S2: Hot Water

For decades, oil companies took steps to prepare themselves for a warming world—designing tankers for a melting arctic and re-engineering offshore platforms to deal with a rising sea—all while telling everyone else not to worry about it. Now other industries are suffering the impacts of unchecked climate change, robbed of decades worth of preparation. It’s that unfairness that spurred a group of crab fishermen on the West Coast to become the first industry to sue Big Oil, alleging that their actions to shift the story on climate set crabbers up to fail spectacularly.

Ep 1: A Crisis, a Cover-Up and a Community on the Front Lines of Climate Change

In 2015, West Coast crab fishermen were shut down by climate change. Atmospheric changes had warmed waters and upended everything from the food chain to ocean upwelling. They didn't realize it would be their new normal, or that scientists had been telling the oil industry this would happen since the 1960s. Welcome to season 2 of Drilled: Hot Water. Transcript

Ep 2: A Late Season and a Shaky Future

As the 2015 delay wears on, and holiday markets come and go, crabbers are getting desperate. Some are forced out of business, others worry that this is the new normal. Transcript

Ep 3: Two Lawsuits at Once, Both Driven by Climate Change

Now facing annual closures due to climate change, crabbers learn some new information that spurs them to become the first industry to sue Big Oil. Transcript

Ep 4: Taking Big Oil to Court

As the crabbers' lawsuit against the world's 30 largest fossil fuel producers is filed, we take a look at the evidence, and what exactly sent crabbers—particularly more conservative ones—to court. Transcript

Ep 5: David vs. Goliath

As the first industry to sue Big Oil, the West Coast crab fishery is likely to meet an even tougher fight than the states, counties, and cities trying to hold the fossil fuel industry accountable. Oil companies are arguing a First Amendment defense and pointing out that commercial fishermen are themselves consumers of fossil fuels, but it remains to be seen whether those arguments stick, especially in a world increasingly educated and worried about climate change. Transcript

Ep 6: Facing Extinction

As the crabbers' 2018-2019 season comes to an abrupt close, they prepare for a year that could see the fishery close altogether. Meanwhile the oil industry is pushing to quash the crabbers' climate suit, forcing the question: Which industries do we protect, and which do we let go? As natural resources are increasingly impacted by climate change, who will pick the winners and losers and how will we survive? Transcript