Showing posts with label Environment. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Environment. Show all posts

20 June 2013

Anima Mundi

Will you survive the transition of human industrial civilization happening now due to peak oil and climate change? Can you see the forest for the trees, the earth for the dream, the universe for the seed? Anima Mundi is an innovative documentary about the planetary animal called Gaia and the human animal we deny, we deny at our own peril, yet a peril that is perfect in design.

Featuring:
David Holmgren – co-founder of Permaculture
John Seed OAM – Deep Ecology
Stephan Harding – Gaian Ecology
Vandana Shiva – Human Rights
Michael C Ruppert – Peak Oil (as seen in the movie Collapse)
Michael Reynolds – Earthships (as seen in the movie Garbage Warrior)
Noam Chomsky – Activism
Dr Mark O’Meadhra – Integrative Medicine
Dr Christine James – Psychology
Permablitz – Permaculture



Peak Oil



12 May 2013

The Many Uses Of Hemp

This video takes you on a quick tour of the many uses of hemp and offers a little bit of history. The first drafts of the American Declaration of Independence were written on hemp paper. It was eventually banned in the US not because of any potential that it could be abused as a drug, because commercially grown hemp does not have THC as marijuana does but because it's a major threat to corporations.
We are familiar with hemp used in textiles, but did you know it is also being used to manufacture bricks and building materials like chipboard? And fuel...and plastic? And it makes a great nutritional supplement? Did you know hemp makes up to 4 times as much pulp as trees for paper production? There are thousands of uses for hemp and the time has come for the U.S. government to legalize the growing of hemp so that we may benefit economically from this truly amazing plant.

See also:

8 May 2013

The Majestic Plastic Bag

Follow the poignant migration of a plastic bag as it travels from the parking lot of a supermarket, through the urban landscape, to the sea. If it can avoid predators and earthly ensnarement, it will 'join a billion other petroleum species' in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and live joyfully in perpetuity.

1 May 2013

Let's Talk About Soil

This animated film tells the reality of soil resources around the world, covering the issues of degradation, urbanization, land grabbing and overexploitation; the film offers options to make the way we manage our soils more sustainable.

5 March 2013

Gasland (Full Movie)

The Halliburton-developed drilling technology of “fracking” or hydraulic fracturing has unlocked a “Saudia Arabia of natural gas” just beneath us. But is fracking safe?
When filmmaker Josh Fox is asked to lease his land for drilling, he embarks on a cross-country odyssey uncovering a trail of secrets, lies and contamination. A recently drilled nearby Pennsylvania town reports that residents are able to light their drinking water on fire. This is just one of the many absurd and astonishing revelations of a new country called Gasland.

Short version on YouTube: Gasland



Fracking Hell: The Untold Story

An original investigative report by Earth Focus and UK's Ecologist Film Unit looks at the risks of natural gas development in the Marcellus Shale. From toxic chemicals in drinking water to unregulated interstate dumping of potentially radioactive waste that experts fear can contaminate water supplies in major population centers including New York City, are the health consequences worth the economic gains?
Marcellus Shale contains enough natural gas to supply all US gas needs for 14 years. But as gas drilling takes place, using a process called hydraulic fracturing or "fracking," toxic chemicals and methane gas seep into drinking water. Now experts fear that unacceptable levels of radioactive Radium 226 in gas development waste.
Fracking chemicals are linked to bone, liver and breast cancers, gastrointestinal, circulatory, respiratory, developmental as well as brain and nervous system disorders. Such chemicals are present in frack waste and may find their way into drinking water and air.




22 January 2013

24 November 2012

Julia Butterfly Hill

Adventures In Treesitting

This award-winning documentary reveals the extraordinary journey of a woman who lived 200 feet up in a redwood tree for two years to save the thousand year-old tree from destruction.



Part 2
Part 3

Nearly four years ago, Julia Butterfly Hill sent an international message through her silent protest, living 738 days in the branches of “Luna”, a 1,000 year old Redwood Tree. From 20 stories high, she witnessed first hand the devastation of “clear cutting”, a method of cutting down these ancient trees. In this video, Julia offers a profound message about viewing the world as a whole, overcoming separation and expanding our consciousness.


Environmental & social justice activist Julia Butterfly Hill shows how our belief that we are separate from the whole has created a disposability consciousness. "I know in my heart that as long as trashing the planet and trashing each other, a healthy, holistic and healed world is not possible. We can not have peace ON the earth unless we also have peace WITH the earth. Our disposability consciousness is a weapon of mass destruction." She is referring to how we mindlessly buy a cup of coffee - or anything - in disposable packaging. And where is "away" when we throw it away? It's all right here, isn't it? What a monumental disconnect we have come to accept! She speaks of reclaiming every step of life as a step toward consciousness, and a step toward healing!

Reel Change Films captured an amazing and inspiring talk by Julia Butterfly Hill, the 2010 keynote speaker at the Midwest Yoga conference sponsored by Johnny Kest's Center for Yoga of Michigan. Julia is best known for having saved a group of redwoods from destruction by the northern California logging industry by spending over 2 years on a 4x6' platform 200 feet above ground. Her story is amazing, but her commitment to practicing what she preaches is even more impressive. This talk blew away everyone in the room. I felt privileged to be there. It's well worth sitting through all 6 segments. This is part of a series of interviews conducted by Jason Scholder of Reel Change Films from Asheville, NC, comprising an ongoing, on-line spiritual documentary project entitled Walking the Path.

Divine Mirrors    

   

Part 2: Gift Of Breath
Part 3: Ancestors To The Future  
Part 4: Power Of Love 
Part 5: Manifesting Heaven On Earth
Part 6: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Rejoice... Rethink!

14 October 2012

Zero Waste Family

Here they are: The Johnsons - contemporary family in California that has arranged their life so that they generate practically NO waste. It's not only that it's NOT so hard - they save money too!

13 June 2012

AirPod, A Car That Runs On Air

AIRPod is the culmination of MDI studies on pollution and urban mobility. This concept will be the first to leave the production line in spring 2009. MDI will respond to an invitation to tender of the city of Paris, 'Autolib', and is already the subject of applications for various municipalities. With small size, a tiny price, zero pollution, fun and futuristic design, AIRPod mark a turning point in the range of urban vehicles while renewing the idea of the automobile and transportation. You can drive with a joystick, it only costs one euro per 200 km and leaves no one indifferent in crept in traffic. It is a real breath of fresh air in our cities and the prelude to travel without pollution. Its small size make it easy to park, keeping still a large internal volume. AIRPod help us to forget the price of petrol.

Website: MDI Enterprises

13 May 2012

No Impact Man

Colin Beavan decides to completely eliminate his personal impact on the environment for the next year. It means eating vegetarian, buying only local food, and turning off the refrigerator. It also means no elevators, no television, no cars, busses, or airplanes, no toxic cleaning products, no electricity, no material consumption, and no garbage. Can one man save the planet without driving his family crazy?


28 April 2012

Repurposing Plastic Beach Debris

Along the surf line of a seemingly pristine beach on the Bahamian island of Eleuthera, fashion designer Barbara de Vries spotted some pretty specks of color, which turned out to be pieces of discarded plastic. And so, what started out as a vacation turned into a new career - raising awareness about plastic debris through art. De Vries marvels at the poetic justice of picking up plastic on a beach, taking ownership of the problem, repurposing the plastic into high fashion jewelry, and having it sold back right on the same beach.



One Beach

Why do we love the beach? "Maybe we love the beach because we carry the sea within us, a heart full of ocean pumping a rhythm, a rhythm, a rhythm..." But our beaches are currently filled with plastic debris, littered or washed up from across the sea. This film highlights the work of five individuals and organizations that are caring for their ONE beach with creative solutions. Their message? Take ownership of this plastic. And while you are at it, pick it up and do something creative with it.

12 April 2012

Paradise Or Oblivion

This documentary details the root causes of the systemic value disorders and detrimental symptoms caused by our current established system. This video presentation advocates a new socio-economic system, which is updated to present-day knowledge, featuring the life-long work of Social Engineer, Futurist, Inventor and Industrial Designer Jacque Fresco, which he calls a Resource-Based Economy.
The film details the need to outgrow the dated and inefficient methods of politics, law, business, or any other 'establishment' notions of human affairs, and use the methods of science, combined with high technology, to provide for the needs of all the world's people. It is not based on the opinions of the political and financial elite or on illusionary so-called democracies, but on maintaining a dynamic equilibrium with the planet that could ultimately provide abundance for all people.

1 April 2012

Peak Oil: Understanding The Challenge And Looking Forward

A video in order to inform regarding peak oil and the reality we will need to rethink how we do things for the future.

22 March 2012

Witness: Green & The Death Of The Forests

Witness is a silent film (without narration, but with music) which addresses itself both to the Indonesians and the consumers of wood/paper/palm oil around the world.
This important documentary was filmed in the fast disappearing Indonesian rainforest and is not narrated, however, its message is clear and frightening. The home of the Orangutan and many other wildlife species in Indonesia is being decimated at an alarming rate by consumer need and greed.
The film features the widespread practice of 'slash and burn' to clear the lush rainforest to make way for extensive palm oil plantations which we, the consumer, support in our demand for our favourite foods, magazines, cosmetics, and, increasingly, biofuel. The practice has also seen Indonesia move into third place behind the US and China with regard to carbon emissions due to the uncovering of peat soil which has lain, undisturbed, below the tropical rainforest for centuries. The film exposes the illegal pet trade that thrives in Indonesia and the sick, despairing lives of those Orangutan who spend years, often all their lives, locked in small cages, suffering, alone.
The story thread follows the fate of a female Orangutan who has been captured and brought in because her forest home has been decimated. She is one of the lucky ones - most are slaughtered without mercy when caught. Her fate though, is not a happy one, as her trauma at the hands of man is too great. Your heart will break with resounding pity, but it is even more sobering to know that she is only one of hundreds every week who will suffer a similar fate.
Make sure everyone you know watches this documentary. We owe it to our friends, the gentle Orangutan, we owe it to our planet, and we owe it to ourselves so that we can learn from it.


20 March 2012

Tapped

Is acces to clean drinking water a basic human right, or a commodity that should be bought and sold like any other article of commerce? Stephanie Soechtig's debut feature is an unflinching examination of the big business of bottled water. From the producers of 'Who killed the electric car', this timely documentary is a behind-the-scenes look into the unregulated and unseen world of an industry that aims to privatize and sell back to the one resource that ought never to become a commodity: our water.
From the plastic production to the ocean in which so many of these bottles end up, this inspiring documentary trails the path of the bottled water industry and the communities which were the unwitting chips on the table. A powerful portrait of the lives affected by the bottled water industry, this revelatory film features those caught at the intersection of big business and the public's right to water.

5 March 2012

When We Grow...This Is What We Can Do

"When We Grow...This Is What We Can Do" is an educational documentary concerning the facts about cannabis. In this feature length documentary we explore everything there is, from industrial hemp to medicinal cannabis use, from the origins of cannabis prohibition to the legality of growing equipment.

10 January 2012

Life After People - Complete Season One

What would happen if every human being on Earth disappeared? This isn t the story of how we might vanish it is the story of what happens to the world we leave behind. Building off the success of the HISTORY two-hour special Life After People, this series continues the exploration of a world wiped clean of humanity, in even more vivid detail.

Each episode is a stunningly graphic examination of how the very landscape of planet Earth would change in our absence, using cinematic CGI to reveal in scientific detail the fate of every aspect of the man-made world. What happens to the millions of animals that supply our food? The chemicals stored in industrial complexes? Which animals take over subways? Do satellites fall to Earth? When does Mt. Rushmore wither away? Every episode will unfold in the hours, days, months and years after people disappear and will combine three to four different kinds of stories, from animal outbreaks to structural collapses, building to a unique visual finale. Welcome to Earth, population zero.

Episode 1: Life After People



Episode 2: Outbreak



Episode 3: The Capital Retreat



Episode 4: Heavy Metal



Episode 5: The Invaders



Episode 6: Bound And Buried



Episode 7: Sin City Meltdown



Episode 8: Armed And Defenseless



Episode 9: The Road To Nowhere



Episode 10: Waters Of Death



10 December 2011

The World According To Monsanto (Full Movie)

There's nothing they are leaving untouched: the mustard, the okra, the bringe oil, the rice, the cauliflower. Once they have established the norm: that seed can be owned as their property, royalties can be collected. We will depend on them for every seed we grow of every crop we grow. If they control seed, they control food, they know it -- it's strategic. It's more powerful than bombs. It's more powerful than guns. This is the best way to control the populations of the world. The story starts in the White House, where Monsanto often got its way by exerting disproportionate influence over policymakers via the "revolving door". One example is Michael Taylor, who worked for Monsanto as an attorney before being appointed as deputy commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 1991. While at the FDA, the authority that deals with all US food approvals, Taylor made crucial decisions that led to the approval of GE foods and crops. Then he returned to Monsanto, becoming the company's vice president for public policy.

Thanks to these intimate links between Monsanto and government agencies, the US adopted GE foods and crops without proper testing, without consumer labeling and in spite of serious questions hanging over their safety. Not coincidentally, Monsanto supplies 90 percent of the GE seeds used by the US market. Monsanto's long arm stretched so far that, in the early nineties, the US Food and Drugs Agency even ignored warnings of their own scientists, who were cautioning that GE crops could cause negative health effects. Other tactics the company uses to stifle concerns about their products include misleading advertising, bribery and concealing scientific evidence.



Dutch Version



30 October 2011

Spoil

A powerful documentary on the Great Bear Rainforest by EP Films.
The film shows the splendour of nature with some beautiful photography. It highlights the nature we all want to protect, but our blinkered and incessant addiction to burn more oil, is helping to destroy.

Spoil is a lovely film and a perfect way to encourage us all to help protect and nurture nature and not destroy it for the sake of dirty oil. We need to stop buying dirty oil and move faster into clean renewable electricity.

8 October 2011

Ellen Gunter: Environment Crisis

Ellen Gunter is a journalist, spiritual director and co-author of Reunion: How we heal our broken connection to the earth. An advocate of ecological concerns since reading Rachel Carson's Silent Spring as a teen, her deep concern about the health of the earth has remained a constant in her political and social life. Reunion explores the interconnectedness of the environment with our mental, physical and spiritual health and details how each of us can begin to rediscover our connection to our planet through meaningful exercises and a willingness to look more deeply at what surrounds and calls to us.