2000 Science in Society Journalism Awards

Television

Jon Palfreman

“What’s Up With the Weather?”

The NOVA web site offers video download. A .pdf script of “What’s Up With the Weather?” is also available thanks to the generosity of Jon Palfreman and NOVA. The script is intended for non-commercial, educational purposes only.

Description

Jon Palfreman received his third Science in Society award for the television documentary "What’s Up with the Weather?" produced for Frontline and NOVA. The show first aired on WGBH-TV in Boston on April 18, 2000. Palfreman refused to paint global warming — arguably the most contentious global-scale science issue of our day — as a black and white problem. The show leads viewers step by step through the evidence to the key take-home points: that the carbon dioxide level is indeed rising, that we are affecting and accelerating that rise, and that our science can’t yet predict what the precise climatic outcome will be. More than just fact-laden voice overs and lush location videography, the program lays out the debate and sorts through the confusion without preaching or judging in what may be the best explanation of this topic to a lay audience in any medium to date.

Biography

Jon Palfremanis one of the few producers to work consistently for both PBS’s Nova and Frontline. A veteran science writer and producer for both British and American television, he has made more than 30 PBS documentaries, including the Peabody Award winning series, “The Machine that Changed the World,” and the Emmy winning PBS’s NOVA program, “Siamese Twins.”

In recent years Palfreman has specialized in complex and controversial stories on the intersection of science, politics, and law. These include the Frontline documentaries “Prisoners of Science,” a documentary about autism; “The Nicotine War"; “Currents of Fear,” which was about the alleged link between power lines and cancer; “Breast Implants on Trial,” which was about the silicon implant controversy; “Nuclear Reaction,” which was a critical analysis of America’s attitudes on nuclear energy; and “Last Battle of the Gulf War,” which examined Gulf War Syndrome.

Palfreman graduated from University College, London, with First Class Honors in Physics and has an M.S. degree in history and philosophy of science from Sussex University.

Science in Society Journalism Awards:
2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 | 2001 | 2000 | 1999 | 1998 | 1997 | 1996
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