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Climate Change and Global Warming
Directed by Bo Boudart
A CONCERNED CITIZEN documents the work of Dr. Riki Ott, a whistleblower who predicted the Exxon Valdez oil spill hours before it happened and came to the aid of her Alaskan community in their battle to get fair compensation for their loss of health and income.
More recently Riki, a toxicologist, author, and activist, has been organizing the Gulf coast communities as they struggle to recover from the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster. Taking the lessons she learned as an activist, she is also spearheading the campaign called Ultimate Civics, a complete civics curriculum she developed that empowers students to participate in their democracy. Recognizing the power of money in politics she advocates for a constitutional amendment to end corporate personhood, and to reform campaign finance laws. She lectures nationally and internationally, inspiring students from fifth grade through universities and adults to take action and showing by example how one person can make a difference.
"It is my hope that, as people's health, livelihoods, and property are harmed by these extreme oil activities, people will understand the need to shift off oil to safer energy options and take action to achieve true energy independence. This is the movement that I see growing in all regions of our country."
DVD / 2019 / (Grades 7-12, College, Adults) / 41 minutes
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Directed by David Abel
Climate-changed ocean temperatures shift New England's lobster fishery across national boundaries, sparking international tension.
The buildup of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is warming the oceans, and the waters off New England's coast are seeing some of the most dramatic temperature increases on the planet. This is having a major effect on lobster populations and the fishermen who rely on them. The southern New England lobster fishery has collapsed and the catch has moved north into cooler waters.
LOBSTER WAR documents an escalating conflict between the United States and Canada over waters that both countries have claimed since the end of the Revolutionary War.
The disputed 277 square miles of sea known as the Gray Zone--the swath of water surrounding Machias Seal Island at the entrance to the Bay of Fundy--were traditionally fished by US lobstermen. But as the Gulf of Maine has warmed lobsters have migrated north and the Gray Zone's previously modest lobster population has surged. As a result, Canadians have begun to assert their sovereignty in the area, contesting American claims to the bounty and foreshadowing potential conflicts exacerbated by climate change.
DVD / 2019 / (Grades 10-12, Adults, College) / 74 minutes
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Directed by Christopher Beaver
Las Vegas provides an example to the world of how any city can and must create its own sustainable water solutions.
Las Vegas is perhaps the most famous resort city in the world. It is also the thirstiest city in the driest state in the US, so it has had to be proactive in developing solutions that conserve and redistribute water, their most precious resource. Currently the city is faced with only 2.6 inches of rain per annum, a seventeen-year drought, a constantly expanding population and competition for shared resources. As a result, the city has been forced to create its own sustainable water solutions and in the process has turned itself into an example for other desert regions.
Everything to do with their water supply and disposal is watched, measured and checked. Water is recycled and returned to the source. Every drop is monitored acoustically to detect possible leaks within 6500 miles of pipes. 40% of the water is recycled for indoor use and returned to Lake Mead, 40% of what goes out comes back, but the remaining 60% is for outdoor use and either evaporates or goes back into the ground.
The film follows the story of Patricia Mulroy, the controversial founder of the Southern Nevada Water Authority. Her strength and leadership "helped launch a quiet revolution that will shape Colorado River politics far into the future, and perhaps provide a path to safety in the face of intensifying water scarcity."
The story of Las Vegas's approach to water sustainability is full of surprises, and we hear it from many different perspectives. After all, the strip is just a small part of the valley, but it is the engine that provides the cash to enable the experimentation that has created these models for survival.
DVD / 2019 / (Grades 7-12, College, Adults) / 55 minutes
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Directed by Dale Bell
Investigates the largest auto scam in the world, tracing VW's deliberate installation of defeat devices in their diesel cars to circumvent California and US vehicle emissions standards.
BACKFIRED: When VW Lied to America tells the inside story of the VW scandal as it unravels beginning at West Virginia University in 2013 where a group of unsuspecting students accidentally discover the defeat device while doing rare on-road testing. They immediately share their stunning discovery with CARB (California Air Resources Board) that verifies the findings and engages with the EPA and DOJ to plot carefully filing suit against VW's top executives. VW is slapped with the largest fine in US auto history: $15 billion in what's now known as "Dieselgate." And, it gets worse. Most recently, it was discovered that VW secretly tested emissions from defeat devices on innocent monkeys at a lab in New Mexico.
From West Virginia to California, to Washington DC, to Germany and Paris, we hear from those who broke the case and sought justice. BACKFIRED will leave viewers with new insight into the role of regulators, the power of money, and the willingness of major corporations knowingly to endanger the health of millions and to increase carbon emissions dramatically. Most important, it will inspire viewers to think about our obligation to our children and to continue the fight for clean air and a livable planet.
DVD / 2018 / (Grades 9-12, College, Adults) / 61 minutes
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Directed by Judith Helfand
Judith Helfand's searing investigation into the politics of "disaster," by way of the deadly 1995 Chicago heat wave.
Chicago suffered the worst heat disaster in U.S history in 1995, when 739 residents-mostly elderly and black-died over the course of one week. As COOKED links the deadly heat wave's devastation back to the underlying manmade disaster of structural racism, it delves deep into one of our nation's biggest growth industries: Disaster Preparedness.
Peabody Award-winning filmmaker Judith Helfand, uses her signature serious-yet-quirky connect-the-dots-style to forge inextricable connections between the cataclysmic natural disasters we're willing to see and prepare for and the slow-motion disasters we're not. That is, until an extreme weather event hits and they are made exponentially more deadly and visible.
But whether it was the heat wave in Chicago or Hurricanes Katrina, Sandy, Harvey, Irma and Maria, all of these disasters share something key: they reveal the ways in which class, race, and zip code predetermine who was living on the edge to start with, who gets hurt the worst, who recovers and bounces back-and who doesn't. In COOKED, Helfand challenges herself and others to truly see and respond to the invisible man-made disasters taking place in towns and cities across the country before the next "natural" disaster hits.
COOKED is an adaptation of "HEAT WAVE: A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago" (2002), Eric Klinenberg's groundbreaking book.
DVD / 2018 / (Grades 10-12, College, Adults) / 82 minutes
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Directed by Josh Fox, James Spione, Myron Dewey
Record of the massive peaceful resistance led by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe to the Dakota Access Pipeline through their land and underneath the Missouri River.
The Dakota Access Pipeline is a controversial project that brings fracked crude oil from the Bakken Shale in North Dakota through South Dakota, Iowa and eventually to Illinois. The Standing Rock Tribe and people all over the world oppose the project because the pipeline runs under the Missouri river, a source of drinking water for over 18 million people, and pipeline leaks are commonplace. Since 2010 over 3,300 oil spills and leaks have been reported.
Moving from summer 2016, when demonstrations over the Dakota Access Pipeline's demolishing of sacred Native burial grounds began, to the current and disheartening pipeline status, AWAKE, A Dream from Standing Rock is a powerful visual poem in three parts that uncovers complex hidden truths with simplicity. The film is a collaboration between indigenous filmmakers: Director Myron Dewey and Executive Producer Doug Good Feather; and environmental Oscar-nominated filmmakers Josh Fox and James Spione.
The Water Protectors at Standing Rock captured world attention through their peaceful resistance. The film documents the story of Native-led defiance that has forever changed the fight for clean water, our environment and the future of our planet. It asks: "Are you ready to join the fight?"
DVD / 2017 / (Grades 10-12, College, Adult) / 89 minutes
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Directed by Katharina Stieffenhofer
Through a group of Canadian organic farmers-both large-scale and small-scale-we experience a full growing season with all of its rewards as well as the challenges of a changing climate.
When Terry and Monique left the opera to pursue their true passion-ecological, small-scale farming-their story of community and resilience took center stage. FROM SEED TO SEED follows their young family and a diverse group of farmers in Southern Manitoba, for a season of challenges and rewards.
Scientists are working with these farmers using a blend of ancient traditions and cutting edge science to develop improved methods for growing food ecologically and in a changing climate.
This hopeful story provides a Canadian perspective on a global social movement that regenerates the land, farming, and communities toward a healthier future for us all.
DVD / 2017 / (Grades 7-12, College, Adults) / 87 minutes
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Directed by Avi Lewis
Following El Salvador's civil war, a farmers' cooperative puts down roots, builds resilience and provides a model of how to mitigate climate change and resist unsustainable, extractive development.
In a fertile floodplain in El Salvador, where the great river meets the sea, a peasant movement puts down roots - growing resilience in the scorched earth of exile and civil war. But soon these farmers and fishing folk discover new challenges, and this time they are global: climate crisis, exacerbated by an economy of ruinous extraction. The solutions they come up with will be a revelation for audiences in the prosperous north. On the surface, the life of these campesinos may resemble the past: but in their model may lie the key to the future.
Canadian journalist, media personality and documentarian Avi Lewis, along with his wife, author Naomi Klein, has advocated for radically new social and political structures as the only viable and effective response to climate change. In KEEPERS OF THE FUTURE he profiles the Baja Lempa coordinadora, a farmers' cooperative that demonstrates how "deep local democracy" can help even a poor population build environmental, economic and political resilience.
DVD / 2017 / (Grades 7-12, College, Adults) / 24 minutes
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Directed by Kim Beamish
Observes the daily life of a family running an oyster farm in a lake on the SE coast of Australia, as they deal with climate change, pollution, and the fickleness of consumers.
OYSTER captures the daily routines, chaos and drama in the lives of Dom and Pip Boyton, a lively and hard-working second generation oyster farming family on Merimbula Lake on the southeast coast of New South Wales, Australia.
The film watches as Dom and Pip juggle the demands of parenting two precocious young boys with the long hours, logistical decision-making and labor required to keep their crop of Sydney rock oysters healthy and thriving. The Boytons and the other members of their oyster farmer collective face a host of challenges, from climate change and the threat of environmental disaster to the fickleness of the buyers and luxury markets that the collective depends on.
Oysters have been called "the canaries of the estuaries" due to their importance as bioindicators, and as we watch Dom and Pip combat threats to their vulnerable operation-such as the proliferation of the invasive Pacific oyster and bacterial contamination triggered by severe "east coast low" storms and an influx of vacationers-OYSTER presents a unique and intimate look at a business whose fortunes are entwined with the health and stewardship of the environment.
DVD / 2017 / (Grades 9-12, College, Adults) / 80 minutes
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Directed by Joshua Pribanic, Melissa Troutman
Exposes the mishandling and cover-up of drinking water contamination related to unconventional natural gas extraction - aka fracking - in Pennsylvania.
This award-winning "bombshell" documentary covers the impact of fracking in one of the country's most pristine watersheds. With exclusive interviews from oil and gas industry leaders, independent experts and impacted residents, TRIPLE DIVIDE [REDACTED] covers five years (2011 - 2016) of cradle-to-grave investigations that reveal how regulators and industry keep water contamination covered up.
The documentary's title pays homage to one of only four Triple Continental Divides in North America, a place that provides drinking water to millions of Americans, signaling to the audience that everything, and everyone, is downstream from shale gas extraction.
Award-winning actor Mark Ruffalo co-narrates this film.
DVD / 2017 / (Grades 7-12, College, Adults) / 53 minutes
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Directed by Derek Hallquist
A unique film about the filmmaker's father, a utility executive and smart grid pioneer in a nation in denial about climate change, who battles his own denial about his true identity.
Every day our changing climate pushes us closer to an environmental catastrophe, but for most the problem is easy to ignore. As people we often find it difficult to face change. We'd rather be in denial.
David Hallquist, CEO of a Vermont utility, has made it his mission to take on one of the US's largest contributors to this global crisis, our outdated and vulnerable electric grid. Under David's leadership his utility was one of the first to implement a smart grid. In order to make the widespread use of renewable energy sources practical, David argues, we first have to build a smart grid which uses digital communications technology to detect and react to local changes in usage, thereby decreasing outages and increasing efficiency.
But when his filmmaker son, Derek, tries to tell his father's story, the film is soon derailed by a staggering family secret, one that forces Derek and David to turn their attention toward a much more personal struggle, one that can no longer be denied. With stunning access to intimate family moments and behind-the-scenes energy deals, and with unique humor in the face of overwhelming events, DENIAL manages to present insights into two important topics - one global and one personal - through a funny, informational, and enormously compelling personal narrative, and at the same time to throw light on the messy business of change.
DVD / 2016 / (Grades 10-12, College, Adults) / 92 minutes
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Directed by Josh Fox, Steve Liptay
Chronicles 350.org's 'Do the Math' bus tour as it launched the fossil fuel divestment campaign onto the national and ultimately international stage.
As world governments struggle to meet the aspirational limit of 1.5 degrees of global warming agreed to at COP21 in Paris, a new campaign is targeting the fossil fuel industry in an effort to withdraw its social license to operate. DIVEST! Chronicles 350.org's 'Do the Math' bus tour across the United States in 2012 as it launched the fossil fuel divestment campaign onto the national and ultimately international stage.
Each night Bill McKibben and special guests laid out the findings in his landmark Rolling Stone article 'Global Warming's Terrifying New Math' and made both the moral and historical case for divestment. Three years later over 500 institutions representing over 3 trillion dollars in assets have committed to divest. The campaign is winning, but with the clock ticking down the question remains: will the victories add up enough to matter?
Featuring Naomi Klein, Reverend Lennox Yearwood, Dr. Sandra Steingraber, Josh Fox, Terry Tempest Williams, Winona LaDuke, Desmond Tutu and Ira Glass.
DVD / 2016 / (Grades 9-12, College, Adult) / 77 minutes
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Directed by Josh Fox
Oscar-nominated director Josh Fox contemplates our climate-change future by exploring the human qualities that global warming can't destroy.
In his new film, Oscar-nominated director Josh Fox (GASLAND) continues in his deeply personal style, investigating climate change - the greatest threat our world has ever known. Traveling to 12 countries on 6 continents, the film acknowledges that it may be too late to stop some of the worst consequences and asks, what is it that climate change can't destroy? What is so deep within us that no calamity can take it away?
Featuring, among others, Lester Brown, Elle Chou, Van Jones, Elizabeth Kolbert, Michael Mann, Bill McKibben, Tim DeChristopher, Petra Tschakert.
DVD / 2016 / (Grades 10-12, College, Adults) / 127 minutes
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Directed by Steve Liss, Andy Laub, David Abel
Captures the collapse of the historic cod population in New England, delving into the effects of overfishing, climate change and government policies on fishermen and the fish.
For centuries, cod was like gold, driving men to extremes. Cod were so abundant in the waters off New England that fishermen used to say they could walk across the Atlantic on the backs of them, and generations of men from places like Gloucester and Cape Cod spent their entire lives chasing the coveted fish.
In recent decades, something began to change in the Gulf of Maine. As the region's cod catch plummeted, government surveys of the iconic species reported increasingly dire results. Scientists and environmental activists raised alarms about overfishing and the warming ocean. They urged officials to act.
On Nov. 10, 2014, after years of ignoring warnings, NOAA officials banned virtually all cod fishing throughout the region. Fishermen were infuriated. They challenged the findings and accused the government of trying to destroy their livelihood. Environmental activists feared the government's action had come too late to save the cod.
In 2016, officials estimated there were fewer than 200 cod fishermen left in the fleet, and they're now in the fight of their lives, struggling to hold fast to a tradition that has endured for centuries in New England.
SACRED COD gives us an up close look at the challenges many will have to face in the age of climate change.
DVD / 2016 / (Grades 10-12, College, Adults) / 65 minutes
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Directed by Melanie Wood
From floating neighborhoods to massive harbor floodgates, cities around the world are engineering ways to cope with extreme weather events.
Violent stormy weather is a natural outcome of climate change and a warmer planet. WEATHER GONE WILD is about changing the way we live in order to survive a world of superstorms.
WEATHER GONE WILD explores recent extreme weather events and the scientific projections of what we can expect over the next few decades. What can we do to give ourselves the best chance of protecting our homes and families from the weather's devastating effects?
The documentary travels to Calgary, Toronto, New York, Miami, and Rotterdam to detail the dangers of the destructive new weather patterns, and shows the innovative plans in each city trying to engineer their way to a safer future. Everything from farming to the insurance industry to building codes will have to change. How can -- and must -- the average citizen adapt their life to Weather Gone Wild?
DVD / 2014 / (Grades 7-12, College, Adult) / 43 minutes
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Directed by John Ankele & Anne Macksoud
Examines the challenges that climate change poses and discusses meaningful action that can be taken by individuals and communities.
THE WISDOM TO SURVIVE accepts the consensus of scientists that climate change has already arrived, and asks, what is keeping us from action? In discussions with thought leaders and activists, we explore how unlimited growth and greed are destroying the life support system of the planet, the social fabric of the society, and the lives of billions of people.
Will we have the wisdom to survive? The film features thought leaders and activists in the realms of science, economics and spirituality discussing how we can evolve and take action in the face of climate disruption. They urge us to open ourselves to the beauty that surrounds us and get to work on ensuring it thrives.
Amongst those featured are Bill McKibben, Joanna Macy, Roger Payne, Richard Heinberg, Gus Speth, Stephanie Kaza, Nikki Cooley and Ben Falk.
DVD / 2014 / (Grades 9-12, College, Adult) / 56 minutes
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Directed by Beth Gage & George Gage
Tells the story of Tim DeChristopher's extraordinary, ingenious and effective act of civil disobedience drawing attention to the need for action on climate change.
BIDDER 70 is Tim DeChristopher, the student who monkey-wrenched the 2008 fraudulent Bureau of Land Management Oil and Gas Lease Auction. Bidding $1.8 million to save 22,000 acres of pristine Utah wilderness surrounding Arches and Canyonlands National Parks, with no intention to pay or drill, Tim brought the BLM auction to an abrupt halt. A month later, Barack Obama became president and on February 4, 2009, new Interior Secretary, Ken Salazar, invalidated the entire BLM Auction.
Nevertheless, DeChristopher was indicted on two federal felonies facing penalties of up to ten years in prison and $750,000 in fines. During the two years awaiting his trial, DeChristopher stepped up his activism, evolved into a climate justice leader, and waited through nine trial postponements until, on February 28, 2011 his trial began. BIDDER 70 is Tim's journey from economics student to incarcerated felon.
Amonst those featured are Bill McKibben, James Hansen, Robert Redford, John Schuchardt, David Harris, Larry Gibson, Terry Tempest Williams, and members of Salt Lake City's Peaceful Uprising.
DVD / 2013 / (Grades 10-12, College, Adult) / 72 minutes
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Directed by Christopher McLeod
From the Gamo Highlands of Ethiopia to the Andes of Peru, indigenous highland communities battle threats to their forests, farms, and faith.
From Ethiopia to Peru, indigenous customs protect biodiversity on sacred lands under pressure from religious conflicts and climate change. In the Gamo Highlands of Ethiopia, scientists confirm the benefits of traditional stewardship even as elders witness the decline of spiritual practices that have long protected trees, meadows and mountains. Tensions with evangelical Christians over a sacred meadow erupt into a riot. In the Peruvian Andes, the Q'eros, on a pilgrimage to a revered glacier, are driven from their ritual site by intolerant Catholics. Q'eros potato farmers face a more ominous foe: global warming is melting glaciers, their water source. Andes farmers, scientists and visiting Ethiopians struggle to adapt indigenous agriculture to the changing climate.
DVD / 2013 / (Grades 9-12, College, Adult) / 57 minutes
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Directed by Steve Dorst, Dan Evans
The story of how America led the world to solve the ozone crisis. Will we dare to do the same with climate change?
Thirty years ago, scientists reported a hole in the ozone layer "the size of North America." The culprits were man-made chemicals called CFCs, which were prevalent in billions of dollars worth of refrigeration, air conditioning and other products that had revolutionized America's way of life.
With doctors forecasting skyrocketing cancer rates if changes weren't made, the stakes were literally "life as we know it." Yet companies remained bitterly opposed to changing their products. Politicians were slow to act. Like with today's CO2 emissions, an invisible compound was threatening the Earth's life-support systems, but a solution seemed beyond reach.
Eerily reminiscent of today's energy and climate crisis, Shattered Sky tells the story of how America led the world in solving the biggest environmental crisis ever seen.
Those interviewed include William Becker, Richard Benedick, Eileen Claussen, David Doniger, Daniel Dudek, Kevin Fay, Ross Gelbspan, Jeff Goodell, Hunter Lovins, Mario Molina, Bruce Niles, Michael Oppenheimer, Shari Road, William Reilly, James Rogers, F. Sherwood Rowland, George Shultz, Susan Solomon, Gus Speth, General Gordon Sullivan (Ret'd), Lee Thomas and Robert Watson.
DVD / 2012 / (Grades 10-12, College, Adult) / 57 minutes
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Directed by Peter Bull
Reveals the true social and environmental costs of coal power and looks at promising developments in renewable energy technology.
In the digital age, half of our electricity still comes from coal. DIRTY BUSINESS reveals the true social and environmental costs of coal power and tells the stories of innovators who are pointing the way to a renewable energy future.
Guided by Rolling Stone reporter Jeff Goodell, the film examines what it means to remain dependent on a 19th century technology that is the largest single source of greenhouse gases.
Can coal really be made clean? Can renewables be produced on a scale large enough to replace coal? The film seeks answers in a series of stories shot in China, Saskatchewan, Kansas, West Virginia, Nevada and New York.
The film features amongst others: Robert Kennedy Jr., Bill McKibben, Dr. James Hansen, Myron Ebell, Don Blankenship, Joe Lovett, Maria Gunnoe, Dr. Vaclav Smil and Dr. Julio Friedmann.
DVD / 2011 / (Grades 8-12, College, Adult) / 90 minutes
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