leads Outstanding Crime and Justice Documentary at tonight's News & Doc Emmy Awards for Throwback Thursday

I closed 'Love + War' at the News & Doc Emmy Awards for Wayback Wednesday by telling my readers to "Stay tuned for the final entry about documentary nominees at the News & Doc Emmy Awards" today. I begin with the leading nominee for Outstanding Crime and Justice Documentary, The Stike.

"The Strike" is a feature documentary that tells the story of a generation of California men who endured decades of solitary confinement and, against all odds, launched the largest hunger strike in U.S. history.

Directed and produced by JoeBill Muñoz and Lucas Guilkey.

This is my pick to win this category, as it has the most nominations. The rest of the field has only this one nomination. I'm not embedding their trailers, as I am covering the remaining categories instead.
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Only one nominee for Outstanding Short Documentary has a second nomination, Chasing Time | Official Trailer | ALT EFF 2025.

Over 15 years, Chasing Time follows James Balog’s Extreme Ice Survey, capturing glaciers vanishing and providing visual evidence of climate change. Reuniting with the Emmy-winning Chasing Ice team, it concludes their epic work, reflecting on time, mortality, and intergenerational hope.

I would pick this sequel to Chasing Ice to win just because I'm a fan of the original and would recommend it to my students. So is the first documentary I'm featuring for the next category.


The nominee for Outstanding Business and Economic Documentary I'm recommending to my students is Made in Ethiopia.

When a massive Chinese industrial park transforms rural Ethiopia, three women, a director, a farmer, and a factory worker, find their lives entwined in the promises and costs of progress. Filmed over four years, Made in Ethiopia reveals China’s complex impact on Africa and a nation’s struggle between tradition, modernity, and survival.

This video may not be explicitly environmental, but it is very much about sustainable development, a topic my environmental science course examines. Welcome to blogging as professional development.

I'm not sure it will win. Instead I think it will be one of the next two whose trailers I'm embedding, beginning with BRIBE, INC. (2024) - Official Trailer | JOLT.

BRIBE, INC. is a true story exposing the shady underpinnings that fuel global commerce: corruption and lots of money.

In the shadows of the global oil industry the Ahsani family ran Unaoil with jet-set style and total impunity. Until journalist Nick McKenzie encountered a whistleblower with enough insider intel to take the whole gang down.

In a manhunt spanning the globe Nick untangles the Ahsanis’ web of deceit and corruption exposing them as the grubby crime family they are. As the plot twists and turns will justice be served?

First, it's about oil, so it's also germane to my environmental science and geology students. Second, it looks like fun. Third, this could just as easily have been an investigative or crime nominee. The same is true of the other nominee that caught my eye, CAN'T LOOK AWAY (2025) - Official Trailer | JOLT.

Can't Look Away is a gripping documentary that exposes the dark side of social media and its devastating impact on young users. Directors Matthew O'Neill and Perri Peltz take viewers inside the high-stakes legal battle to hold tech companies accountable for the harm caused by their negligence and dangerous algorithms. Based on investigative reporting by Bloomberg News' Olivia Carville, the film follows the Social Media Victims Law Center fighting for justice for families whose children suffered tragic consequences linked to social media use. As families seek justice, Can't Look Away underscores the urgent need for industry reform and serves as both a wake-up call about the dangers of social media—and a call to action to protect future generations.

I don't have to look at the other two trailers; I think this is the winner.

Just for completeness, I have one last category.


I have no idea which one will win and I've embedded enough trailers for today. Follow over the jump for the most read entries about entertainment from the back catalog during the 15th year of Crazy Eddie's Motie News that I missed in 'Andor' earns a Hugo nomination for Revenge of the Sixth on Wayback Wednesday.

SciShow and Hank Green are thinking about domestication

I promised a brief evergreeen educational entry today, so I'm examining three videos on a common theme from SciShow and Hank Green, beginning with Something Strange Is Happening to Raccoons.

You might have heard about a viral study claiming raccoons are domesticating themselves. There's a lot more to the story, though, and it might help us understand what domestication is in the first place.

Raccoons are just taking the first step to being domesticated, which is increased tolerance for humans. That's advantageous to them as wild animals living in urban and suburban areas. They're not alone in adapting to people; "birds change the pitch of their songs [and] city mice have larger brains than country mice" as I first noted nine years ago. Just the same, maybe people, beginning with North Americans, will have raccoons as pets in future centuries. Not now, the raccoons aren't ready.

The above video came a week after Humans Didn't Make Dogs Weird.

Conventional wisdom holds that the huge variety of dogs is just the result of humans breeding them to be that way. But new research suggests that dogs have been weird from the start.

Both natural and artificial selection have to work on pre-existing material. One can't just will a trait from nothing. Even transgenic organisms, like Colossal Bioscience's dire wolves, have to get their traits from somewhere, such as DNA from subfossil remains. Dogs are only so morphologically diverse now because they were already morphologically diverse in the past.

Speaking of dogs, Hank Green, who runs the studio that produces SciShow (also Bizarre Beasts and PBS Eons) uploaded The Weirdest Thing About Dogs (and Cats (and Horses)).

Hank Green explores the evolutionary history behind the unique facial muscles that allow dogs to communicate so expressively with humans. This examination considers how various domestic animals have developed specialized traits to better convey their internal states and bond with their human companions.

Yeah, that's an AI summary, but it works better than the video description Hank wrote. Some of the traits of domesticated mammals are ones that evolved for the benefit of the animal, not bred into it purely for the benefit of humans. This is especially true of dogs' eyebrows, which we like, but which help the dog. This shows our relationship is a mutualism.

I'm lecturing about evolution in my biodiversity class, so I might be able to use one of these videos. Even if I don't, I plan on incorporating the information from them next week. Welcome to blogging as professional development.

That's a wrap for today. Stay tuned for the Sunday entertainment feature.

PopCultureDetective asks 'Who Framed Public Transit in LA?'

I saw Judge Doom and the Red Car pop up in my most read posts for the day on Sunday, which reminded me that I had newer videos on the topic in my blogging ideas list. The most recent is PopCultureDetective asking Who Framed Public Transit in LA?

The movie “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?” references a real-life conspiracy by automotive companies to destroy public transit in Los Angeles and elsewhere.

This video provides the answer to one of the questions in Environmental Science version of my worksheet for The End of Suburbia.

6. How did the auto companies contribute to the demise of streetcars and the rise of cars and roads as the primary transportation system?

Here's what I wrote back in 2014 from the Disney Wikia.

Cloverleaf is based on the real-life National City Lines, a front company controlled by major American automotive and oil companies such as General Motors, which acquired streetcar and electric rail lines across the United States and replaced them with bus lines in order to monopolize the sales of buses. In the early 1950s, the opening of several new freeways in the Los Angeles area led to declining ridership, which led Pacific Electric to shut down several of its rail lines. While Pacific Electric never fell into the hands of NCL, Pacific Electric's rail service was sold off in 1953 to Metropolitan Coach Lines, a company which, like NCL, wanted to convert all rail service to bus service as quickly as possible. More lines shut down in 1954 and 1955, as freeways such as Interstate 5 neared completion.

Too bad I've stopped showing The End of Suburbia to my students now that I'm showing Treasures of the Earth: Power. Of course, I never completely retire any of my material; the students can still watch The End of Suburbia on their own time for extra credit.

Treehouse Detective added another element in 'Who Framed Roger Rabbit' is based on a true story.


 Yes, the serious part of Who Framed Roger Rabbit? was originally meant to be a sequel to Chinatown. That's wild, but I first found out about that trivia and more when I watched The Complicated History of Who Framed Roger Rabbit by Yesterworld Entertainment.

A Deep Dive Documentary into the History of ‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit’. From the original version that was cancelled, the production problems of the one that came to be, and the fascinating production stories of one of the most ambitious films ever made.

Based on Yesterworld Mark's telling, it sounds like the movie was better than the book.

That's a wrap for today. Stay tuned to see if I return to the News & Doc Emmy Awards for Wayback Wednesday.

USA Today warns 'The Atlantic current is weakening and possibly headed for collapse'

Today's short educational entry consists of USA Today warning The Atlantic current is weakening and possibly headed for collapse.

A large-scale and delicate system of ocean currents that has been active for millions of years and that’s responsible for our warm climate is in danger of collapse due to climate change. This is according to a new study published in April in the journal Science Advances. Shane Elipot, a physical oceanographer at the University of Miami and one of the authors of the study, joins The Excerpt to share his findings.

Very little of this should be news to my readers. I've been warning about the AMOC (Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation) collapsing since 2022 and asking about the effects of the Greenland ice sheet melting on ocean circulation and global climate since 2013. What is news is USA Today producing a video about it. The sixth largest newspaper in the U.S. by subscribers is paying attention to climate change!

It turns out that's not as new as I first thought. It's that the YouTube algorithm finally began presenting me with USA Today's videos on the topic. Actually looking for the climate change on USA Today's channel retrieved Climate change: How US cities are already feeling the effects | JUST THE FAQS from 2022.

Wildfires, hurricanes and floods: Climate change already hitting US, according to new UN study... A new United Nations study shows climate change is no longer a hypothetical of the future. Here's how it's already affecting regions across the country and what you can do to prepare.

I'm lecturing on climate change today, and I might just replace one of my videos with this one. If so, welcome to blogging as professional development.

That's a wrap for today's entry. I have some music planned for Tuneful Tuesday, so stay tuned to see if I follow through.

Howtown explains why 'The Moon's origin story doesn't add up' for Throwback Thursday

Happy Throwback Thursday! Today's evergreen entry is Howtown explaining why The Moon's origin story doesn't add up.

How do we know where the moon came from? In this episode, Howtown dives into the giant impact hypothesis (the least bad theory of lunar origin) and the growing evidence that the story of Theia may be more complicated than the textbook version. We explore how scientists measure the Moon’s distance, mass, and angular momentum, why Earth’s Moon is so unusually large compared with other moons in the solar system, and how Apollo moon rocks transformed the debate over the origin of the Moon. Along the way, we unpack Robin Canup’s simulations, synestia and multiple-impact, evection resonance, and the “isotope crisis”: why Moon rocks are chemically almost identical to Earth despite models suggesting the Moon should be made mostly from an impactor. From lunar eclipses and amateur astronomy to Apollo samples, South Pole missions, Theia, Artemis, Chang’e, and the search for mantle rocks, this is a deep look at moon formation, planetary science, and how scientists reconstruct what happened more than 4 billion years ago.

The video may not be that old, but its subject matter sure is! It's also about a story I tell my students, so I consider this to be blogging as professional development.

I covered the most read entries containing content from Howtown last year in SciShow explains 'Why Geologists Lick Petrified Poop,' a Saturday science special. Follow over the jump for a share of a post featuring a Howtown video that made a splash on social media.

Shane Campbell-Staton says 'I Visited America's Poison Sea' for Wayback Wednesday

Happy Wayback Wednesday! I'm kicking off today's retrospective with Human Footprint on PBS Terra's I Visited America's Poison Sea.

Why does America have a toxic sea… and how did it get there?

The Salton Sea was once one of California’s most vibrant tourist hotspots, a beach teeming with visitors and wildlife. Today it’s a shrinking, toxic lake at the center of a water crisis impacting 40 million people across the Southwest. What happened?

Shane Campbell-Staton visits the Imperial Valley to examine how a desert transformed into America’s vegetable garden, but at serious environmental and social costs. He meets Alex Jack, a third-generation farmer pioneering water-saving techniques to sustain his family’s farm, and Luis Olmedo, a community advocate fighting for the health and rights of migrant workers who harvest the valley’s crops.

The story of the Salton Sea reveals the harsh realities of scarce water, toxic pollution, and a system that doesn’t protect everyone equally. As new water regulations for the Colorado River loom in 2026, this pivotal moment demands a fresh approach to who controls this precious resource, and how it can be allocated more fairly.

I'm old enough to remember when the Salton Sea was the aquatic playground shown in the video and I find it sad that it is now too polluted to still be that. It's now become a place that fits what I wrote in John Oliver examines the UK elections: "One of my favorite sayings that I tell my students is 'no one, or in this case, no place, is completely useless; it can always be used as a bad example.'" It also serves as an example of three of Commoner's Laws, "Everything must go somewhere (There is no away)" for agricultural runoff, "There is no free lunch" for growing winter vegetables, and "Everything is connected to everything else" for water use. "Nature knows best?" We should be so lucky.

Follow over the jump for most read posts featuring clips from Human Footprint during the 15th year of Crazy Eddie's Motie News.

SciShow explains 'Why Geologists Lick Petrified Poop,' a Saturday science special

I'm revisiting PBS Terra and Howtown lick fossils, demonstrating Ig Nobel Prize winning science with SciShow explaining Why Geologists Lick Petrified Poop.

Fossilized poop might seem gross, but coprolites give us critical information about how animals lived millions of years ago.

Hosted by: Reid Reimers (he/him)

That was a fascinating survey of the information derived from coprolites, once I can recommend to my students, although I'm not going to show it to them. Just the same, welcome to blogging as professional development.

Since the SciShow video overlaps with a Howtown video I featured, follow over the jump for the most read entries containing content from Howtown last year.