
By Oceans 8 Films
Dear President Obama, The Clean Energy Revolution is Now, narrated by 3-time Academy Award nominated actor Mark Ruffalo, calls on President Obama to ban fracking and join the “anti-drilling" majority growing across the U.S. Oceans 8 Films is excited to announce the film's premiere in Washington, DC on March 18, as part of the Environmental Film Festival, at the National Geographic headquarters, followed by a 30-day screening tour in March and April.
Executive produced and narrated by actor/activist Mark Ruffalo and produced by filmmaker and explorer Jon Bowermaster, Dear President Obama takes a cross-country look at drilling. Highlighting its variety of contaminations, the stories of its victims and the false promise of an economic boom, the film focuses on clean energy solutions that would allow us to proceed towards a future that does not rely on yet another dirty fossil fuel extraction process. Interviews with scientists, economists, health professionals, geologists and whistleblowers provide the core narrative of the film. Its producers hope to convince the current president and those that will follow to join the “anti-drilling" majority growing across the U.S. and call for fossil fuels to be kept in the ground.
“Though nominally targeting the current President," says Bowermaster, “the message of the film is aimed at every elected official in the U.S. 'Keep fossil fuels in the ground' should be the new mantra for them all."
Since 2008, under President Obama's watch, the drilling and fracking industries have boomed across the U.S. One result is that today, more than 17 million people live within a mile of at least one oil or gas well, putting their livelihoods, health and property values at risk. Every race, culture and socio-economic class has been impacted, from urban dwellers to the suburbs, rural America to its coastlines. Fracking supporters contended this rush would create a newfound American “energy independence." In fact, with oil and gas prices plummeting during the past year, all the boom seems to have done is slow progress toward investing in renewable energy sources.
"Our country is at a critical crossroads between continuing to make people sick and ruining the climate by drilling for fossil fuels or embracing the clean energy revolution," says Ruffalo.
“We can and must power our country with renewable energy from the wind, sun and water, which will reinvigorate our economy with jobs and prosperity. Dear President Obama tells the stories of the harm oil and gas drilling is causing Americans across the country and sets forth the importance of building a bright, clean energy future now. In his remaining time in office, we are asking President Obama to be a visionary clean energy leader and to help the millions of Americans hurt by drilling and fracking."
The screening tour was organized by Food & Water Watch and other environmental organizations across the U.S.
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- Redwoods are the world's tallest trees.
- Now scientists have discovered they are even bigger than we thought.
- Using laser technology they map the 80-meter giants.
- Trees are a key plank in the fight against climate change.
They are among the largest trees in the world, descendants of forests where dinosaurs roamed.
Pixabay / Simi Luft
<p><span>Until recently, measuring these trees meant scaling their 80 meter high trunks with a tape measure. Now, a team of scientists from University College London and the University of Maryland uses advanced laser scanning, to create 3D maps and calculate the total mass.</span></p><p>The results are striking: suggesting the trees <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-73733-6" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">may be as much as 30% larger than earlier measurements suggested.</a> Part of that could be due to the additional trunks the Redwoods can grow as they age, <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-73733-6" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">a process known as reiteration</a>.</p>New 3D measurements of large redwood trees for biomass and structure. Nature / UCL
<p>Measuring the trees more accurately is important because carbon capture will probably play a key role in the battle against climate change. Forest <a href="https://www.wri.org/blog/2020/09/carbon-sequestration-natural-forest-regrowth" target="_blank">growth could absorb billions of tons</a> of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere each year.</p><p>"The importance of big trees is widely-recognised in terms of carbon storage, demographics and impact on their surrounding ecosystems," the authors wrote<a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-73733-6" target="_blank"> in the journal Nature</a>. "Unfortunately the importance of big trees is in direct proportion to the difficulty of measuring them."</p><p>Redwoods are so long lived because of their ability to <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-73733-6" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">cope with climate change, resist disease and even survive fire damage</a>, the scientists say. Almost a fifth of their volume may be bark, which helps protect them.</p>Carbon Capture Champions
<p><span>Earlier research by scientists at Humboldt University and the University of Washington found that </span><a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378112716302584" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Redwood forests store almost 2,600 tonnes of carbon per hectare</a><span>, their bark alone containing more carbon than any other neighboring species.</span></p><p>While the importance of trees in fighting climate change is widely accepted, not all species enjoy the same protection as California's coastal Redwoods. In 2019 the world lost the equivalent of <a href="https://www.worldwildlife.org/threats/deforestation-and-forest-degradation" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">30 soccer fields of forest cover every minute</a>, due to agricultural expansion, logging and fires, according to The Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF).</p>Pixabay
<p>Although <a href="https://c402277.ssl.cf1.rackcdn.com/publications/1420/files/original/Deforestation_fronts_-_drivers_and_responses_in_a_changing_world_-_full_report_%281%29.pdf?1610810475" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">the rate of loss is reported to have slowed in recent years</a>, reforesting the world to help stem climate change is a massive task.</p><p><span>That's why the World Economic Forum launched the Trillion Trees Challenge (</span><a href="https://www.1t.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">1t.org</a><span>) and is engaging organizations and individuals across the globe through its </span><a href="https://uplink.weforum.org/uplink/s/uplink-issue/a002o00000vOf09AAC/trillion-trees" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Uplink innovation crowdsourcing platform</a><span> to support the project.</span></p><p>That's backed up by research led by ETH Zurich/Crowther Lab showing there's potential to restore tree coverage across 2.2 billion acres of degraded land.</p><p>"Forests are critical to the health of the planet," according to <a href="https://www.1t.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">1t.org</a>. "They sequester carbon, regulate global temperatures and freshwater flows, recharge groundwater, anchor fertile soil and act as flood barriers."</p><p><em data-redactor-tag="em" data-verified="redactor">Reposted with permission from the </em><span><em data-redactor-tag="em" data-verified="redactor"><a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/03/redwoods-store-more-co2-and-are-more-enormous-than-we-thought/" target="_blank">World Economic Forum</a>.</em></span></p>EcoWatch Daily Newsletter
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