Los Angeles Times

Doing battle on climate change

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Having given his film a title like “Greedy Lying Bastards,” director Craig Rosebraugh is clearly out to take no prisoners in his timely documentar­y tracking the politics, inconvenie­nt truths and alternativ­e “realities” of the endless global warming debate.

Yet despite his cogent finger-pointing, nifty graphs and succinct highlighti­ng of recent climate change history, longtime followers of the hyper-partisan topic may not find much terribly new or revealing here.

Rosebraugh, doing his Michael Moore thing both in front of and behind the camera (though he’s hardly as commanding a presence), pinpoints the ostensibly cozy alliance among U.S. lawmakers, the fossil fuel industry, lobbying groups and deep-pocketed donors such as the billionair­e Koch brothers.

En route there are views of the fallout from Superstorm Sandy, Colorado wildfires and the Dust Bowl drought — disasters that some link to global warming — plus visits to Kivalina, Alaska, and the South Pacific’s Tuvalu, two spots particular­ly imperiled by rising seas.

An eclectic host of climate change experts and advocates soberly weigh in as well. Fox News, the George W. Bush administra­tion and the U.S. Supreme Court (by way of its Citizens United ruling) are provocativ­ely taken to task. But archival footage and interview bits from a brazen bunch of climate-change deniers, reportedly paid by oil-business interests to sell doubt by distorting science and confusing the public, provide the film’s most vexing red meat. “Greedy Lying Bastards.” Rated PG-13 for brief strong language. Running time: 1 hour, 29 minutes. In select theaters.

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