Apple Scores Rights to 'Losing Earth' Climate Change TV Project

[MacRumors]

Apple has purchased the rights to develop a project based on popular New York Times Magazine story "Losing Earth: The Decade We Almost Stopped Climate Change," reports The New York Times.

"Losing Earth," written by Nathaniel Rich, is also set to be the subject of an upcoming book. The magazine article covers the 10-year period from 1979 to 1989, a decade when "humanity settled the science of climate change and came surprisingly close to finding a solution" but ultimately failed to act due to various political forces.

An image in "Losing Earth" taken after California wildfires last year​

The "Losing Earth" article recounted how, from 1979 to 1989, a small group of American scientists, activists and politicians tried to save the world from the ravages of climate change before it was too late. The article was produced with the support of the Pulitzer Center and was based on more than 18 months of reporting and over 100 interviews.

"'Losing Earth' is an extremely important piece of journalism and we are thrilled it will get a wider audience," Jordan Cohen, a spokesman for The Times, said.

The New York Times said that at least a half-dozen bidders were aiming to acquire rights to the nonfiction project, which Apple plans to turn into a TV show.

The TV show will be produced by Anonymous Content, a company known for films that include "Spotlight," "The Revenant," "Collateral Beauty," and TV shows like "True Detective," "Mr. Robot," and "13 Reasons Why."

Rich will serve as an executive producer on the series alongside Steve Golin, founder of Anonymous Content.

"Losing Earth" is one of more than a dozen television shows Apple is working on, most of which are fiction-based. Apple plans to introduce the first of its television shows next year, perhaps as early as March, and several of them are in the casting stages. From The New York Times:

Apple has said it will start streaming its television offerings next year, when it will begin competing against Netflix, Amazon and Hulu in earnest.

The 30,000 word "Losing Earth" article can be read online on The New York Times website.

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Article Link: Apple Scores Rights to 'Losing Earth' Climate Change TV Project

 

[KPandian1]

Apple should just buy Netflix or Disney and start from there. They dumped a load on Beats, same reasoning.

 

[Tapiture]

The fact that a discussion about climate change has to go into “politics, religion and social issues” is sad. It’s a fact, and now we’re starting to see the horrifying effects of it.

 

[lec0rsaire]

This is such an important issue. We’re seeing permafrost in Northern Canada melt causing lots of erosion in Tuk. If the Siberian permafrost melts as well the amount of methane released will be worse than the CO2 we’ve all been concerned with. Something must be done before it’s too late for the future of humanity. While it was critically panned, Waterworld may yet turn out to be as prophetic as The Terminator.

 

[BornAgainMac]

Climate change reminds me of the Superman comics almost 100 years ago when Superman's father tried to warn his planet of future destruction.

 

[lunarworks]

The fact that a discussion about climate change has to go into “politics, religion and social issues” is sad. It’s a fact, and now we’re starting to see the horrifying effects of it.

A discussion about emoji has to go into PRSI. That's how stupid things have become.

 

[lec0rsaire]

I wish that Americans put profits aside and started to have a rational, honest debate. Yes, we have to think of economic growth but in a way that is sustainable for future generations. That fact is that these old owners of production don’t care about climate change because they’ll be long gone by the time the **** hits the fan.

 

[jonblatho]

Apple should just buy Netflix or Disney and start from there. They dumped a load on Beats, same reasoning.

The Beats acquisition would look cute compared to Netflix or Disney.

Apple has about $250 billion in its cash pile. Netflix’s market cap is a bit short of $150 billion. Disney’s a bit ahead of Netflix, at a little under $170 billion. And market cap is not a good predictor of the actual acquisition price—often times a significant amount is added on top of the valuation as goodwill.

They’re not blowing virtually all of their cash pile—if the cash pile would even cover it—on a single acquisition.

 

[GeneralChang]

Ooh, didn't know this article was a thing. I should go read it.

 

[KPandian1]

The Beats acquisition would look cute compared to Netflix or Disney.

Yes, it will be expensive, no doubt.

But, they will get a lot of content with Disney for nostalgia watchers, and a phenomenal database of people from the entire cross platform globe with Netflix. Nice starting point with either case.

 

[GeneralChang]

This is such an important issue. We’re seeing permafrost in Northern Canada melt causing lots of erosion in Tuk. If the Siberian permafrost melts as well the amount of methane released will be worse than the CO2 we’ve all been concerned with. Something must be done before it’s too late for the future of humanity. While it was critically panned, Waterworld may yet turn out to be as prophetic as The Terminator.

As someone who works in the autonomy field, I'm going to go on record as saying Waterworld currently seems to have a much better chance of being prophetic than Terminator.

 

[Hedwigg]

Mental note: Don't read the comments on this one.

 

[WestonHarvey1]

Pointing to cold winters as evidence against climate change gets you ridiculed (rightfully), but for some reason pointing to any disaster at all and calling it evidence for climate change is always considered acceptable.

 

[RickInHouston]

New York Times has lost all credibility with their Liberal views. They fail to even report news if it doesn't meet their agenda.

 

[ArtOfWarfare]

The Beats acquisition would look cute compared to Netflix or Disney.

Apple has about $250 billion in its cash pile. Netflix’s market cap is a bit short of $150 billion. Disney’s a bit ahead of Netflix, at a little under $170 billion. And market cap is not a good predictor of the actual acquisition price—often times a significant amount is added on top of the valuation as goodwill.

They’re not blowing virtually all of their cash pile—if the cash pile would even cover it—on a single acquisition.

When you put it that way, either Disney is ridiculously undervalued or Netflix overvalued...

I think it's more likely Disney is undervalued.

 

[turbineseaplane]

Perhaps one could watch this show on their sealed, non-upgradeable, disposable appliance from the "green" company?

 

[riverfreak]

Pointing to cold winters as evidence against climate change gets you ridiculed (rightfully), but for some reason pointing to any disaster at all and calling it evidence for climate change is always considered acceptable.

You would have made a valid point had you not included the hyperbolic “always considered acceptable”. It’s certainly not by people well versed in the actual data. Even so, climate change modeling does predict statistically testable changes in frequency in local, near term climate events, too. The operative words in my sentence are statistically testable, something that doesn’t go over well in a populace that has been taught to distrust experts and statistics, and trust in religion and their gut instinct.

 

[JPLC]

Apple should just buy Netflix or Disney and start from there. They dumped a load on Beats, same reasoning.

Isn’t that content vs users? Not the same imo.

 

[aka777]

New York Times has lost all credibility with their Liberal views. They fail to even report news if it doesn't meet their agenda.

I know what you mean, versus infowars and Fox News and middle American facebook posts.

If you said something like Vox or Huff-BS-Blog-Post, I'd believe you, but contrary to what Trump and un/undereducated Middle Muricans think (assume), the NYT is a reputable news source.

 

[mistasopz]

Apple should just buy Netflix or Disney and start from there. They dumped a load on Beats, same reasoning.

Ugh, I hope not. If Apple buys Netflix it would be a disaster. Think about it, they'd probably gut all shows that contain offensive content (violence, sexual content, nudity). Then they'd make you interact with it using Siri (shudder): "Siri, play Breaking Bad" "Sorry, I cannot find Raking Bed." Then they'd probably drop application support for 99% of smart TVs and force users to use Apple TV. No thanks.

 

[TheShadowKnows!]

I know what you mean, versus infowars and Fox News and middle American facebook posts.

If you said something like Vox or Huff-BS-Blog-Post, I'd believe you, but contrary to what Trump and un/undereducated Middle Muricans think (assume), the NYT is a reputable news source.

Well said.
Texas and Texans should be forced to secede to Mexico, where they do belong, iff the Mexicans do take them./s
[That will be their well-deserved hell, for their extreme race- and religion-laden views.]

 

[wigby]

The Beats acquisition would look cute compared to Netflix or Disney.

Apple has about $250 billion in its cash pile. Netflix’s market cap is a bit short of $150 billion. Disney’s a bit ahead of Netflix, at a little under $170 billion. And market cap is not a good predictor of the actual acquisition price—often times a significant amount is added on top of the valuation as goodwill.

They’re not blowing virtually all of their cash pile—if the cash pile would even cover it—on a single acquisition.

There are no cash issues for Apple. The issue is corporate culture. Disney has more employees than Apple. The upset alone from those culture clashes would set Apple back a few years in product development. Netflix doesn't have nearly as much corporate overhead but Apple has never been one to throw a million things at the wall to see what sticks the way Netflix appears to be doing. Apple likes to buy and subsume technologies and talent in order to forge their own the same way they did with Beats. Neither Disney nor Netflix are a good fit.

 

[macduke]

This is incredibly depressing and yet so very important. Every time I look at my kids who are only a few years old I feel bad about the kind of world that they're going to have to grow up in. It's one of the reasons that I refuse to move to a large city. We live on the edge of a moderately sized college town. Our house is surrounded by trees and clean air. Yet it snows so much less than when I was a kid and the summers are so hot and dry. I know climate goes through phases and eventually we'll have a good snow and a cooler summer again, but the overall trend is warmer on average. We're starting to get more invasive species that we didn't have before, and certain trees and grasses are struggling more and more.

I wish people would realize this isn't a political issue, but a matter of our very survival. Where it gets politicized are the industries and jobs it effects. What we need is a more sustainable plan. Conservatives want hardly any change. Liberals want everything to change over night. We need to work on a decades long plan to get there. Some say that it might be too late if we wait that long, but at present regulations are being rolled back right and left and nothing is getting done. Something is better than nothing, and it becomes less political when the change is slowed. It's the reason that we haven't seen as much meaningful change as we had hoped. Even so, when you look at EPA docs showing photos from areas of the country in the 70s compared to today, we have a lot to be proud of in the areas that have been cleaned up. But as countries around the world move from oil to renewable energy, the U.S. will be left behind with outdated technology and expensive energy. We need a measured approach to attain success—we've tried everything else over and over again and it hasn't worked. If we had a more moderate plan 20-30 years ago, I think we would be in much better shape today. I wish people weren't so extreme and uncompromising on either side. Conservatives need to realize that a lot of people vote with their conscience and liberals need to realize that perhaps even more vote with their wallet.

 

[wigby]

Pointing to cold winters as evidence against climate change gets you ridiculed (rightfully), but for some reason pointing to any disaster at all and calling it evidence for climate change is always considered acceptable.

Both examples are anecdotal and given to emotional arguments. The data (and Earth's fate) does not consider such emotion. Only the scientists deserve our attention.

 

[omihek]

Oh please. More of this climate change nonsense? The earth is fine, people.