How an Environmental Justice Documentary Is Building Solidarity in the Midst of the Racial and Health Crisis
23 June
Sponsored
Indigenous leaders, environmental groups, interfaith and divestment coalitions are hosting online events, utilizing the film to support frontline and impacted communities. Courtesy / The Condor & The Eagle
By Tracy L. Barnett
A soon-to-be-released feature film exemplifies how independent media initiatives can be powerful tools for social and environmental justice organizing. Challenging the isolation and impotence that many are feeling in the face of the current health and racial crises, the internationally acclaimed documentary The Condor & The Eagle and its impact campaign "No More Sacrificed Communities" bring us together in these challenging times – reminding us of our deep interconnectedness with the Earth and one another.
<p>As we work to prevent the spread of COVID-19, environmental racism is presenting a deadly parallel threat for Indigenous peoples across North and South America, who continue to defend the lands and waters, protecting their communities from extraction and the pandemic. Meanwhile, the climate crisis has not paused as we battle racialized violence and COVID-19. On the contrary, as countries ease restrictions, emissions levels have rebounded to just 5% lower than last year at this time, and experts warn that we could be facing increased emissions by year's end. Meanwhile those at the front lines of the struggle for climate justice are battling disproportionately high rates of infection from Covid-19 while facing heightened risks of violence and illness from the extractive industries.</p>
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A PROFOUND WORK OF CLIMATE JOURNALISM
<p>Oscar-winning editor and producer Douglas Blush says: "This documentary takes the struggle for climate justice beyond the standard borders of separate nations using thrilling cinematography, deeply personal stories and the urgency of tomorrow's headlines. <em>The Condor & The Eagle</em> is both a profound work of climate journalism and an exhilarating, emotional adventure film."<br></p><p>The recent burning of the Amazon, the mega-fires in Australia, and the current political climate bode ill for our planet's future habitability. But there is hope. This internationally acclaimed documentary chronicles the ongoing collective climate awakening and the imperative of urgent change. The film asks how social change happens, and explores best practices for building effective social movements, led by the most affected. As world climate scientists predict unprecedented global catastrophe, <em>The Condor & The Eagle</em> features Indigenous women leaders at the head of an unparalleled global response.</p>
<p>Four Indigenous leaders embark on an extraordinary transcontinental adventure from the Canadian boreal forests to deep into the heart of the Amazonian jungle to unite the peoples of North and South America and deepen the meaning of "climate justice." <em>The Condor & The Eagle</em> offers a glimpse into a developing spiritual renaissance as the film's four protagonists learn from each other's long legacy of resistance to colonialism and its extractive economy.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzQwODM0Ny9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYwNzYxNzU5MH0.Oo9RwKPqrIS9q6Iz8Y2n0S9sxXZNQGiJOvfrAhwRI1U/img.png?width=980" id="bb09c" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="1a78d9f6c7bf91cd36016a49392517f5" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
Casey Camp-Horinek, Ponca Tribe of Oklahoma, left, with Melina Laboucan_Massimo, Lubicon Cree First Nation of Alberta, in the front row of the half-million-strong People's Climate March in New York, 2014. Screenshot / The Condor & The Eagle
IMPACT CAMPAIGN: "NO MORE SACRIFICED COMMUNITIES"
<p>Indigenous leaders, environmental groups (including Amazon Watch, Sierra Club, Extinction Rebellion), divestment and interfaith coalitions (including Interfaith Power and Light, Unitarian Universalists) are <a href="https://thecondorandtheeagle.com/events/" target="_blank">hosting impressive online events</a>, presenting the film to large audiences along with a live-screen discussion with film and movement protagonists. In the weeks and months ahead, the film's impact campaign, "No More Sacrificed Communities," will explore how media highlighting the voices from impacted communities can compel a shift from witnessing environmental destruction to practical actions for sustainable, community-based initiatives.</p> <p>Each of more than a dozen online events is hosted by a different organization and offers the opportunity to raise funds for key environmental justice groups and impacted communities that are leading the charge against destructive fossil fuel projects.</p><img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzQwODM1NS9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0NTY1OTE4MH0.Z6ZOvelXtSKYGx_LNFr4MyUq6JtvMnTJxECCHLfKsko/img.png?width=980" id="fc2b5" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="4271ef679acb20176c4ba3d69d20652e" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
At the Red Nation International Film Festival. Left to right: Festival director Joanelle Romero, co-director Clement Guerra, film protagonist Bryan Parras, Executive Producer Jacqueline Garcia and Impact Partner Kat Lo, Eaton Workshop.
INTERNATIONAL FILM RELEASE
<p>Since its premiere at the Woodstock Film Festival in October 2019, <em>The Condor & the Eagle</em> has been selected by more than 50 film festivals and has won 12 awards, most notably Best Environmental Documentary at the 2019 Red Nation International Film Festival in Beverly Hills, California.<br></p> <p>The film's international release date is set for Wednesday, July 1, and it will be available for rent on the <a href="https://www.filmsforaction.org/watch/the-condor-and-the-eagle/" target="_blank">Films For Action</a> website. That day also marks the film's Latin American premiere with "<a href="https://event.webinarjam.com/register/93/xyg1yuw9?fbclid=IwAR2pNe5jKZJ3jXlmHROc8ifD1JtxQkKNG1QB2xx41WST7XrL7knai_kGnHU" target="_blank">Defending the Defenders of the Mother Earth / Defendiendo las Defensoras de la Madre Tierra</a>," a bilingual screening event featuring Bertha "Bertita" Zúñiga Cáceres of Honduras, daughter of the environmental martyr Berta Cáceres, and the director, among others.</p>A MESSAGE FROM THE FILMMAKERS
<p>The film was directed and produced by Clement Guerra, a 37-year-old French international marketing manager, and his German wife Sophie. The couple left their comfortable careers in Europe and took their savings to live in a camper van and spend five years documenting the Indigenous-led climate justice movement.</p><p>"We don't want to be 'extractivist' filmmakers, but rather ones who work hand-in-hand with communities," Clement told The Esperanza Project in a recent interview, <a href="https://www.esperanzaproject.com/2020/native-american-culture/the-condor-the-eagle-takes-flight/" target="_blank"><em>The Condor & The Eagle' Takes Flight</em></a>. "On a personal level, this whole experience helped us face our own privilege, and we quickly realized that the pollution outside reflected the ego-toxicity we are carrying on the inside. We have been conditioned to believe that we are skin-encapsulated egos, that we are each an 'I' separate from every other 'I.' Thanks to our journey and the process of making this film, we came to realize that we all depend on each other; we are not separate."<br></p><p>You can support the team impact work <a href="https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=W44L44WM4ELDW&source=url" target="_blank">HERE</a>.</p><iframe title="vimeo-player" src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/417898062" width="640" height="360" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
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Michael Moore's 'Planet of the Humans' Documentary Attacks Climate Solutions
01 May
Insights + Opinion
Michael Moore at the 72nd annual Cannes Film Festival on May 25, 2019 in Cannes, France. Vittorio Zunino Celotto / Getty Images
By Dana Nuccitelli
Environmentalists and renewable energy advocates have long been allies in the fight to keep unchecked industrial growth from irreversibly ruining Earth's climate and threatening the future of human civilization. In their new YouTube documentary "Planet of the Humans," director Jeff Gibbs and producer Michael Moore argue for splitting the two sides. Their misleading, outdated, and scientifically sophomoric dismissal of renewable energy is perhaps the most dangerous form of climate denial, eroding support for renewable energy as a critical climate solution.
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<p class=""><em>Reposted with permission from </em><a href="https://www.yaleclimateconnections.org/2020/05/michael-moores-planet-of-the-humans-documentary-peddles-dangerous-climate-denial/" target="_blank"><em>Yale Climate Connections.</em></a></p>
<p>"Planet of the Humans" by the end of April had more than 4.7 million views and fairly high scores at the movie critic review aggregator <a href="https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/planet_of_the_humans" target="_blank">Rotten Tomatoes</a>. The documentary has received <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/4/24/1939980/-Planet-Of-The-Humans-Is-Moore-Trouble-Than-It-s-Worth-A-Non-Review" target="_blank">glowing reviews from numerous climate "deniers"</a> whose names are familiar to those in the climate community, including Steve Milloy, Marc Morano, and James Delingpole. Some environmentalists who have seen the movie are beginning to oppose wind and solar projects that are absolutely necessary to slow climate change.</p><p>The film by these two "progressive" filmmakers may succeed where Fox News and right-wing talk radio have failed: to undermine humanity's last best hope for positive change. As energy journalist <a href="https://ketanjoshi.co/2020/04/24/planet-of-the-humans-a-reheated-mess-of-lazy-old-myths/" target="_blank">Ketan Joshi wrote</a>, the film is "selling far-right, climate-denier myths from nearly a decade ago to left-wing environmentalists in the 2020s."</p><p>The film follows Gibbs as he visits various green technology sites in the United States and ostensibly learns that each one is just as bad as the fossil fuel infrastructure that it would replace. Unfortunately, the movie is littered with misleading, skewed, and outdated scenes.</p><p>"Planet of the Humans"' approach is fundamentally flawed – Gibbs focuses almost exclusively on the imperfections of technologies like solar panels, wind turbines, biomass, and electric cars without considering their ability to reduce carbon and other pollutants. The film suggests that because no source of energy is perfect, all are bad, thus implying that the very existence of human civilization is the problem while offering little in the way of alternative solutions.</p>
A Badly Outdated Portrait of Solar and Wind
<p>In an interview with Reuters, Michael Moore summarized the premise of the film: "I assumed solar panels would last forever. I didn't know what went into the making of them."</p><p>It's true. Solar panels and wind turbines don't last forever (though they do last several decades), and like every other industrial product, they require mining and manufacturing of raw materials. Sadly, that's about as deep as the film delves into quantifying the environmental impacts of renewable energy versus fossil fuels. In fact, the misinformation in the film is at times much worse than ignorance.</p><p>In one scene, author and film co-producer Ozzie Zehner falsely asserts, "You use more fossil fuels [manufacturing renewables infrastructure] than you're getting benefit from. You would have been better off burning the fossil fuels in the first place instead of playing pretend."</p><p><span></span>That's monumentally wrong. A <a href="https://www.carbonbrief.org/solar-wind-nuclear-amazingly-low-carbon-footprints" target="_blank">2017 study in Nature Energy</a> found that when accounting for manufacturing and construction, the lifetime carbon footprints of solar, wind, and nuclear power are about 20 times smaller than those of coal and natural gas, even when the latter include expensive carbon capture and storage technology. The energy produced during the operation of a solar panel and wind turbine is 26 and 44 times greater than the energy needed to build and install them, respectively. There are many life-cycle assessment studies arriving at similar conclusions.</p><p>The film's case is akin to arguing that because fruit contains sugar, eating strawberries is no healthier than eating a cheesecake.</p><p>It's true that the carbon footprint of renewable energy is not zero. But the film somehow fails to mention that it's far lower than the fossil fuel alternatives, instead falsely suggesting (with zero supporting evidence) that renewables are just as bad. The closest defense of that argument comes when Zehner claims that wind and solar energy cannot displace coal, and instead retired coal power plants are being replaced by even larger natural gas plants.</p><p>In reality, coal power generation in the U.S. has declined by about half (over 1 trillion kilowatt-hours) <a href="https://rhg.com/research/preliminary-us-emissions-2019/" target="_blank">over the past decade</a>, and it's true that natural gas has picked up about two-thirds of that slack (670 kWh). But growth in renewables has accounted for the other one-third (370 kWh). As a result, power sector carbon emissions in the U.S. have fallen by one-third since 2008 and continue to decline steadily. In fact, electricity is the only major sector in the U.S. that's achieving significant emissions reductions.</p><p>It's true that natural gas is a fossil fuel. To reach zero emissions, it must be replaced by renewables with storage and smart grids. But thus far the path to grid decarbonization in the U.S. has been a success story that the film somehow portrays as a failure. Moreover, that decarbonization could be accelerated through policies like pricing carbon pollution, but the film does not once put a single second of thought into policy solutions.</p><p>In perhaps its most absurd scene, Gibbs and Zehner visit a former solar facility in Daggett, California, built in the mid-1980s and replaced 30 years later. Gazing upon the sand-covered landscape of the former facility, Gibbs declares in an ominous tone, "It suddenly dawned on me what we were looking at: a solar dead zone."</p><p>Daggett is located in the Mojave Desert. Sand is the natural landscape. Solar farms don't create dead zones; in fact, <a href="https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/09/crops-under-solar-panels-can-be-a-win-win/" target="_blank">some plants thrive</a> under the shade provided by solar panels.</p><p>It suddenly dawned on me how hard the film was trying to portray clean energy in a negative light.</p>
A Shallow Dismissal of Electric Vehicles
<p>In another science, Gibbs travels to a General Motors facility in Lansing, Michigan, circa 2010, as GM showcased its then-new Chevy Volt plug-in electric hybrid vehicle. Gibbs interviews a representative from the local municipal electric utility provider, who notes that they generate 95% of their supply by burning coal, and that the power to charge the GM facility's EVs will not come from renewables in the near future.</p><p>That is the full extent of the discussion of EVs in the film. Viewers are left to assume that because these cars are charged by burning coal, they're just <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenwashing" target="_blank">greenwashing</a>. In reality, because of the high efficiency of electric motors, an electric car charged entirely by burning coal still produces less carbon pollution than an internal combustion engine car (though more than a hybrid). The U.S. Department of Energy has <a href="https://afdc.energy.gov/vehicles/electric_emissions.html" target="_blank">a useful tool</a> for comparing carbon emissions between EVs, plug-in hybrids, conventional hybrids, and gasoline-powered cars for each state. In Michigan, on average, EVs are the cleanest option of all, as is the case for the national average power grid. In West Virginia, with over 90% electricity generated from coal, hybrids are the cleanest option, but EVs are still cleaner than gasoline cars.</p><p>In short, EVs are an improvement over gasoline-powered cars everywhere, and their carbon footprints will continue to shrink as renewables expand to supply more of the power grid.</p>A Valid Critique of Wood Biomass
<p>The film devotes a half hour to the practice of burning trees for energy. That's one form of biomass, which also includes burning wood waste, garbage, and biofuels. Last year, <a href="https://www.eia.gov/tools/faqs/faq.php?id=427&t=3" target="_blank">1% of U.S. electricity</a> was generated by burning wood, but it accounted for 30% of the film run time.</p><p>In fairness, Europe is a different story, where wood biomass accounts for around 5% of electricity generation, and which imports a lot of wood chips from America. It's incentivized because the European Union considers burning wood to be carbon neutral, and it can thus be used to meet climate targets. That's because new trees can be planted to replace those removed, and the EU assumes the wood being burned would have decayed and released its stored carbon anyway.</p><p>There are <a href="https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2019/3/4/18216045/renewable-energy-wood-pellets-biomass" target="_blank">numerous problems</a> with those assumptions, one of which is unavoidable: time. Burning trees is close to carbon neutral once a replacement tree grows to sufficient maturity to recapture the lost carbon, but that takes many decades. In the meantime, the carbon released into the atmosphere accelerates the climate crisis at a time when slashing emissions is increasingly urgent. That's why <a href="https://www.dogwoodalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Scientist-Letter-to-Governor-Cooper_11-15_2017.pdf" target="_blank">climate scientists are increasingly calling on policymakers</a> to stop expanding this practice. So has 350.org founder Bill McKibben since 2016, <a href="https://350.org/response-planet-of-the-humans-documentary/" target="_blank">despite his depiction in the film</a> as a villainous proponent of clearcutting forests to burn for energy.</p><p>It's complicated, but the carbon footprint of biomass <a href="https://www.carbonbrief.org/is-burning-wood-for-energy-worse-for-the-climate-than-coal" target="_blank">depends on where the wood comes from</a>. Burning waste (including waste wood) as biomass that would decay anyway is justifiable, but also generally only practical at a relatively small scale. A more detailed investigation of the wood biomass industry could make for a worthwhile documentary. It's still a small-time player, but it does need to stay that way.</p>The Bottom Line
<p>Gibbs asks, "Is it possible for machines made by industrial civilization to save us from industrial civilization?"</p><p>Why not? Industrial civilization has a non-zero climate and environmental footprint, but the impact of green technologies like EVs, wind turbines, and solar panels is much smaller than the alternatives. They represent humanity's best chance to avoid a climate catastrophe.</p><p>The filmmakers call for an end to limitless economic growth and consumption. It's difficult to envision that goal being achieved anytime soon, but even if it is, human civilization will continue to exist and require energy. To avert a climate crisis, that energy must be supplied by the clean renewable technologies pilloried in the film. To expand on the earlier analogy, the filmmakers seem to believe we should improve nutrition not by eating healthier foods like strawberries, but rather by eating a bit less cheesecake.</p><p>Like Fox News and other propaganda vehicles, the film presents one biased perspective via carefully chosen voices, virtually all of whom are comfortable white men. It applies an environmental purity test that can seem convincing for viewers lacking expertise in the topic. Any imperfect technology – which is every technology – is deemed bad. It's a clear example of the perfect being the enemy of the good. In reality, this movie is the enemy of humanity's last best chance to save itself and countless other species from unchecked climate change through a transition to cleaner technologies.</p>
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EcoWatch Daily Newsletter
Pexels
By Daisy Simmons
"It's not easy to watch."
That was a recurring introductory remark at screenings during the recent 2020 Wild & Scenic Film Festival. Held each year in the bucolic foothills of the Sierra, the five-day festival screens more than 140 environmental films, from artful meditations on the beauty of nature, to distressing stories of people on the frontlines of climate change.
<p>The latter category held enough short and feature documentaries to fill up an entire weekend — and more. Throughout these diverse pieces was a common probing of the disproportionate impacts of climate change on the health and wellbeing of indigenous communities, people of color, and economically disadvantaged individuals.</p><p>Several films shared intimate stories of people who have lost, or will soon lose, their homes and customs to rising seas and oil and gas development in coastal Louisiana.</p><p>Others examined hard-hit communities in fire-ravaged California, including how fire compounds other pressures of daily life for immigrant families. In one film, for example, a woman says some families she knows plan to evacuate who, in an upcoming mandatory evacuation, think they simply will drive to the coast, climb down the cliffs, and take their chances on the shoreline itself, rather than risk running into customs officers at a shelter.</p><p>Several films also criss-crossed the globe to reveal connections between, for instance, climate refugees in Bangladesh and air pollution in Texas.</p><p>But even the most sobering films contained glimmers of hope, a theme the festival organizers took great pains to nurture — from activist workshops held throughout the weekend, to simple action-oriented steps available at each screening and at booths outside, such as signing a petition.</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://www.yaleclimateconnections.org/2020/03/seven-of-the-best-new-documentaries-about-global-warming/" target="_blank">Yale Climate Connections</a>.</em></p>
Seven Films to Add to Your Climate Watchlist
<p>There were too many standouts at the 18th annual environmental film festival to list here, including several "Yuby Award" winners (named in honor of the Yuba River, which the festival was launched to help protect). Following are a few highlights that exemplify the human impact of climate change, in alphabetical order:</p>After the Fire (18 min. documentary, see trailer below)
<iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/255336063" width="100%" height="480" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="0fd19d6b9ff2252b855909b406b4234c"></iframe><p>For some, Sonoma Valley is the glamorous wine-studded landscape we see in movies. But for real-world residents, it's just home – or, it used to be, before the recent fires destroyed their own homes. This film follows several locals as they try to rebuild not just a home but a life. For example, there's the young immigrant mom struggling to find work, because the restaurants where she'd normally work have no customers. There's the senior sculptor who's lost his life's work, along with all his family heirlooms. The only thing he has left from his mother is a potted hibiscus plant, which he nurtures tenderly. Skyrocketing rents plague both their efforts. The sculptor must move in with his daughter, and the young mother says she's had to choose between rent and food. Neither is alone: "We're all scared, whether or not we have our papers," says the mom. This is a story of loss, but also of resilience – as evidenced perhaps best by the hibiscus not just once, when it miraculously survives the fire, but again later when, with care, it begins to bloom again.</p>Blowout: Inside America’s Energy Gamble (79 min. documentary, see trailer below)
<span style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="350d9c79032c3e3032e8ac460abb9e82"><iframe lazy-loadable="true" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/VsqEw2NTf5g?rel=0" width="100%" height="auto" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;"></iframe></span><p>"We're the sacrifice zone," says a resident of Port Arthur, Texas, where soaring cancer rates have been linked to nearby oil, gas, and petrochemical development. From there, through the Panama Canal and across Asia, the film connects global oil and gas activity to human life around the world. From a family displaced by sea-level rise in Dhaka, Bangladesh, to one considering moving from hurricane-soaked Panama City, Florida, Blowout packs in data of rising emissions and temperatures without sacrificing the human side of the equation.</p><p>Available to watch online at Amazon Prime, Fire TV, Roku, Vizio, and Apple TV.</p>The Condor and the Eagle (82 min. documentary, see trailer below)
<iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/359405536" width="100%" height="480" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="26cbdafacf8c3d5f17874b62c39ba2dd"></iframe><p>Punctuated by vivid animation and music, this film opens with an old prophecy, one that's been recorded by indigenous communities across the Western hemisphere: "When the eagle of the North and the condor of the South fly together, the spirit of the land will reawaken." Now, as the 21st century unfolds, we see four indigenous environmental leaders helping bring this prophecy to life, working to reduce the impacts of oil and gas production across great distances, from the tar sands of Alberta, Canada, to the Amazonian jungles of Ecuador. They come together at global climate summits and marches, returning with new insight to work in their own communities. Their work ranges from crusading against "environmental genocide" in the Amazon, to fighting toxic emissions in a Texas town where too many kids are growing up with asthma and leukemia. It's an onerous journey, but by sharing traditional wisdom and conviction, these leaders offer hope to communities well outside their own domain.</p>Last Call for the Bayou: Five Stories from Louisiana’s Disappearing Coastline (53 min. documentary, see trailer below)
<iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/323350759" width="100%" height="480" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="1b58fc4a363ae53a8ee51f7a29f79b15"></iframe><p>Shot on location in the Louisiana delta, this film boasts a diverse crew of real-life characters, from the self-proclaimed "Duck Queen" fighting for wetland preservation and the mud-tasting scientist (yes, he actually nibbles mud as part of his testing), to the third generation shrimper who's running out of work, and the aerial photographer documenting environmental change. Each in their own way is grappling with Louisiana's diminishing wetlands — every hour an area the size of a football field is lost. Can they find a way to restore the coastline without sacrificing the local economy? Together, their stories show how sea-level rise is already threatening livelihoods. As the photographer ponders, hovering a thousand feet above the shrinking barrier islands in a jetpack, "One major hurricane and we'll all be looking for a new place to live."</p>Lowland Kids (22 min. documentary, see trailer below)
<iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/282694564" width="100%" height="480" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="45ec52f42c8f810244a89cdd4ca91294"></iframe><p>Coastal Louisiana's Isle de Jean Charles is sinking, creating the first climate refugees in the U.S. mainland. To go behind the headlines, the filmmakers introduce Howard and Juliette, aka "the last teenagers" on the island, and their uncle, who's raised them here since they were small children. They've each grown up enjoying freedom and peace here, from late-night alligator watching and water fights to quiet sunset conversations. And they're not looking forward to moving: The teenagers worry about what it will be like to have close neighbors. Chris, the uncle, has lived his whole life on the island, and mourns that "part of me will always be here, because this is where life began for me." Asked how he feels about being called one of the nation's first climate refugees, he says it's strange, and yet, with rising seas and the forced move upon him, admits he hasn't been able to find a better word.</p>Mossville: When Great Trees Fall (75 min. documentary, see trailer below)
<iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/145085489" width="100%" height="480" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="ad483840dc14a7b1d98ea86945e7c841"></iframe><p>Winner of the festival's Spirit of Activism award, this film explores the deeply troubling impacts of industrial petrochemical development in Mossville, Louisiana — a community founded in 1790 by ex-slave Jack Moss. For generations, people of color lived here in peace, geographically insulated from the rest of the Jim Crow South. Today, however, the southwestern Louisiana community has been "erased," replaced by massive petrochemical plants, including the nearly complete new multi-billion-dollar project projected to produce more greenhouse gases than anywhere else in the state. The toll has already been dire, with mechanic and father Stacey Ryan reporting he's lost most of his family to cancer and other health impacts he blames on the plants' toxic emissions. But the losses aren't over. The company behind the new plant has forced most residents to move out, and Ryan is unwilling to budge. The audience sees his home become a surreal holdout in an increasingly decimated landscape: The neighbors are all gone, as are their houses. His fenced-in yard is suddenly dwarfed by sprung-from-nowhere industrial roads and buildings. We watch as his power and water are shut off, his mailbox eerily poking into relentless truck traffic. And we watch as his health and vitality slowly decline, all because he refuses to give up the home his grandparents built for a plant whose greenhouse gas emissions stand to threaten far more than the homes that once surrounded it.</p>The Story of Plastic (94 min. documentary, see trailer below)
<span style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="5553e3cdc79672760b44a9baf19f2d96"><iframe lazy-loadable="true" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/krhZmrDVv_k?rel=0" width="100%" height="auto" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;"></iframe></span><p>When people think about plastic as a problem, they often think just about its end state: as waste carelessly strewn into the ocean, killing off seabirds and other creatures tragically having mistaken the inedible trash for food. But The Story of Plastic makes a strong case for rethinking that narrative. With global reporting, archival footage, and simple storyboard animation, this Yuby-winning film presents plastic as a primary contributor to climate change throughout its lifecycle, as a carefully orchestrated byproduct industry of oil and gas production. To lay out the global impact of plastic production, the film carries viewers across the U.S. South, to Belgium, Indonesia, India and China, exposing in each place the human and climate impacts of rapidly escalating plastic production and use.</p><p>Films about real-world people struggling with the effects of climate change may not be easy to watch. But as one filmmaker said in response to the comment that her film was sad, "I personally find these stories incredibly inspiring — there are a ton of people around the world working together to address these issues — and that gives me a lot of hope."</p><p><em>Note: Not all of the above films are available yet online. Keep an eye out for a local edition of the <a href="https://www.wildandscenicfilmfestival.org/on-tour/" target="_blank">Wild and Scenic On Tour</a> program, coming soon to roughly 250 events across the U.S.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
- 6 Must-See Movies About Climate Change - EcoWatch ›
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Big Data, Big Oil: Unveiling the 'Dark Forces' Behind Trump’s 2020 Reelection Campaign With Josh Fox
14 January
Insights + Opinion
Josh Fox, award winning filmmaker and director, speaking on stage at Collision 2017 in New Orleans, Louisiana on May 2, 2017. CC BY 2.0
By Reynard Loki
Josh Fox, the Emmy-winning and Oscar-nominated filmmaker behind Gasland, the documentary that started the global anti-fracking movement, is bringing a new message to audiences across the country with The Truth Has Changed, a live theater-based project that sounds the alarm on the right-wing disinformation campaign working to secure President Trump's reelection.
<p> Commissioned by legendary documentary producer Sheila Nevins for HBO as a solo performance to inspire grassroots action, <em>The Truth Has Changed</em> traces Fox's personal arc from 9/11 to present-day America to tell a story that is both a warning and a prescription to save our democracy — and the planet.</p>
<p>I talked to Fox about this new project and the dark forces working to spread lies and misinformation to influence the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/2020-election">2020 presidential election</a>.</p><p><span></span><strong>Reynard Loki</strong>: Your films have been about the environment, and the fight to save it from climate change, fracking, <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/pipelines">pipelines</a>, the activists at Standing Rock. How has your previous work led you to your new live performance-based project, <em>The Truth Has Changed</em>?</p><p><strong>Josh Fox</strong>: That's a great question. It started with an intriguing proposal from HBO. They said, "We know you do theater. We know you've been on the road for 10 years bringing your films to people. And you in a live setting is a part of the show, right? It's not just that people come out to see your films. They come to see you, so how about you do a one-man show that brings that reality to the people?" And that was an assignment from Sheila Nevins when she was at HBO. And I said, "Absolutely; I'll try this." And then I started to really think about it, and at first, it was kind of a reporter's notebook, but to be honest, what I really zeroed in on was the fact that for the last 10 years, the oil and gas industry has made a huge effort to discredit my work and discredit all of the people who spoke about how bad fracking is. And this is very similar to the campaigns of climate denial, which hinge on widespread misinformation and then spreading disinformation and propaganda, smear and lies.</p>
<p><strong>RL</strong>: Can you describe the effort to discredit your work?</p><p><strong>JF</strong>: Big names in conservative smear campaigns were following me all around the country. [Steve] Bannon. Conservative commentator Andrew Breitbart. Filmmaker Phelim McAleer, whose pro-fracking documentary "FrackNation" attempted to refute my own documentary <em>Gasland</em>. Conservative activist James O'Keefe. GOP media strategist Fred Davis. These high-profile right-wing charlatans clearly did opposition research on me. They collected all this data on me and figured out how to attack me personally. They tried to get inside my psyche to unnerve me. And they did it in a very specific and deliberate kind of way.</p><p><strong>RL</strong>: What exactly did they do?</p><p><strong>JF</strong>: They created hate emails specifically designed for my personality. There were tweets threats; there were death threats on Twitter. They highlighted my life in the theater, my hairline, the fact that my family's Jewish; they found out that I had quit smoking several years ago, but they found a picture of me with a cigarette in my hand online from the past, and they ran that as a pro-fracking TV ad in Ohio saying, "This environmentalist is a smoker." They followed me around the country for years. They booked shadow tours of our films. They tapped into ethnic and regional stereotyping. And then they tried to paint me as some kind of rich, intellectual, New York City liberal, which is not the case. They flung all of these stereotypes at me. They gathered all this information about me — my background, my ethnicity, my age, my race, where I live, where I went to school, how much money I made, what I had done in my previous life before the films.</p>
<p><strong>RL</strong>: Are you saying that those techniques used against you are similar to the current disinformation campaigns we're seeing today? Could you have been a kind of beta test for this data-based approach to spread propaganda?</p><p><strong>JF</strong>: Absolutely. Basically, what Steve Bannon did to me from 2010 to 2015, he did to the entire American electorate in 2016. In developing <em>The Truth Has Changed,</em> I made two startling realizations. One was that the people who ran those campaigns against me had a very strong hand in influencing the 2016 election: Steve Bannon, who was running Breitbart when all these attacks were happening against me, took over the Trump campaign and his team profiled the electorate in the exact same way. This connection led me down two trails in my own life. The first looked back to my own personal history as a grandson of Holocaust survivors. I have an intimate knowledge of how white supremacy works, how the Nazi playbook operates, and feel a sense of intergenerational trauma. The second trail looks to the present time and the future, to how the same techniques that were used in a smear campaign against an individual through Google, Facebook, data collection, [and] <a href="https://www.adweek.com/brand-marketing/5-things-you-should-know-about-addressable-ads-more-dollars-shift-digital-173653/" target="_blank">addressable ad technology</a>, which enables advertisers to selectively segment audiences to serve different ads, are used to influence a massive amount of people. And instead of just following one person around and knowing one person's data — mine — now they know the personal data of tens of millions of people, and they use that information to create highly personalized ads according to different personality types.</p>
<p><strong></strong><strong>RL</strong>: How important was big data to Trump's victory in 2016?</p><p><strong>JF</strong>: During the 2016 election, CNN called political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica "<a href="https://www.cnn.com/2016/11/04/politics/donald-trump-political-ads-cambridge-analytica/index.html" target="_blank">Donald Trump's mind readers</a>" and his "secret weapon." They gathered up to <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/radio/day6/episode-359-harvey-weinstein-a-stock-market-for-sneakers-trump-s-data-mining-the-curious-incident-more-1.4348278/data-mining-firm-behind-trump-election-built-psychological-profiles-of-nearly-every-american-voter-1.4348283" target="_blank">5,000 data points on more than 220 million Americans</a>. And they used that data to tailor ads specifically toward people's personality types to influence their thinking. The same folks are currently rallying white supremacists all across the world and are making a bid to get Trump reelected in 2020. Their digital campaign created <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/20/us/elections/trump-campaign-ads-democrats.html" target="_blank">5.9 million different ad variations in 2016</a>, versus just 66,000 ads created by Hillary Clinton's campaign. It was so key to Trump's victory that Trump's digital campaign manager <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/brad-parscale-campaign-manger-trump-2020/" target="_blank">Brad Parscale is now his campaign manager</a>.</p><p><strong>RL</strong>: So in "The Truth Is Changed," you're connecting big oil and white supremacy to big data — and how these forces are working together to influence the 2020 election.</p><p><strong>JF</strong>: Yes, we're talking about Bannon and the white supremacy movement. We're talking about Trump's former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who, before that, was the head of ExxonMobil and the oil and gas industry, which has brazenly taken over the government. We're talking about Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and their collection of the personal data of billions of people around the globe. Together, they have created a situation in which big data, big oil and white supremacists powerfully influence the way the United States government operates. And certainly, in the 2020 election cycle, we're going to have a very hard time figuring out what is true. I think we're going to see the largest smear, misinformation and disinformation campaigns in the history of any election. So in <em>The Truth Has Changed</em> I'm taking a deep dive not only into the smear techniques of big oil and how they work from a new technology perspective, from psychographics to addressable ad technology, but going into how that is now how we run elections in America, and then we've entered the age of misinformation because right now it's very hard for people to tell what's true.</p><p><strong>RL</strong>: Do disinformation campaigns rely on gullibility?</p><p><strong>JF</strong>: No, I wouldn't say that at all, not with the state of our education system right now. This entire project starts with a high school girl in the front row of one of my films putting her hand up and asking me, "Josh, how do we know what's true?" She said, "You say all these things about how fracking is bad, and climate change is real, but then we can look online, and we see that people are saying that the opposite of this is true. So how do we know?" She's not gullible. She's trying, but can't figure out the difference between a persuasive argument that is true, and a persuasive argument that is false.</p><p>Friends of mine send me fake things all the time because it appeals to them. I've sent fake things out accidentally because they appeal for my sensibility. And it's not only that these ads say things like, vote for Donald Trump, he's a nice guy, or he's a tough guy, or he's a strong guy, or he's a compassionate guy. It's often taking people who are upset with the Democratic Party and funneling them toward, for example, Jill Stein, when they might otherwise vote for Hillary Clinton. And a lot of people will get really mad at me and say, "No, no, no, Jill Stein represents what I believe in." But if you're in Pennsylvania and you're voting against the Democratic platform, which Bill McKibben, Cornel West and I helped write and which has real progress in it, and that vote then gets siphoned away to put Donald Trump in office, then you've been manipulated. These disinformation campaigns often take the most deep-seated things that are really important to you and turn that into their own political gain. People are assuming that there is some kind of standard for truth because there always used to be. But last year, when Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified to Congress and declared that <a href="https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/10/mark-zuckerberg-facebook-lies-trump-ads.html" target="_blank">political candidates no longer had to abide by any kind of standards of truth</a>, they abandoned a century's worth of journalistic integrity. And they are arguably the largest news publisher in the world.</p>
<p><strong>RL</strong>: In the face of all of this, what can we do to suss out truth from lies?</p><p><strong>JF</strong>: We always have to check for accuracy. The pursuit of the truth is not something that can be done easily, and it never has been. However, we are now seeing the standard-bearers of journalism consistently undermined, and they themselves also make mistakes and who are also subject to manipulation. The New York Times publishes things directly from State Department press releases constantly; it's maddening. Today, people need to work harder to get to the truth. But beyond that, we must control and own our own data, because if someone knows you really well, it's really easy for them to manipulate you.</p><p>Take, for example, the 1988 presidential election that pitted incumbent GOP Vice President George H.W. Bush against Democratic Governor Michael Dukakis. [Those who are old enough] probably remember the <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/01/politics/willie-horton-ad-1988-explainer-trnd/index.html" target="_blank">Willie Horton ad</a>, a racist ad put out by the Republican campaign against Michael Dukakis, and it obviously caused a huge wave of controversy and anger because it was racist. But it only caused that level of controversy because it was visible to everyone. Now you can run 1,000 Willie Horton ads. You can run 10,000 Willie Horton ads. You can run a Willie Horton ad supposedly put out there by a fake Black Lives Matter page, and no one would ever know. So if you put out a racist ad and only racists can see it, it causes absolutely no controversy, but it's deeply effective in rallying people. And a lot of the times people don't even know that they're racist. So you might have things happening to folks on an unconscious level, on a deep psychological level that they're not aware of. But the internet knows. If you've got 5,000 data points on somebody, you know them on a very intimate level, you know their psychology, you know what they're afraid of, you know their sexual orientation, you know their medical history, their age, their race. So your campaign to win them over becomes very effective.</p><p><strong>RL</strong>: So, how do we get to a point where <a href="https://www.economist.com/open-future/2019/01/21/we-need-to-own-our-data-as-a-human-right-and-be-compensated-for-it" target="_blank">owning your personal data is a human right</a>? Is this ever going to happen?</p><p><strong>JF</strong>: There have to be laws, and those laws have to be in line with the current technology. We're currently working with the New York State Senate to create a new slate of laws. There's a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Consumer_Privacy_Act" target="_blank">privacy law in California</a> that's just recently been passed, but there's <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/29/technology/california-privacy-law.html" target="_blank">some dispute as to how companies are supposed to comply</a>. And so there have to be laws about data privacy that we can campaign for, but the Democrat campaigns must also address this issue. The New York Times recently reported that the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/15/technology/2020-campaigns-disinformation.html" target="_blank">Democrats have no strategy to stop this wave of misinformation</a>. But they need to understand that how they handle misinformation is going to be the difference between tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of votes in battleground states like Michigan and Pennsylvania and Florida. So the Democrats have to get really serious about this issue — and they have to address it really fast. I've appealed to the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/bernie-sanders" rel="noopener noreferrer">Bernie Sanders</a>, <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/Elizabeth-Warren" rel="noopener noreferrer">Elizabeth Warren</a> and other campaigns, saying that this is really serious because it's about to happen — and it's going to happen worse than it's ever happened before.</p>
<p><strong>RL</strong>: Should we be allowed to sell our data?</p><p><strong>JF</strong>: That is a fascinating question. I don't know if I have a real clear answer. I mean, it's being collected by your action, right? Everything you buy, everywhere you go, everything you search for, all things you know and all the things you don't know, all that data goes in, and the algorithm learns what you personally crave and what you personally lack and what you really want in life, so that's a digital map of your dreams, your insecurities, your life. And it is sort of like you're on the road, right? It's your digital biography. Do you own your movements in the world? It's a very interesting question. I imagine there are some benefits. So, for example, if you're on Instagram and you're a man, and you're constantly getting ads for feminine hygiene products, they're an annoyance; they're not useful to you. So perhaps you want to get ads that are more tailored to you. And of course, the way the news works these days is the news gives you back things that you agree with and that you want to see and that you want to read because there's so much information out there. This does backfire upon you because, at that point, you end up being manipulated by the fact that now interests that are foreign to you and nefarious to you and harmful to you can start to target you.</p><p><strong>RL</strong>: How has the truth crisis impacted the climate crisis?</p><p><strong>JF</strong>: They go hand-in-hand. We get our terrestrial proof from the Earth. The planet is empirical data. Climate change deniers are saying that the empirical data that's coming from the Earth is not true. Where do they say that? Principally, they say that online, which is its own "planet," the cybersphere. It's a planet that doesn't exist on Earth. It exists by its own rules and has its own set of priorities. And if you leave terrestrial Earth, yeah, you can make it wherever you want. So when you're in that cybersphere, it reigns true whenever you feel like on that particular day, for whomever is willing to pay for it.</p><p>The tobacco industry originally started doing this. They started to say things like, "Smoking is good for you." And they created all this bogus science and fake reports that said, "These cigarettes are fine." And what they were trying to do is sow confusion in people and stave off regulation. The exact same technique has been used by the oil industry.</p>
<p><strong></strong><strong>RL</strong>: Why is the truth crisis such an urgent matter?</p><p><strong>JF</strong>: It's so important because the further we get away from the terrestrial planet as our source of empirical reality, the closer we come to being evicted from the planet like climate change, and that is those same forces, the oil industry and the conservatives that are forcing us to an unlivable world. This is an emergency because of the climate. It's also an emergency because we're seeing right now the reemergence of white supremacists and Nazis on this planet, and they are taking over. Right-wing authoritarian governments are sweeping elections across the earth, and they're doing so primarily by using Facebook and WhatsApp and by lying directly to the public. <a href="https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/w/tens-thousands-fake-twitter-accounts-set-back-bolivia-coup" target="_blank">Sixty-eight thousand fake Twitter accounts</a> helped push the recent Bolivian coup. In the UK, Boris Johnson's recent election, <a href="https://metro.co.uk/2019/12/10/investigation-finds-88-tory-ads-misleading-compared-0-labour-11651802/" target="_blank">88 percent</a> of the conservative parties' advertisements were misleading. In Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro was elected with the help of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/oct/25/brazil-president-jair-bolsonaro-whatsapp-fake-news" target="_blank">fake news messages sent via WhatsApp</a>, a messaging app used by 120 million Brazilians, saying that his opponent was a criminal. Obviously, there's Donald Trump, who had <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/20/us/elections/trump-campaign-ads-democrats.html" target="_blank">5.9 million ad variations</a> using Cambridge Analytica. There's also Rodrigo Duterte in the Philippines. Narendra Modi in India. There are dozens of examples. So you're seeing right-wing, authoritarian, racist regimes cropping up all over the world. And in 2019, Steve Bannon raised <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/movies/movie-reviews/the-brink-movie-review-steve-bannon-812011/" target="_blank">$100 million</a> for his white supremacist project in Europe. </p><p>So what is really dangerous about all of this is the two-headed monster of the rise of white supremacy, Nazism and racism on the one hand and on the other hand, climate change denial and the fossil fuel industry. And these are linked, and these are linked in the persona and in many actions by the Trump administration. In 2017, Rex Tillerson, former CEO of ExxonMobil turned Secretary of State, created a <a href="https://time.com/5372923/cambridge-analytica-state-department-terrorist-propaganda/" target="_blank">contract between the State Department and Cambridge Analytica</a>, and their mission was to influence elections all across the world. Big data and big oil running American diplomacy. And that continues to this day.</p><p><strong>RL</strong>: Why should people see <em>The Truth Has Changed</em>? </p><p><strong>JF</strong>: Because this is a chance to rally for the truth. It's the chance to rally for a new America. This project concerns itself with the oil industry, the world at war post-9/11, climate change. We've seen the United States get <a href="https://www.truthdig.com/articles/war-with-iran/" target="_blank">closer to war with Iran</a>. We see Australia on fire, and authorities there must battle <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/01/10/795218092/australias-wildfires-spark-disinformation-battle-as-they-take-a-tragic-toll" target="_blank">misinformation campaigns contending that the fires were caused by arson and not climate change</a>. We know that we're watching the <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/05/20/climate-change-and-the-new-age-of-extinction" target="_blank">extinction of countless species in real time</a>. We're in an emergency.</p><p>At every single performance of <em>The Truth Has Changed</em> there will be activists in the room who are campaigning on these issues, and that's what we need to do. We need to set the record straight. We need to say climate change is real. We need to say fracking is bad, we need to see Donald Trump as a racist and say that is not who we are as a nation. So we have to take our country back, and this is our effort to try to fight back against this wave of lies, smear and misinformation.</p>
<p><em><em>The Truth Has Changed</em> opens at New York's Public Theater this January and will tour across the United States. For more information, visit </em><a href="https://www.internationalwow.com/tthc.php" target="_blank"><em>internationalwow.com/tthc.php</em></a><em>.</em></p><p><em></em><em>Reynard Loki is a senior writing fellow and the editor and chief correspondent for <a href="https://independentmediainstitute.org/earth-food-life/" target="_blank">Earth | Food | Life</a></em><em>, a project of the Independent Media Institute.</em></p><p><em><em>This article was produced by </em><a href="https://independentmediainstitute.org/earth-food-life/" target="_blank"><em>Earth | Food | Life</em></a><em>, a project of the Independent Media Institute.</em></em></p>From Your Site Articles
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Petrochemical facilities in the Houston ship channel. Roy Luck / CC BY 2.0
By Tara Lohan
Prigi Arisandi, who founded the environmental group Ecological Observation and Wetlands Conservation, picks through a heap of worn plastic packaging in Mojokerto, Indonesia. Reading the labels, he calls out where the trash originated: the United States, Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom, Canada. The logos range from Nestlé to Bob's Red Mill, Starbucks to Dunkin Donuts.
The trash of rich nations has become the burden of poorer countries.
<p>It's one of dozens of moving scenes in a new feature-length documentary called <em><a href="https://www.storyofplastic.org/" target="_blank">The Story of Plastic,</a></em> directed by <a href="http://palebluedotmedia.com/contact" target="_blank">Deia Schlosberg</a> and presented by <a href="https://storyofstuff.org/" target="_blank">The Story Of Stuff Project</a>, the organization first known for its <a href="https://storyofstuff.org/movies/" target="_blank">punchy digital shorts</a> about consumption and environmental issues.</p><p>We all know by now that plastic waste is a problem — it's washing ashore on beaches, swirling in giant ocean eddies, gumming up the insides of whales and seabirds, and embedding itself in the farthest reaches of the planet. But most media coverage focuses on the end of the line — where plastics end up — and not where they came from or why.</p><p><em>The Story of Plasti</em>c fills that void.</p>
<span style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="5553e3cdc79672760b44a9baf19f2d96"><iframe lazy-loadable="true" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/krhZmrDVv_k?rel=0" width="100%" height="auto" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;"></iframe></span><p>The film, which made its <a href="https://www.storyofplastic.org/watch" target="_blank">world premiere</a> on Sunday, takes viewers on a global journey to Pennsylvania, Texas, California, the Philippines, Indonesia, China and India, among other places. It's a trek through the supply chain that begins with fracked natural gas in the United States and ends with literal mountains of plastic waste on the other side of the world.</p><p>"I don't think most people know that if you want it to stop plastic from going into the ocean in Indonesia you need to ban fracking in the Ohio River valley," Stiv Wilson, the film's executive producer, <a href="https://therevelator.org/plastic-movie-stuff/" target="_blank">told <em>The Revelator</em></a> in an interview earlier this year. "So our intention with the film is to show the entire system of plastic and that includes every stage and also that upstream the human health concerns are way more significant than eating fish that's eaten plastic — living next to a refinery for plastics is going to be far more dangerous."</p><p>The film exposes the flawed and failed prophecy of recycling, which works well for glass and metals but fails miserably at dealing with plastics. Only 14 percent of plastics are recycled and only 2 percent effectively, the film explains. Most plastics degrade when recycled and don't end up made into something as useful the second time around.</p><p>Heaps of useless plastic are then shipped abroad to countries like China, Indonesia and India, where much of it ends up polluting waterways and endangering drinking water and wildlife. Or it's burned next to communities and farms. Local people are left to deal with the health implications — respiratory problems, skin rashes, shorter life expectancy, cancer.</p><p>All of that makes it a "life and death issue for most people — at least in this part of the world," said Von Hernandez in the film. He works with the global collective <a href="https://www.breakfreefromplastic.org/" target="_blank">Break Free From Plastic</a> in the Philippines, where a local fisherman reports that these days, plastic makes up 40 percent of his catch.</p><p>As the film hops around the globe it relies on the voices of people working in their communities toward solutions to the plastic pollution problem. Shibu K. Nair, a zero-waste champion in India, has one of the most poignant lines. The "entire economy we have around recycling is possible because we have poverty," he says. Waste pickers, mostly marginalized women, work for low cost.</p><p>But even this exploitative economy is starting to unravel as more and more countries follow China's lead in refusing to take the waste of wealthier nations, and as more and more local groups unite internationally to tackle the problem at the source.</p><p>One of the key narratives of <em>The Story of Plastic</em> is tracking the timeline and talking points of the petrochemical industry, which produces some 400 million metric tons of plastic each year. And since 99 percent of plastic is fossil fuels, the folks behind plastics are the same as those digging for oil and gas: Exxon, Shell, Conoco Philipps, Dow Dupont.</p><p>We see how they cleverly market their products, push for personal responsibility in the face of corporate malfeasance, cheerlead for doomed taxpayer-funded recycling programs, and dole out piddling contributions for beach cleanups. All the while, they're distracting the public from the true answer: the fact that we don't need so much plastic crap.</p><p>While the industry pushes its plastic products as lifesaving (like medical devices and bike helmets), the bulk of it is stuff we didn't have a few decades ago and don't need now — things like plastic straws and single-serving packets of soy sauce. "We only use them once and they stay forever," Tiza Mafira, a policy expert and lawyer in Jakarta, said in the film. "They're not something that we need as an essential part of our lives and yet here we are — stuck with it."</p><p>Watching <em>The Story of Plastic </em>is liable to make you take a (likely shameful) look at the ubiquitous presence of plastic in your own life. But the film's message isn't for each of us to ditch straws — the problem is far too systemic for that. Rather it's a call for <a href="https://therevelator.org/california-plastic-legislation/" target="_blank">producer responsibility</a>. Ramping up fossil fuel production, as the petrochemical industry's doing right now, is the last thing we need as we attempt to manage our climate crisis. Companies instead need to design their products with a plan for how they will be reused, composted or effectively recycled. And we need to focus way more on reducing and reusing.</p><p>"The industry is out there pushing the idea that this is all because of bad management — that the waste is here because the government isn't putting enough funding into proper waste management," said Mafira. "But they're distracting from the truth, which is that there's no way you can manage this waste — it's not meant to be managed."</p><p>She added, "I think we should ban together and have a serious discussion on a global scale because these companies are operating on a global scale."</p><p><em>The Story of Plastic</em> is currently making its way to film festivals around the country. Find a local screening and more information about the movie and its messages <a href="https://www.storyofplastic.org/watch" target="_blank">here</a>.</p>
<p> <em>Reposted with permission from our media associate <a href="https://therevelator.org/story-plastic-review/" target="_blank">The Revelator</a>. </em><em></em></p>
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By Eva Perroni
Film is an incredible tool for effecting change in the food system with its unique ability to educate, inspire and grow the movement for sustainable food and farming. Film can transport viewers to unseen territories, from Colombian coffee-growing regions to the bottom of the ocean, and unveil the stories, struggles and triumphs of those working in the hidden fabric of the food system.
<p style="">Powerful films can help spark worldwide awareness and debate on some of the most pressing food and agriculture issues, as well as reinforce and reenergize environmental and sustainability activism efforts. Food Tank has curated a list of 18 recent food films that inspire, outrage and mobilize. </p><p style=""><strong>1. A Place at the Table</strong></p><p style=""><em><a href="http://www.takepart.com/place-at-the-table/film/index.html" target="_blank">A Place at the Table</a></em> investigates the issue of hunger in the U.S. and how it affects nearly 50 million American lives. The film follows the stories of three people suffering from <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/regenerative-farming-poverty-migration-2507110146.html">food insecurity</a>: Barbie, a single Philadelphia mother, Rosie, a Colorado fifth-grader and Tremonica, a Mississippi second-grader with several health problems. With appearances by Jeff Bridges, Raj Patel, chef Tom Colicchio and many other food activists, the film demonstrates how the problem of hunger can be solved once and for all if the American public and government mobilize to make healthy food available and affordable for all citizens.</p><p style=""><strong>2. Blue</strong></p><p>A film two years in the making, <em><a href="https://bluethefilm.org/" target="_blank">Blue</a></em> travels across Indonesia, the Philippines, Hawaii and Australia to capture stand-out ocean and marine life stories. Featuring passionate advocates for ocean preservation, <em>Blue</em> explores subjects such as industrial-scale fishing, <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/oil-spills-marine-life-2498477814.html">marine habitat destruction</a> and species loss, and the world's plastic pollution problem, diving deep into the issues that are driving mass ocean change around the globe. A combination of investigative journalism, underwater cinematography and public awareness campaign, <em>Blue</em> both documents and encourages a global movement to save the world's <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/oceans">oceans</a>.</p><p style=""><strong>3. Bugs</strong></p><p><a href="http://www.bugsfeed.com/film" target="_blank"><em>Bugs</em></a> follows chefs and researchers Josh Evans, Ben Reade and Roberto Flore from the Nordic Food Lab around the world as they explore how to forage, farm, cook and taste insects. Film director Andreas Johnsen traces their journey across Europe, Australia, Mexico, Kenya, Japan and beyond to learn from some of the two billion people who eat insects worldwide. Throughout their experiences and conversations in the field, the lab, at farm visits and international conferences, the team explore the possibilities and challenges for scaling-up insect production.</p><p style=""><strong>4. Caffeinated</strong></p><p>Focusing on the social and cultural components of the coffee supply chain, <em><a href="http://caffeinated.vhx.tv/" target="_blank">Caffeinated</a></em> takes viewers on a journey from the farmers responsible for growing a perfect bean to the roasters and baristas responsible for brewing a perfect cup. Working with one of the foremost green coffee buyers in the world, Geoff Watts, filmmakers Hanh Nguyen and Vishal Solanki travel to leading coffee producing countries and America's most populous coffee-drinking cities, interviewing farmers, researchers and connoisseurs alike. <em>Caffeinated</em> reveals that farmers are the lynchpin to the more than 1 billion cups of coffee enjoyed each day and affirms the necessity for sustainably produced coffee beans.</p><p style=""><strong>5. Dolores</strong></p><p><em><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt6013154/" target="_blank">Dolores</a></em> tells the story of lifetime activist Dolores Huerta, who worked alongside Cesar Chavez for better working conditions for Latino farmworkers and women's rights. Directed by Peter Bratt, the documentary chronicles Huerta's time with the United Farm Workers union—which she co-founded with Chavez in the 1960s—and the racial and economic injustices she experienced in California's agricultural Central Valley. It also captures Huerta's key achievements, including her central involvement in a national grape boycott and the historic farmworkers march to Sacramento in 1966, as well as receiving The Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Obama in 2012.</p><p style=""><strong>6. Farmland</strong></p><p style=""><em><a href="http://www.farmlandfilm.com/" target="_blank">Farmland</a></em> takes an intimate look at the lives of six young American farmers and ranchers, all of whom are under the age of 30 and responsible for running their farming business. Director James Moll travels across the U.S. to profile those who have not only carried on their family's profession for generations but are also at the forefront of a new era in American agriculture. The documentary, made with the support of the U.S. Farmers and Ranchers Alliance, aims to tell the farmers' side of the agriculture production story, detailing the high-risks and high-rewards inherent in getting food from farm to fork.</p><p style=""><strong>7. Fed Up</strong></p><p>Narrated by Katie Couric, <a href="http://fedupmovie.com/#/page/home" target="_blank"><em>Fed Up</em></a> is an American documentary film focusing on the causes of obesity in the U.S., and the government's role in both its prevention and spread. The film traces the history of processed foods, the dangerous and increasing levels of sugar and sweeteners that have been added to them over time, and their contribution to childhood obesity and diet-related disease. It also follows the rise of the major companies and players in the sugar industry, pointing to the lobbying power of Big Sugar in blocking and influencing policies and regulations for sweetened food and drinks.</p><p style=""><strong>8. Home Flavored</strong></p><p>Written and performed by young poet Monica Mendoza, this short film is a powerful and poignant portrait of how soda and snack food companies impact the lives of Latino families in the U.S. A fusion of slam poetry, cultural anthropology and advocacy, <a href="http://realfoodfilms.org/video/home-flavored/" target="_blank">Home Flavored</a> hopes to spark a conversation about the epidemic of obesity and diet-related disease. The film won Real Food Media's 2016 Food and Farming Short Film Competition.</p><p style=""><strong>9. In Our Hands</strong></p><p style="">From Black Bark Films and the United Kingdom's Landworkers Alliance, <em><a href="http://inourhands.film/" target="_blank">In Our Hands</a> </em>documents the growing movement of farmers and food workers who are creating alternate, sustainable and healthy models for food production and distribution in the UK. The documentary explores the quiet revolution of farmers working to build a food system that will bring health back to the soil, a fair wage to the farmer and more nutritious food for all. Designed to be an open source tool and resource for farmers and activists, <em>In Our Hands</em> aims to inspire and educate about the movement for a fair and sustainable food system.</p><p style=""><strong>10. Jeremiah Tower: The Last Magnificent</strong></p><p><em><a href="http://jeremiahtower.film/" target="_blank">Jeremiah Tower: The Last Magnificent</a> </em>explores the life and career of Jeremiah Tower, one of America's first celebrity chef-restaurateurs. The film follows Tower's career from its start at the renowned Chez Panisse in Berkeley in 1972, to the launch of his own Stars Restaurant in San Francisco, one of America's top-grossing U.S. restaurants. Featuring interviews by Anthony Bourdain, Ruth Reichl and Martha Stewart, this documentary highlights the controversy, influence, and rise and fall of one of the leading figures in American gastronomy.</p><p style=""><strong>11. Kale vs. Cow: The Case for Better Meat <em></em></strong></p><p>In <em><a href="https://vimeo.com/251497558" target="_blank">Kale vs. Cow</a> (<em>forthcoming)</em></em>, podcast and blog author of Sustainable Dish, Diana Rodgers, questions whether a healthy, sustainable and conscientious food system can exist without animals. Focusing specifically on beef production and consumption, this documentary probes the fundamental moral, environmental and nutritional quandaries humans face in raising and eating animals. <em>Kale vs. Cow</em> focuses on personal stories of people who are involved in better meat production while demonstrating that naturally produced meat can be part of a healthy, sustainable and ethical diet.</p><p style=""><strong>12. Kiss the Ground<em></em></strong></p><p><a href="https://kisstheground.com/" target="_blank"><em>Kiss the Ground</em></a> (<em>forthcoming 2018) </em>delves into the lives and work of passionate scientists, farmers, ranchers, chefs, activists and policymakers working to save the world's soils and drive a global movement towards a <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/rise-up-regenerate-2522783766.html">regenerative agriculture</a>. The documentary explores how soil, when properly cared for, has the potential to sequester carbon dioxide and help mitigate against climate change. <em>Kiss the Ground</em> empowers people to choose a diet that not only delivers better health and wellness but also helps rebuild one of the world's most precious resources—soil.</p><p style=""><strong>13. Life in Syntropy</strong></p><p>Made especially to be presented at the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris, this short film highlights the benefits of a regenerative farming system called Syntropic Agriculture. Developed by farmer and researcher, Ernst Gotsch, Syntropic Agriculture mimics the natural regeneration of forests, integrating food production with soil recovery techniques. <em><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSPNRu4ZPvE" target="_blank">Life in Syntropy</a></em> documents the range of ecological and agricultural possibilities of syntropic farming, showcasing successful examples from Brazil.</p><p style=""><strong>14. Peter and the Farm</strong></p><p style="">A portrait of 68-year-old Vermont organic farmer, Peter Dunning, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5535814/" target="_blank"><em>Peter and the Farm</em></a> reveals the trials and tribulations of devoting one's life to farming. Showcasing Dunning's picturesque hilltop farm in Vermont, the film quickly captures Dunning's external and internal struggles of running a 187-acre farm on his own. Documenting Dunning's battle with alcoholism, depression and the loss of most of his family and friends, <em>Peter and the Farm</em> presents the lived-in reality of organic farming from a darker, yet insightful angle.</p><p style=""><strong>15. Plant This Movie</strong></p><p style="">Narrated by Daryl Hannah, <a href="http://www.plantthismovie.com/" target="_blank"><em>Plant This Movie</em></a> explores the evolution and growing impact of urban farming around the world, including the success in Havana, Cuba to projects in Shanghai, Calcutta, Addis Ababa, London and Lima. In the U.S., the film features innovative projects in New York, New Orleans, Los Angeles, Berkeley and Portland, including the largest rooftop garden in the world and other local efforts such as student-run CSAs. Featuring leading urban farming advocates, <em>Plant This Movie</em> affirms that healthier, locally grown food, can be produced almost anywhere.</p><p style=""><strong>16. SEED: The Untold Story</strong></p><p><em><a href="https://www.seedthemovie.com/" target="_blank">SEED: The Untold Story</a></em> follows passionate seed savers and activists protecting the world's 12,000 year-old agricultural legacy. The film charts a David and Goliath battle as seed libraries, community gardens and a new generation of young farmers come up against the large, corporate chemical companies that now control the majority of the world's seeds. Featuring a wide range of interviews with prominent environmentalists and researchers, such as Vandana Shiva, Jane Goodall and Raj Patel, as well small-scale farmers indigenous communities from across the globe, <em>SEED</em> educates audiences about the importance of seed biodiversity for the future of the world's food supply.</p><p style=""><strong>17. Sustainable</strong></p><p><em><a href="https://sustainablefoodfilm.com/" target="_blank">Sustainable</a></em> investigates the social, economic and environmental issues of America's food and agriculture system and what must be done to sustain it for future generations. Spanning the country, the film draws on recommendations from farmers, restaurateurs and policymakers detailing how to move away from industrial and factory farming and find better, more sustainable ways to produce and source food. "Sustainable" was awarded the 2016 Accolade Global Humanitarian Award for Outstanding Achievement and has screened at more than 20 film festivals around the world.</p><p style=""><strong>18. WASTED! The Story of Food Waste</strong></p><p style="">From chef and television personality Anthony Bourdain, <em><a href="https://www.wastedfilm.com/" target="_blank">WASTED! The Story of Food Waste</a></em> explores both the problem of food waste in the U.S. and possible solutions from around the globe. The documentary features renowned chefs and food leaders, including Dan Barber, Massimo Bottura and Dr. Judith Rodin, who demonstrate potential ways to help solve the food waste problem, as well as policy approaches from countries such as France, Italy and South Korea, that aim to curb food waste. Through telling the story behind food waste, "WASTED!" aims to change the way people buy, cook, recycle and eat food.</p>
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An Inconvenient Truth (Film)
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By Katie O'Reilly
Hollywood loves history. Awards season 2018, after all, is buzzing with films that explore world wars, arms races, governmental and Olympic scandals. For those environmentalists who get behind the camera, however, the silver screen becomes an avenue to engage audiences in the issues, threats and hopeful developments shaping their children's future. In spite of the rapidly changing and increasingly fragmented media landscape, cinema remains a powerful tool for swiftly transforming lay viewers into impassioned advocates and activists. That's why the volunteers laboring to protect the Sierra Nevada's Yuba watershed launched the Wild & Scenic Film Festival in 2003.
<p style="">The title is apt for an event that takes place within the nature-nestled Gold Rush relics of Nevada City, California. The festival's namesake actually commemorates the 1999 designation of "Wild & Scenic" status for 39 miles of the nearby South Yuba River—a landmark achievement for the <a href="http://yubariver.org/" target="_blank">South Yuba River Citizens League</a>. Each January since the event's founding, South Yuba River Citizens League has used the festival to fundraise for its pet cause (pulling in a cool $850,000 this past year), host activist workshops (the fact that it always falls on Martin Luther King Jr. weekend does much to amplify the revolutionary spirit of the event), and screen 150-some films that explore a wide range of other local and global environmental issues.<br><br>Last Sunday, the four-day-long festival culminated with champagne, cake and an awards ceremony, but the 2018 event is far from finished. Wild & Scenic is about to hit the road, where it'll broadcast select films at museums, nature centers and nonprofits around the world.</p><p>So, which films dominated the world's most far-reaching green film festival? Here are the movies—vetted by a jury of esteemed conservationists, writers, activists and reviewers—to add to your 2018 must-watch list.<br><br>The jury awarded honorable mentions to two films: Describing the first as the contender that best captured "the tenor of our times," jurors selected David Byars's <em>No Man's Land</em> for its detailed, on-the-ground account of the 2016 standoff at Oregon's Malheur National Wildlife Refuge between armed militants led by <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/bundy-trial-verdict-2524188297.html">Ammond Bundy</a> and other protesters (many of whom are now serving jail time) and law enforcement. The former group, largely composed of right-wing activists, claimed that the <a href="https://www.fs.fed.us/" target="_blank">U.S. Forest Service</a>, <a href="https://www.blm.gov/" target="_blank">Bureau of Land Management</a> and other agencies are constitutionally required to turn over much of the federal public land they manage to individual states. <em>No Man's Land</em> grimly documents the occupation from its inception to its dramatic demise and sheds light on the dangerously disenfranchised ideologues behind it. <br><br>The other jury award went to the decidedly cheerier <a href="http://www.wastedfilm.com/" target="_blank"><em>Wasted! The Story of Food Waste</em></a>, a star-powered foodie frenzy that reveals what some of the most influential chefs—among them <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/anthony-bourdain-food-waste-2501838637.html">Anthony Bourdain</a>, Dan Barber, and Danny Bowien—are doing to "use the whole buffalo" i.e., turn what most would consider food scraps into dishes that wow gourmands and help foster a more secure food system. <em>Wasted</em> shows how food waste is contributing to climate change and lays out the small, often delicious changes that anyone can make to help respond to the ongoing crisis.<br><br>"Best Short" went to <a href="https://vimeo.com/203607557" target="_blank"><em>A Letter to Congress</em></a>, a stirring three-minute film that shows off many of America's most wild and stunning places. The real star, however, is the soundtrack: a voiceover starring Wallace Stegner as he orates his 1960 letter to Congress emphasizing the importance of preserving wilderness. The effect couldn't be more prescient, nor Stegner's words more relevant to our current state. It's a kick in the pants to unify viewers against the transfer of public lands—arguably our most valuable heritage—to private and corporate interests.</p><p style="">Outdoor adventurers and anyone who loves an epic tale of reinvention would be wise to check out this year's "Most Inspiring Adventure Film," <a href="http://www.chargedfilm.com/story/" target="_blank"><em>Charged: The Eduardo Garcia Story</em></a>. The unorthodox survival documentary tells the story of a vivacious young chef who in 2011 was shocked with 2,400 volts of electricity while hiking deep within Montana's backcountry. Despite doctors' prognosis that he was "a dead man with a heartbeat"—and the subsequent discovery that Garcia was harboring stage-2 testicular cancer—the protagonist, minus four ribs and his left hand, pulls off an emotional recovery. He also becomes an ambassador athlete and speaker for the <a href="http://www.challengedathletes.org/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMImNqPmPHi2AIVT2x-Ch0D7gHaEAAYASAAEgLpmPD_BwE" target="_blank">Challenged Athletes Foundation</a> and builds a better life after the tragedy—largely thanks, in his own estimation, to the healing power of time spent in the great outdoors.<br><br>The theme of this year's Wild & Scenic Film Festival was "Groundswell." "The idea is to encourage environmental awareness and action from the ground up—to provide the inspiration and tools people need to protect their hometown rivers and landscapes," said festival director and South Yuba River Citizens League executive director Melinda Booth. It felt appropriate, then, to see "Best in Theme" go to <a href="http://www.storyline.media/waterwarriors/" target="_blank"><em>Water Warriors</em></a>, a 22-minute film about a motley, multicultural group of Canadians—including members of the Mi'kmaq Elsipogtog First Nation, French-speaking Arcadians, and white, English-speaking families—that for months in 2013 set up a series of road blockades to keep frackers away from their beloved natural resources in New Brunswick. Not only does the community succeed in protecting their water from the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/energy-news/">oil and natural gas industry</a>, but they also elect a new governing body and win an indefinite moratorium on fracking in their province. It'll inspire you, too.<br><br>You might not expect a jury of mostly white progressives to bestow its prestigious "Spirit of Activism" award upon a feature-length documentary that defends the infamous Inuit seal hunt. Out of Canada, the artfully nuanced <a href="http://www.unikkaat.com/projects/angry-inuk/" target="_blank"><em>Angry Inuk</em></a> makes a strong case for the fruits of this hunt—both seals' meat and pelts—as a vital means of sustenance for Inuit peoples. Viewers journey to director Alethea Arnaquq-Baril's beautiful community of Iqaluit to meet sealskin-dependent advocates, lawyers, and even seal fur clothing designers, all of whom are fighting to overturn the EU's ban on seal products. The devastatingly eye-opening <em>Angry Inuk</em> does much to highlight the importance of activists' responsibility to seek input from diverse voices, and the fallacy of drawing false distinctions between oppositional parties—in this case, native subsistence hunters and profit-driven commercial hunters.<br><br>As for "Best of Festival"? The most prestigious Wild & Scenic award went to <em>Rodents of Unusual Size</em>, which you may recall <a href="https://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/giant-invasive-rodents-star-gripping-new-documentary" target="_blank"><em>Sierra</em> reviewing last month</a>. The hair-raising feature-length documentary offers a lively message about the threat of invasive species (in this case monstrous 20-pound swamp rats that some Louisianans feel make for great pets) and showcases creative ways to address it. <br><br>A second jury, made up entirely of children, selected an alternate "Best of Festival" winner. The kids' award went to <em>My Irnik</em>, a 15-minute film about a young father and dog musher who finds delightful ways to teach his young son about the value of shared adventures, and of keeping their ancestral Inuit heritage alive.</p><p>Jonesing to check out these winners? You may be in luck. Wild & Scenic films are already en route to Berlin, Houston, Denver, Havre, Missouri, and beyond. Find the full touring schedule <a href="https://www.wildandscenicfilmfestival.org/events/" target="_blank">here</a>. And if you'd like to channel some movie magic to inspire environmental action within your community, you can still apply to <a href="https://www.wildandscenicfilmfestival.org/on-tour/host-an-event/" target="_blank">host a leg of the tour</a>. </p><p>Happy viewing and change-making!</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image" style="">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xNzEwNzc4NC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY1MzM1NzAyNX0.Rk-Lm-yxTTxiCkRybfuJ0Y4q8QXdEwp9u10N-uKneuE/img.jpg?width=980" id="c08f8" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="f5bde9d965ff41ef45c85b6b956ae2ef" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Josh Miller</small></p><p style=""> <em>Reposted with permission from our media associate <a href="https://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/sneak-peek-year-s-best-environmental-films" target="_blank">SIERRA Magazine</a>.</em><em></em></p>
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21-Year-Old Filmmaker Takes Audiences on a Provocative Journey to Save Coral Reefs
25 August 2017
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The recent documentary, Sea of Life, exposes key threats to the oceans, and calls for action.
Sea of Life follows filmmaker Julia Barnes on a three year adventure, spanning seven countries, to save coral reefs.
Although they cover less than 1 percent of the sea floor coral reefs support up to 30 percent of all species in the ocean at some stage in their life cycles. Often referred to as the rainforests of the ocean, coral reefs are one of the most biologically diverse ecosystems on the planet. They're also an indicator for the future of the oceans and all life on Earth.
<p style="">To date, we've lost more than 50 percent of the world's coral reefs. The main threats to corals are <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/coral-bleaching">bleaching</a> (caused by ocean warming) and <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/ocean-acidification">ocean acidification</a>. Most of the carbon dioxide we release into the atmosphere doesn't stay in the atmosphere, it gets absorbed by the oceans, making the oceans more acidic. And in a more acidic environment any animal that builds a shell or a skeleton can't form. This means by 2070 coral reefs will literally start dissolving. But they will likely die out much earlier than that, due to ocean warming. Scientists are now predicting that less than <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-02-24/50-reefs-first-global-plan-says-only-10-pc-reefs-can-be-saved/8293514" target="_blank">10 percent of the world's coral reefs will survive past 2050</a>, as bleaching events become more frequent. <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-04-20/great-barrier-reef-bleaching/7340342" target="_blank">Mass bleaching</a> has already claimed large chunks of the <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/great-barrier-reef">Great Barrier Reef</a>. </p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image"><img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xMDMyODk4MS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYxNDc2MzU2NH0.G-IxLlfP6txgRloZmmXVEA2_HMLfxWt0O6-wNlzjXss/img.jpg?width=980" id="8483a" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="198e1506df3693ad2a6a609ec0dbcaab" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image"></p><p style="">Corals are a sort of canary in the coal mine, signaling trouble ahead for all life on Earth. There have been five mass extinction in the history of the planet and at least four of them have been attributed to ocean acidification. Now, we're causing the oceans to go acidic faster than at any other time in the history of the planet.<br></p><p style="">When coral reefs go down they signal the start of a mass extinction in the oceans, and that is something that will affect all of us.<br></p><p style="">Tiny organisms in the ocean called phytoplankton are responsible for creating most of the oxygen in the air that we breathe. Two out of every three breaths we take come from plankton. Photosynthesizing on a massive scale, plankton are the reason the oceans are considered the blue lungs of the planet. Forty percent of the world's plankton populations are already gone. "We may be losing up to 1% a year because of ocean acidification ... It's like—why would do anything to disrupt the oxygen supply for the planet," asks Louie Psihoyos in <em>Sea of Life</em>.<u></u><u></u></p><p style="">What most people don't know about ocean acidification is that there's a lag time between the time it takes the carbon dioxide we release into the atmosphere to get absorbed into the ocean. So even if we stopped producing carbon dioxide today the oceans would have decades where they continue to become more acidic—20, or even 30 years. This means if we're going to solve ocean acidification we not only have to stop carbon emissions, we also have to pull carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image"><img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xMDMyODk4MC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzMzM3MTQ1OX0.zl6ngcfm-lWChotPpSihXuF8uB-putRmodvX4ygjTrk/img.jpg?width=980" id="7c91c" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="549bd46591c309357951efdc5c5e0f7c" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image"></p><p style="">The filmmakers for <em>Sea of Life</em> visited a marine protected area in Mexico called Cabo Pulmo. The area had once been heavily <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/overfishing">overfished</a>, to the point where there was almost nothing left. Clearly this couldn't continue, so the citizens decided to create a marine reserve, giving the ocean a break and allowing life to recover. Within the next 10 years they saw a 450 percent increase in biomass in the ocean. The fish came back, and now the waters off Cabo Pulmo are a thriving natural community.<br></p><p style="">Given the chance, nature will come back. Today, we know that 90 percent of the fish are gone and that 75 percent of the forests have been wiped out. If we let this life come back, we could sequester an enormous amount of carbon, creating a world where all species can thrive.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image"><img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xMDMyODk3OS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTU5NjQwMzk0M30.-tEbTQpU3iPQtp0czOjGkd2TuXo4ZKWeaCioMkymcdc/img.jpg?width=980" id="7f071" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="a7959dba00cb1825d9480edb2789783c" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image"></p><p style=""><em>Sea of Life</em> follows the environmental movement through large rallies in New York and at COP21 in Paris, where instead of celebrating the <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/paris-agreement">Paris agreement</a>, long-time environmental activist Emily Hunter asserts that the agreement isn't enough. "We've done over 20 years of campaigning, more than 20 years of negotiations, and if this is the deal that we finally get then we've failed."<br></p><p style="">The entire environmental movement could be considered a failure. Despite years of campaigning, almost every environmental problem has gotten worse, not better. As Rob Stewart explains in <em>Sea of Life</em>, "Our greatest ambitions on <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/climate-change/">climate change</a> would buy us 1% more time on a hugely degraded planet where we're still fighting each other over what remains. We need to imagine a world that's beautiful enough for us to fight for."<u></u><u></u></p><p style=""><em>Sea of Life</em> asks audiences to imagine a world worth fighting for. What could this world look like if we got things right? What if we made this planet beautiful for us and all species?<u></u><u></u></p><p style="">The film features inspiring young activists who are making a difference, including Felix Finkbeiner, whose <a href="http://www.plant-for-the-planet.org/" target="_blank">organization</a> has planted 14 billion trees, and Madison Stewart who makes <a href="https://vimeo.com/user7266040" target="_blank">films</a> to change people's perspective about sharks. The 21-year-old filmmaker behind <em><a href="http://www.seaoflifemovie.com/" target="_blank">Sea of Life</a> </em>began working on the movie when she was 16. She believes young people have an opportunity to become heroes for the planet, living lives that are full of meaning and adventure and having an amazing time doing it.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-image" style=""><img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xMDMyODk3OC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0MDg1OTI3Mn0.rpW6AJhTbmTQF8cNqlqRzUrWB54sXopHorGaTl7cXMg/img.jpg?width=980" id="0ecad" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="455679ae0ab20b10c3f16a791de67a40" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image"></p><p style="">Julia Barnes is motivated by the scale of the problem. The worse things get, the greater the imperative to take action. And now, with all of life on Earth at stake, she believes action is no longer an option.</p>
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I have asked repeatedly to have my short interview clip removed from this film. The director refuses. He believes his film is fair and balanced. I do not.
I am often interviewed (see media) and hardly ever quoted incorrectly or out of context. This film is one of those rare exceptions.
<p>In my 10-second clip, I say that I am unaware of convincing evidence that eating GM <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/food/">foods</a> is unsafe—this is what I said, but it is hugely out of context.</p><p>Safety is the industry's talking point. In the view of the GMO industry and this film, if <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/gmo-genetically-modified-organism/">GMOs</a> are safe, they ought to be fully acceptable and nothing else is relevant.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-twitter_embed"></p><div id="165d9" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="CZJMER1498145295"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="877285024923607040" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">GMO Film Narrated by Neil deGrasse Tyson: A Blatant Case of Monsanto Corporate Propaganda https://t.co/gVKGPEV5lc @truefoodnow @GMOTruth</div> — EcoWatch (@EcoWatch)<a href="https://twitter.com/EcoWatch/statuses/877285024923607040">1497996023.0</a></blockquote></div><p></p><p>I disagree. I think there are plenty of issues about GMOs in addition to safety that deserve thoughtful consideration: monoculture; the effects of industrial agriculture on the environment and <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/climate-change/">climate change</a>; the possible carcinogenicity of <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/glyphosate">glyphosate</a> (<a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/roundup">Roundup</a>); this herbicide's well documented induction of weed resistance; and the how aggressively this industry protects its self-interest and attacks critics, as this film demonstrates.</p><p><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/food-evolution-neil-degrasse-tyson-2444983453.html"><em>Food Evolution</em></a> focuses exclusively on the safety of GMOs; it dismisses environmental issues out of hand. It extols the benefits of the virus-resistant Hawaiian papaya and African banana but says next to nothing about corn and soybean monoculture and the resulting weed resistance, and it denies the increase in use of toxic herbicides now needed to deal with resistant weeds. It says nothing about how this industry spends fortunes on lobbying and in fighting labeling transparency.</p><p>Instead, this film hammers hard on three out-of-context points:</p><ol class="ee-ol"><li>GMOs are safe</li><li>Anyone who thinks otherwise is anti-science, ignorant, and stupid.</li><li><a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/organic">Organic</a> foods are bad and proponents of organic foods are deceitful.</li></ol><p>Its biases are apparent throughout but the bias against organics is particularly striking.</p><p>For example, in arguing that proponents of organic agriculture are paid by the organic industry, the film refers to an article on the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/06/us/food-industry-enlisted-academics-in-gmo-lobbying-war-emails-show.html?_r=0" target="_blank">front page of the New York Times</a>. But most of that article was about how the GMO industry recruits and pays academic researchers to front for it. The film fails to mention that.</p><p>The obvious question: Who paid for this film?</p><p>The official answer: <a href="https://www.ift.org/" target="_blank">The Institute for Food Technologists (IFT)</a>.</p><p>IFT is a professional association for food scientists and technologists involved in the processed food industry. I have been a member of it for years; its journal, <em>Food Technology</em>, is useful for keeping up with what the food industry is doing.</p><p>I had no idea that IFT sponsored films, let alone one that must have been very expensive to produce (on location in Hawaii and Uganda, among other places).</p><p>I can't help but think <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/monsanto">Monsanto</a> or the <a href="https://www.bio.org/" target="_blank">Biotechnology Innovation Organization</a> must have given IFT a grant for this purpose, but IFT <a href="http://www.ift.org/About-Us/Our-History/FutureFood-2050.aspx" target="_blank">takes complete responsibility</a> for commissioning the film (if you have any information about this, please let me know).</p><p><em>Food Evolution</em> is <a href="http://foodevolutionmovie.com/" target="_blank">opening Friday in New York</a>. I view it as a slick piece of GMO industry propaganda.</p><p>If you want a thoughtful discussion of the real issues raised by food biotechnology, you will need to look elsewhere.</p><p>Full disclosure: half of my book <em><a href="http://www.foodpolitics.com/safe-food-bacteria-biotechnology-and-bioterrorism/" target="_blank">Safe Food: The Politics of Food Safety</a> </em>deals with GMO issues. These have not changed much since the book appeared in 2003 and in a revised edition in 2010. The GMO industry's defenses and attacks are much the same, just louder and more expensively produced.</p>
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By Josh Tickell and Rebecca Harrell Tickell
Good Fortune is the rags to riches tale of conscious capitalism pioneer John Paul DeJoria. Born with nothing, at times homeless on the streets of LA, DeJoria spent a good portion of his early adulthood in and out of motorcycle gangs only to wheel and deal his way to the top of a vast hair and tequila empire. Yet DeJoria's motto is "Success unshared is failure," a pioneering philosophy that promotes the triple bottom line—people, planet and profit.
<p>At its core, Good Fortune is about the future of <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/business/">business</a>, which we believe can be a mechanism for positive social change. This movie depicts one man who came from nothing and then entered the financial and social world that many people can only dream of. But rather than being consumed by materialism, DeJoria has devoted a good portion of his life to making the world a better place for everyone. </p><p>What sets JP, as his friends call him, apart from other philanthropists, is that he works directly with many of the organizations and initiatives to which he gives. He infuses these operations with his business ethos of "success unshared is failure" and "less moving parts." He is constantly coaching, mentoring and educating the next generation of businesspeople and agents of social change—whether in his beauty schools or in homeless shelters or back-to-work programs. </p><p>Having traveled and filmed JP for three years, we have been repeatedly awestruck by how committed he is to doing good business while also doing good. It is impossible to be around him and not see beauty in the world. His particular brand of joie de vivre is infectious, he views every situation as an opportunity to help people and spread joy.</p><p>JP has amazed us with his tireless energy, his boundless enthusiasm and his constant belief in the good in all people. When we first told him that we intended to make a film about him, we were pregnant with our first child and worried about what kind of world we would be exposing her to. Three years later, with our second child on the way, we find our perspective has shifted. Thanks in no small part to the influence of DeJoria, we view the world through a new lens—one in which there are many people at all levels of society working for the betterment of our planet and humanity. </p><p>Watch the trailer here:</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-youtube"><span style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="2cc9f659122ba9a47c0ee1e04ea4e9dd"><iframe type="lazy-iframe" data-runner-src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ChJZJC0nJkM?rel=0" width="100%" height="auto" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;"></iframe></span></p>
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By Cyrus Sutton
Island Earth is the story of a young indigenous scientist's journey through both sides of the GMO battle in Hawaii. Groomed to work for Monsanto, Cliff Kapono had a lot to consider over the past few years. His ancestral ways of farming fed a similar population than what inhabits the island today with some of the most advanced biodynamic farming ever documented. Yet one of his most lucrative job options would be for a company promising to "feed the world."
<p><em>Island Earth</em> follows Kapono's journey of discovery along with a handful of Hawaiians struggling to take back their communities in the face of the current GMO occupation.</p><div class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="6e01cd012ec8cd4d8094ea4828c8e3e1"><div class="fb-video" data-href="https://facebook.com/EcoWatch/videos/1497970710215861/" data-allowfullscreen="true"></div></div><p>I decided to dive into this project after I learned from a few activists that more GMO crops are tested per acre in Hawaii than any other state in the U.S. I was shocked to learn that this island paradise was home to such activities. Their testing involves multiple combinations of restricted-use pesticides that both our government and the scientific community agree are toxic to the environment and our health. The testing is occurring outdoors right next to low-income communities. <u></u><u></u></p><p>What's happening in Hawaii effects the rest of the country and visa versa. These tiny Islands are a microcosm for the problems we all face but also the solutions we could embody. The vast majority of the world's seeds are owned by the same powerful chemical companies who are <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/gmos-hawaii-2099794833.html">testing their crops in Hawaii</a>. They are using genetic modification to alter plants so they can withstand higher doses of the pesticides they manufacture. As such, the <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/is-bill-gates-right-about-gmos-1882198150.html">Hawaiian people are rising up</a> and pushing back, drafting bills and engaging with their local legislature, as well as returning to their traditional methods of farming in an effort to become self-reliant again. <u></u><u></u></p><p>The question, "How are we going to <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/gmos-feed-world-2030176771.html">feed the world</a>?" gets raised a lot and has been the chief marketing slogan for the these GMO companies. According to the former editor of National Geographic and author of <em>End of Plenty</em>, Joel Bourne Jr. states that "we are going to need to grow as much food in the next 35 years as we've grown since the beginning of human civilization." <u></u><u></u></p><p>This number sounds daunting, however this figure was determined based on our current agricultural system which measures raw yields and fails to take into account the amount of food waste and lack of distribution to the people who need it most. If calories were grown again near the areas they were consumed it would be a much different picture. <u></u><u></u></p><p>Hawaii is an island chain that used to be completely self-reliant. Today they import 80-90 percent of the food they eat. Much of it being the products of the seeds tested on their lands. The problems they face are global, and increasingly we all owe our survival to corporations who provide us food, water, shelter and power. Yet every day we learn that often these companies do <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/monsanto-california-ruling-roundup-2310904321.html">not have our best interests in mind</a>.</p><div class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="af8de91c13730c5053850ea3f2012f13"><div class="fb-video" data-href="https://facebook.com/EcoWatch/videos/1497387253607540/" data-allowfullscreen="true"></div></div><p>The little mainstream media coverage we've seen about the anti-GMO protests in Hawaii paints this issue as one of eccentric hippies getting angry about food that isn't up to their ideals, when in reality this is a grassroots movement of people from all walks of life coming together to protect the land and water that they hold sacred. <u></u><u></u></p><p>In talks with scientists, doctors, mothers, elders and activists I've come to believe many of the problems we impose upon ourselves are solvable if we can balance our current globalized approach to survival by re-establishing local community-based systems that create and distribute resources. Only with consistent effort to push back politically and to create decentralizing solutions will we make measurable change and hopefully render many of the current problems obsolete. But it's going to take patience and creativity. It's much easier to take what is handed to us and complain about it than it is to create the solutions. <u></u><u></u></p><p>Three years and multiple trips later, I've finished editing with my team and we are touring the film across the world. I just got back from a tour across Hawaii and Australia and am now heading off on a West Coast tour of the U.S. from San Diego to Canada. For a complete list of upcoming screenings, <a href="https://islandearthfilm.com/screenings/" target="_blank">click here</a>. Individuals can <a href="https://islandearthfilm.com/screenings/#host" target="_blank">host</a> their own screening of <em>Island Earth </em>at their local theatre, school or environmental organization.</p>
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