On this week’s Moyers & Company, James Balog, one of the world's premier cinemaphotographers, explains how "the earth is having a fever." At tremendous risk to his own safety, Balog has been documenting the erosion of glaciers in Switzerland, Greenland, Iceland, and Alaska. He joins Bill to share his photos and discoveries, describing his process and transformation from climate change skeptic to true believer. Balog’s soon-to-be-released film, Chasing Ice, is a breathtaking account of climate change in action.
Afterward, Bill explores a judicial system under partisan attack. Thirty-eight states now elect their high court judges. Over the last decade, $200 million -- much of it secret and tied to partisan agendas -- has been pouring into these judicial campaigns. In Florida, Pennsylvania, and Iowa, for example, justices are being targeted by radical groups that abhor judicial independence and want the courts to reflect their own political biases.
In Iowa, a state whose judicial system has been praised for its fairness and impartiality, the political and religious Right ousted three justices in 2010 over marriage equality, and is now trying to take down a fourth over the same issue. But this time a bipartisan coalition called Justice Not Politics is fighting back. Its co-founders -- Democrat Sally Pederson and Republican Joy Corning, each of whom served Iowa for eight years as lieutenant governor -- talk with Bill about what's at stake when justices are at the mercy of partisan passions and money in politics.
Moyers & Company, Friday at 9 p.m. on PBS 6.
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