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Last Updated on: 21st April 2025, 10:45 pm
Public awareness about climate change finally began bursting through the information blockade about 20 years ago, right around the time that National Geographic’s famous March of the Penguins series showcased the secret life of penguins, far from the view of ordinary humans. Now that Nat Geo is back with an even more intimate look at penguins, titled Secrets of the Penguins, it’s a good time to take stock of how public sentiment on climate change and sustainable technology is evolving.
Penguins And Climate Change
Secrets of the Penguins is not a climate change documentary, but it doesn’t have to be. Showing is telling. Penguins have become beloved ambassadors for climate action over the years, arguably even more so than the iconic polar bear. Alongside March of the Penguins, a growing number of other documentaries have enabled millions of people around the world to appreciate the story of life in regions that were once thought to be barren way stations.
Secrets of the Penguins is a three-parter narrated by Blake Lively. It premiered on April 20 on National Geographic, and streaming began on April 21 on Disney+ and Hulu. The Disney Channel will also re-air Episode 1 on Earth Day, Tuesday, April 22, at 8pm ET/7pm CT.
“Executive produced by National Geographic Explorer-at-Large and Academy Award®-winning filmmaker James Cameron and Emmy and BAFTA winners Ruth Roberts and Martin Williams from Talesmith, this latest installment in National Geographic’s Emmy-winning ‘Secrets of’ franchise takes viewers of all ages to the farthest corners of the world to witness penguin behaviors captured on film for the first time,” Nat Geo summarizes.
(Almost) Everybody Wants Climate Action
Over and above the impact of nature documentaries on public awareness looms the physical impact of actual events linked to climate change.
Citing information from NOAA, for example, the Chicago Council on Global Affairs notes that last year people in the US experienced a range of impacts linked to climate change, including 17 severe storms, four tropical cyclones, one wildfire, and two winter storms, resulting in 418 deaths and the loss of more than $1 billion.
On January 28, CCGA posted the results of a survey taken in November last year. “Most Americans—including a majority of Republicans—favor a range of measures to reverse or adapt to climate change,” reads the topline.
“Data from a November 15–17, 2024, Chicago Council on Global Affairs-Ipsos survey and the 2024 Chicago Council Survey (CCS), fielded June 21–July 1, 2024, finds broad public support for federal measures to reverse or adapt to the negative effects of climate change,” CCGA noted.
In a newly released survey of eligible voters in the US conducted last year, The Nature Conservancy found a striking level of support for nature-based measures that mitigate climate change. TNC found that 94% of US voters “support expanding strategies to protect, better manage and restore forests, grasslands, and wetlands to store more carbon and fight climate change.”
Climate Change And Technology Solutions
The emerging public consensus on climate change begins to break down when people are asked if richer nations should provide more climate adaptation aid to poorer nations, particularly those most at risk from climate impacts.
The public opinion gap is further complicated when social media is involved. The Yale Program on Climate Change Communication, for example, just released a new public opinion tracking tool that deploys a Meta-supported survey of Facebook users. In the US, 75% believe that climate change is happening and 58% believe that government policies should address it, but only 38% believe that climate change is cause by human activities. The results may say more about Facebook’s ability to circulate non-factual information than Meta may have intended, but there you have it.
Regardless of what anyone believes, though, money talks. On both the individual and corporate level, cleantech is providing new opportunities to save on energy costs while improving reliability and resiliency, to say nothing of saving polar bears and penguins, too.
Electric vehicles, for example, were all but non-existent on the roads of the US back in 2005. Now they are commonplace among both commercial fleet owners and the general public, with part of the allure being the opportunity to use the EV battery as a zero emission emergency generator when the power goes out. New long-range, solid-state EV batteries and the growing popularity of EV battery swapping also indicate that the EV trend is a permanent one, regardless of an abrupt shift in US policy.
America Loves Clean Power
Beyond saving irreplaceable habitats and avoiding the cost of catastrophic climate change, the bottom line case for clean power is also in evidence among leading US firms including the automakers Ford and GM as well as high-profile retailers like Walmart and McDonald’s, to name just a couple. In addition, data center stakeholders are banking on the relatively short timeline of wind and solar construction to support their need for speed.
Local ratepayers seeking relief from high utility bills are among those pushing the clean power envelope, climate change or not, through the booming community solar movement. Other vast but previously untapped reservoirs of renewable energy are also coming on board, in the form of next-generation geothermal energy as well as wave and tidal energy.
As for the future, technology that was once confined to the pages of sci-fi novels is finding its way into the mainstream. The idea of shooting solar arrays out into space and beaming the energy back to Earth is one example. Synthesizing liquid fuels from sunlight, water, and air is another.
Climate Change Is Not The Only Problem
Circling back around to Secrets of The Penguin, climate change is far from the only awareness-raising focus of nature documentaries. For example, last month, the African penguin, which is featured in the Nat Geo series, was the subject of a landmark court ruling aimed at saving the species from decline related to loss of sardines and anchovies in its food supply.
“The court has imposed no-fishing zones around the breeding colonies to prevent so-called purse seine fishing vessels, which use large nets, from catching sardines and anchovies for the next 10 years,” BBC News reported on March 18, noting that scientists have warned that the species was declining by 8% every year, putting it on track for extinction within the next 10 years.
According to BBC, there are still some i’s and t’s to be wrapped up before the details are final, but if all goes according to plan, the 40-year anniversary of March of the Penguins will reveal — among other wonders of the penguin world — the African penguin thriving again.
Photo (cropped): National Geographic’s Secrets of the Penguins is rich with never-before-seen footage that reminds audiences around the world of the rich variety of life on Earth at risk from climate change (courtesy of National Geographic via email/DropBox).
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