What can one person do to improve the health of our environment? Here are three films that look at how individuals can have a positive impact on our environment.
1. Change the Message
First up is this short but powerful film that can be applied to branding environmentalism. Maybe you’ve got a better way to spread the environmental message than the one we’ve been using or you’ve been hearing elsewhere in the media.
You may have seen this video from the IUCN on changing the message regarding biodiversity.
Perhaps you can think of a message that will get us all to listen.
2. Educate Yourself, Educate Others
If you don’t know Annie Leonard’s work, here’s a great place to start: The Story of Bottled Water. With abundant wit and a creative presentation, Leonard is educating all of us in a way that makes us want to act. Check out other films from The Story of Stuff Project and help spread the word.
3. Plant some trees
This classic animated film needs to be in your repertoire. Based on the short story by Jean Giorno and directed by French-Canadian filmmaker Frederic Back in 1987, The Man Who Planted Trees is a moving, well-told story that can be watched again and again. Enjoy.
We're pleased to see our Ecolympicsregistrations coming along (yes, you can still sign up!) and we'll get back to blogging about our events soon. But given that our mission is to raise awareness of the human footprint on the environment and that it's the weekend, it's time for another mini Eco-film festival. Get your coffee or snacks, get comfortable and enjoy.
The first film is a succinct history of 300 years of fossil fuels, with the catchy title, "300 years of Fossil Fuels in 300 seconds." It's from the Post Carbon Institute, which aims to "lead the transition to a more resilient, equitable and sustainable world." They're based in Santa Rosa California, and I have a feeling we're going to be hearing more about this world "resilience" in years to come.
In our second film, which is more a seminar than a narrative but still engrossing, the inimitable Sir David Attenborough delivers the annual Royal Society Lecture. Here, Sir David comes out swinging against population growth, which he argues is unsustainable. This is the short version, containing just the speech.
Here’s the complete version, with audience questions and answers. In one of the questions, Attenborough makes the point that the future where we have to worry about famines is already here. And given the list of food crises and famines in the last decade and century, it’s easy to see that despite the green revolution the land cannot sustain as many people as now live on it.
Our third film is an impressive Ted talk by biologist Willie Smits about his efforts to regrow a rainforest in Borneo. It shows how, with science, we can repair even the most devastated parts of our planet. And, his "people first" ideology is going to go a long way toward solving many of our problems.
Smits starts off by talking about the plight of the orangutan, whose habitat is being destroyed by our demand for palm oil.
Our 2nd eco-film festival ends there, but if you would like a sobering look at the sad life of at least one orangutan, then you should see the film, Green. It's about a female orangutan who is victimized by deforestation and resource exploitation. From the website, where you can see the whole 48-minute film, "This film is an emotional journey with Green's final days. It is a visual ride presenting the treasures of rainforest biodiversity and the devastating impacts of logging and land clearing for palm oil plantations." The film has won prizes at film festivals.
Here's a brief eco-film festival to get you through the weekend.
First up are some flash animations created by Jimmy Egeland with a terrific series called Eco-bunnies. So far, there are just three episodes: Eco-bunnies1, The Eco-bunnies in Earth Day Escapade and The Eco-bunnies in Hare Do's and Don'ts. I love the idea of a visible carbon footprint -- I wonder how that would change our actions. Watch and share, this guy definitely needs more exposure.
Second up is this nice little short by Andrea Dorfman: Thoughts on my Bike. As an urban cyclist, I share the sentiment of trying to figure out what's wrong with our cities and our lifestyles as I'm riding about.
And the main feature, as it were, is this fine episode of Extinction Sucks, featuring the dynamic duo of Ashley and Aleisha. Here they venture off to Nepal and Chitwan National Park to do their part to protect the Indian Rhino from poachers. Not only do we first worlders have to reduce our consumption, the show makes the point reducing global poverty is a key to protecting biodiversity. I've only watched the one episode so far, but based on that, I think Extinction Sucks is radical and imaginative. Let's hope they can inspire some radical and imaginative conservation ideas among the rest of us.
Eco-Fest (formerly The Ecolympics) is a fun, participatory series of events at Boston University and beyond, geared towards the themes of sustainability, reduction of the human footprint on the environment and education about biodiversity and the current crisis in biodiversity loss. The main events for BU's first-ever Ecolympics ran from April 17 - 24, 2010 and for 2011 they are April 1 - 15. Posts here are primarily by Daniel Hudon, along with other guest posters, as indicated. Eco-Now is the blog associated with Eco-Fest
