‘Dr. Keeling’s Curve’ with M*A*S*H actor Mike Farrell is literally the Sierra Club’s play to spread climate change message

It’s not unusual for an audience to listen to a scientific presentation on climate change that outlines such effects as scorching temperatures, rising sea levels and intense wildfires — and then sink slowly into a blue funk.

“They can feel very depressed,” Angelica Gonzales, conservation program manager for the Sierra Club Angeles Chapter, said. “They say ‘you threw a bunch of data at us.’”

Fact: Global climate change is scary. And hearing about it from a bunch of stone-faced scientists can leave people feeling lost, hopeless, even depressed, focus groups found.

So the Sierra Club, for the first time in its history, is staging a play to present the facts around global climate change in a way that’s accessible, educational and entertaining.

The play’s the thing

Recent Gallop polls say 66 percent of Americans believe global warming is occurring and 64 percent say it is caused by human activities. Polarization occurs along party lines, with 91 percent of Democrats but only 33 percent of Republicans saying they worry a great deal or fair amount about global warming.

The Sierra Club’s largest chapter, with 60,000 members in Los Angeles and Orange counties, believes people don’t understand the complicated issue in part because the message delivery system — lectures and scholarly articles — isn’t taking hold and may be adding to the dissonance.

So they’re turning to theater to infuse their message with heartfelt anecdotes, human drama and humor.

A play written by George Shea, “Dr. Keeling’s Curve” stars Mike Farrell as Charles David Keeling, the first scientist to mark rises in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

The one-night show, on Sept. 30, will be staged at the Eli and Edythe Broad Stage in Santa Monica.

It’s the first time in the organization’s 126-year history that it is presenting a play as a tool for education and fundraising, Gonzales confirmed.

“It is a different approach to education about climate change,” Gonzales said. “It’s hard to tell that message. With the play, it is fun.”

Bridging the gap

Farrell, well known for his eight years as Capt. B.J. Hunnicutt on the hit TV show M*A*S*H from 1975-1983, as well as his activism around human rights, animal rights and environmentalism, talked about the play and its value at a restaurant in Valley Village Thursday, Aug. 30.

Seven years ago, Shea, a playwright and children’s author, was walking in Farrell’s neighborhood in Studio City when he saw Farrell taking out the trash. The two talked about doing a play about global warming.

Six months later they brought the script to director Kirsten Sanderson who put on the play at the Blank Theater in Santa Monica. Since then, they’ve done half a dozen performances at small theaters and universities.

The play centers around a dogged scientist, obsessed with his experiments, who was often discouraged to stop his research.  To tackle the complicated issue of climate change in a way that made it personal for the audience, Shea and Farrell used humor and anecdotes from Keeling’s life and extrapolated what he would say today.

“We want people to be interested in this guy and how he made this discovery,” Farrell said. “His concerns kept being brushed aside and in some cases, they tried to shut him down but he persisted.”

The Keeling Curve

Keeling, a professor from Caltech in Pasadena and Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego, was the first to discover and measure a rise in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

He worked at Caltech as a post-doc research scientist from 1953-1955, according to Caltech archivist Elisa Piccio.  Encouraged by mentor and geochemist Harrison Brown, he built the first instrument ever used to measure carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere while at the Pasadena institution.

Keeling was so single-minded at maintaining a record of CO2, that as his wife was giving birth, he shuttled from the Altadena hospital to the roof of Mudd Hall every four hours to take a new measurement.

The work became the longest running measurement of CO2 in the atmosphere, known today as The Keeling Curve.

Keeling won the 2002 National Medal of Science “for his pioneering and fundamental research on atmospheric and oceanic carbon dioxide, the basis for understanding global carbon cycle and global warming.”

In 1958 he joined Scripps and perfected the measuring techniques until his death in 2005.

A growing problem

Keeling’s first CO2 reading was 310 parts per million. That has risen to 411 ppm as of June, a 33 percent rise.

Climate scientists describe a planet’s death march from heat trapped by high carbon dioxide levels from burning fossil fuels in automobiles and dirty power plants.

This anthropogenic contribution has begun melting Arctic ice caps, flooding coastal properties and causing some of the hottest days and persistent droughts in countries all over the globe.

“The problem is, people don’t understand that it will get to a point where it is irreversible, if it isn’t already there,” Farrell said. “We are trying to make this project a link between scientific information and the people who need to hear it.”

After the play, the participants chat with the audience and discuss solutions to cut greenhouse gases, such as not eating beef and recycling food waste, Gonzales said.

Farrell said the most important aspect is to tell Keeling’s story — one many have not heard — and to show how one person can change the world.

“There are avenues every individual can take that will make a difference,” Farrell said.

If you go

What: “Dr. Keeling’s Curve,” a one-man play starring Mike Farrell as Charles David Keeling, first scientist to mark rises in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

When: 7 p.m., Sunday, Sept. 30

Where: Broad Stage, 1310 11th St., Santa Monica, CA 90401

After the play: Actor and environmental activist Ed Begley Jr; Terry Tamminen, CEO of the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation and NASA ‘s Jet Propulsion Laboratory scientist Peter Kalmus will discuss climate change and possible solutions with Farrell, Shea and the audience.

Tickets: Available from the Sierra Club at drkeelingscurve.tix.com. Prices range from $45 to $100.

More info: drkeelingscurve.com