*** Notice: For the protection of property rights, this catalog is available for online browsing only. Please drop us a line if you would like to receive a copiable version of this catalog. Thank You!

Content

Sustainability

Sustainability


BLUESPACE

Directed by Ian Cheney

Contrasts sci-fi ideas about terraforming Mars with the state of NYC's waterways, and questions the viability of colonizing Mars before making our own planet sustainable.

Could humans live on Mars? Would we want to? Emmy-nominated filmmaker, Ian Cheney, provides insight into our currently unsustainable relationship with our home planet by examining the sci-fi speculation of "terraforming," or making another planet Earth-like, by altering its atmosphere. He calls on a multifaceted brain trust to process this big idea including a desert camp of Mars hopefuls, a bevy of sci-fi writers, Hurricane Sandy survivors, the Gowanus Dredgers Canoe Club, and a who's who of astrobiologists and earth scientists. BLUESPACE makes a strong case for taking better care of our water-rich planet so that future generations won't have to resort to interplanetary colonization.

At times whimsical and funny, serious and poignant and always stimulating, this is a unique exploration of current thinking about the origins and evolution of life and its relationship to water.

DVD includes both the original 73- minute version of the film and a 54- minute classroom version.

DVD / 2016 / (Grades 10 -12, College, Adults) / 73 minutes

[Go top]

>>> Add Cart <<<


AFTER THE SPILL

Directed by Jon Bowermaster

The oil and gas industry has historically dominated Louisiana politics and is largely responsible for the state's rapidly disappearing coastline.

Ten years ago Hurricane Katrina devastated the coast of Louisiana. Five years later the Deepwater Horizon exploded and spilled more than 200 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, the worst ecologic disaster in North American history. Amazingly those aren't the worst things facing Louisiana's coastline today. It is that the state is fast disappearing through coastal erosion caused largely by oil and gas industry activity.

A follow-up to our 2010 film SoLa: Louisiana Water Stories, this film introduces us to some of the spill's most aggrieved victims as well as those who are desperately trying to save its coastline. Writer and historian John Barry who launched a suit against 97 oil and gas companies attempting to get them to pay their fair share for reparations caused by their explorations. Consultant and native son James Carville who manages to find some hope in new technologies that may save the coast. And Lt. Gen. Russell Honore, the man who saved New Orleans post-Katrina, whose new passion is for a Green Army he has recruited.

Fishermen, scientists, politicians, environmentalists, and oil-rig workers document how the coast of Louisiana has changed. What really happened to all that oil? What about the dispersant used to push it beneath the surface? How has the spill impacted local economies as well as human health and the health of both marine life and the Gulf itself? How much resilience is left in the people and coastline?

DVD / 2015 / (Grade Level: 7 -12, Colleges, Adults) / 62 minutes

[Go top]

>>> Add Cart <<<


PLANETARY

Directed by Guy Reid

A provocative and breathtaking wakeup call - a cross continental cinematic journey that explores our cosmic origins and our future as a species.

We are in the midst of a global crisis of perspective. We have forgotten the undeniable truth that every living thing is connected.

PLANETARY is a provocative and breathtaking wakeup call -- a cross continental, cinematic journey. The film takes us from one of the truly extraordinary events of our civilization, space travel, and looks at how this gave us a totally different perspective on the Earth. It is a humbling reminder of the near-incalculable breadth of our impact on the earth, intellectually challenges us to reconsider our relationship with our home and the urgency to shift our perspective -- to remember that we are planetary.

Featuring interviews with thirty renowned experts including astronauts Ron Garan and Mae Jemison, celebrated environmentalist Bill McKibben, National Book Award winner Barry Lopez, National Geographic Explorer Elizabeth Lindsey and Head of the Tibetan Buddhist Kagyu school, the 17th Karmapa, Janine Benyus, Wade Davis, Joanna Macy, PLANETARY takes viewers on a cinematic journey to experience our world like never before.

DVD / 2015 / (Grades 7-12, College, Adults) / 84 minutes

[Go top]

>>> Add Cart <<<


SAVING MES AYNAK

By Brent E. Huffman

SAVING MES AYNAK follows Afghan archaeologist Qadir Temori as he races against time to save a 5,000-year-old archaeological site in Afghanistan from imminent demolition. A Chinese state-owned mining company is closing in on the ancient site, eager to harvest $100 billion dollars worth of copper buried directly beneath the archaeological ruins. Only 10% of Mes Aynak has been excavated, though, and some believe future discoveries at the site have the potential to redefine the history of Afghanistan and the history of Buddhism itself.

China is investing nearly three billion dollars in Afghanistan's untapped copper reserve, the second largest in the world worth an estimated $100 billion. The cash-strapped government of Afghanistan signed away the rights to this deposit with little oversight. The Chinese government-owned company plans to mine the copper using an open-pit method, the cheapest, most environmentally destructive style of mining. By doing so, the archaeology site, as well as the entire mountain range, will be completely demolished.

SAVING MES AYNAK examines the conflict between cultural preservation and economic opportunity through the lens of the Afghan archaeologists and local villagers who work and live near Mes Aynak. Qadir Temori and his fellow Afghan archaeologists face what seems an impossible battle against the Chinese, the Taliban and local politics to save their cultural heritage from likely erasure.

DVD (Closed Captioned) / 2015 / 58 minutes

[Go top]

>>> Add Cart <<<


BANKING NATURE

By Denis Delestrac & Sandrine Feydel

"Buying landscapes, protecting landscapes, accumulating new landscapes - it's a phenomenal opportunity." -- Steve Morgan, CEO, Wildlands Inc.

After years of working to undermine environmental regulations, governments and corporations are starting to think about the value of nature - and how they can profit from it.

BANKING NATURE is a provocative documentary that looks at the growing movement to value the natural world - and to turn endangered species and threatened areas into instruments of profit. It's a worldview that sees capital and markets not as a threat to the planet, but as its salvation - turning nature into "natural capital" and fundamental processes such as pollination and oxygen generation into "ecosystem services."

In the film we meet economist and former banker Pavan Sukhdev is perhaps the world's leading authority on the valuation of nature (one square kilometre of Hawaiian coral reef: $600,000). In his view, the best way to protect endangered species and ecosystems is to assign them a value - because if we can't measure the services nature provides, we can't recognize them within our current models.

In Uganda, we meet men who measure trees to determine how much carbon they store - and a banker from the German firm that sells the resulting carbon credits. Meanwhile in Brazil, steel giant Vale destroys rainforest, replaces it with tree plantations, and reaps the benefits of environmental credits.

Once we start measuring the value of nature, we can start turning it into securitized financial products. BANKING NATURE asks, can we trust the very same people whose management of the mortgage market nearly led to a global economic collapse to safeguard nature by turning it into financial instruments for speculators?

DVD (Color, Closed Captioned) / 2014 / 90 minutes

[Go top]

>>> Add Cart <<<


FIERCE GREEN FIRE, A: THE BATTLE FOR A LIVING PLANET (CLASSROOM VERSION)

Directed by Mark Kitchell

The documentary of record on the environmental movement.

A FIERCE GREEN FIRE: The Battle For a Living Planet is the first big-picture exploration of the environmental movement - grassroots and global activism spanning fifty years from conservation to climate change. From halting dams in the Grand Canyon to battling 20,000 tons of toxic waste at Love Canal; from Greenpeace saving the whales to Chico Mendes and the rubbertappers saving the Amazon; from climate change to the promise of transforming our civilization... the film tells vivid stories about people fighting - and succeeding - against enormous odds.

The film is divided into five "acts".

Act 1 focuses on the conservation movement of the `60s, David Brower and the Sierra Club's battle to halt dams in the Grand Canyon. Narrated by Robert Redford.

Act 2 looks at the new environmental movement of the `70s with its emphasis on pollution, focusing on the battle led by Lois Gibbs over Love Canal. Narrated by Ashley Judd.

Act 3 is about alternative ecology strands and the main story is Greenpeace's campaign to save the whales. Narrated by Van Jones.

Act 4 explores global resource issues and crises of the `80s, focusing on the struggle to save the Amazon led by Chico Mendes and the rubber tappers. Narrated by Isabel Allende.

Act 5 concerns climate change. Narrated by Meryl Streep.

DVD / 2014 / (Grades 7-12, College, Adult) / 53 minutes

[Go top]

>>> Add Cart <<<


GROWING UP GREEN

By Bob Gliner

Growing Up Green profiles a unique statewide, hands-on environmental education program in Michigan, the Great Lakes Stewardship Initiative. For the very first time, both rural and urban schools across the state are working to increase academic performance by involving students in local efforts to improve the environments they inhabit.

This coordinated statewide approach to "place-based education" presents a national model for increasing student engagement by making education more relevant, while also encouraging students to become lifelong stewards of the environment.

High school students in an interdisciplinary science and math class in Houghton developed ROV's (remotely operated vehicles) to use in underwater explorations looking for invasive species. Across the state in Alpena, elementary school students use similar ROV's to aid Fish and Game biologists in their research.

In Lansing and nearby Grand Rapids, elementary and high school students raise salmon in their classrooms, then restock local rivers, weaving science, math, history and art though their year-long curriculum. In Muskegon, elementary students plant a former dump site with non-invasive species, restoring a natural habitat, while learning valuable watershed lessons.

In Detroit's inner city, high school students renovate 800 houses with energy saving devices as part of their science and math program, while Detroit middle school students perform regular 'tire sweeps' of the neighborhood around their school, helping a local nonprofit in its recycling and poverty alleviation efforts. Professional development is offered through nine hubs to help teachers facilitate inquiry-based learning and problem-solving, and to sustain school-community partnerships.

DVD (Region 1, Closed Captioned) / 2014 / (Grades 10 - Adult) / 27 minutes

[Go top]

>>> Add Cart <<<


JOANNA MACY AND THE GREAT TURNING

By Christopher Landry

Joanna Macy and the Great Turning is a short film about the societal shift now underway from an industrial growth society to a more sustainable civilization.

Based on an extensive interview with well-known writer, teacher, and activist Joanna Macy, the film lays out Macy's understanding of "the Great Turning" as the third major revolution of human existence after the agricultural and industrial revolutions.

"The most remarkable feature of this historical moment on Earth," says Joanna Macy, "Is not that we are on the way to destroying the world ¡X we've actually been on the way for quite a while. It is that we are beginning to wake up, as from a millennia-long sleep, to a whole new relationship to our world, to ourselves and each other."

Macy considers how human beings have previously responded to the major challenges of our past and shows how we are doing so once again, in hundreds of ways both small and large.

Illustrated with beautiful footage shot around the world, the film is at once sobering, insightful, and inspiring. The Great Turning is ultimately a call to take part in this new "great adventure" in order to help create a more life-sustaining world.

DVD (Region 1, Closed Captioned) / 2014 / (Grades 10-Adult) / 26 minutes

[Go top]

>>> Add Cart <<<


RACING TO ZERO: IN PURSUIT OF ZERO WASTE

Directed by Christopher Beaver

Follows San Francisco's innovative efforts towards achieving zero waste, thereby dramatically reducing the city's carbon footprint.

Only one third of the waste in the United States is recycled or composted. Why? Industry, through its practice of planned obsolescence, plays a major role; our lives are almost totally dependent on unrecyclable petroleum products. In order to reach zero waste, we need to change our relationship to garbage and view the things we discard as resources, rather than waste.

RACING TO ZERO examines our society's garbage practices in terms of consumption, preparation, use and production, and discovers some amazing solutions in San Francisco, which is successfully taking the necessary steps to reach zero waste. Cities all over the United States have instituted zero-waste policies of their own, and it is through these mandates that we are challenged to think differently about not only how we handle our garbage, but what it can become.

DVD / 2014 / (Grades 7-12, College, Adult) / 56 minutes

[Go top]

>>> Add Cart <<<


ABSENT HOUSE, THE

By Ruben Abruna

A designer from Puerto Rico pioneered green architecture thirty years ago, and today he confronts climate change with sustainable constructions such as a house without a roof that is completely independent of the power and water utilities, a micro-eco-house on wheels, a pre-designed sustainable house, a parachute-house and a solar-electric car, among others.

When architect Fernando Abruna Charneco, FAIA, began designing in the 1970's many dubbed him as "crazy" for putting nature first before erecting a building, a practice which later would be labeled as sustainable green architecture. He inherited the design mantra of "doing more with less" from his mentor R. Buckminster Fuller, the inventor of the Geodesic Dome and the Dymaxion car, with whom he worked as an apprentice.

In times of climate change and the doomsday consequences it entails, THE ABSENT HOUSE delivers a much-needed, hopeful, pro-active message that we can live sustainably while preserving the planet for future generations.

DVD (Color) / 2013 / 55 minutes

[Go top]

>>> Add Cart <<<


ARISE

By Lori Joyce and Candice Orlando

Narrated by Daryl Hannah

On every continent, women are taking the lead to protect and restore the natural environment, and are empowering others to respect the earth. Arise presents the stories of a diverse group of 13 women in five countries who have initiated solution-oriented environmental projects in their communities, towns and villages.

These women are engaged in a variety of innovative efforts profiled in the film: replanting trees in Kenya, conserving biodiversity in India, preserving sacred Native lands, protecting the rainforest in Ecuador, building more sustainable local communities, transforming food through urban agriculture, creating safe outdoor places to play, training women to build and install solar lights, and organizing to combat climate change, among others.

Arise gives voice to these powerful women, and weaves together their inspiring stories with stunning images, poetry and music by well-known writers and musicians, including Alice Walker and Michael Franti.

Through these hopeful examples and new models, the women in the film challenge our current way of thinking about the environment, and encourage a shift in values to find a different, healthier way to view our relationship to the earth.

DVD (Region 1, Closed Captioned) / 2013 / (Grades 10-Adult) / 79 minutes

[Go top]

>>> Add Cart <<<


BRINGING IT HOME: INDUSTRIAL HEMP, HEALTHY HOUSES, AND A GREENER FUTURE FOR AMERICA

Directed by Linda Booker, Blaire Johnson

Extols the many benefits of industrial hemp for the environment and human health, while revealing the obstacles to what could be a thriving industry for U.S. farmers.

Industrial Hemp is making headlines in American media with the recent Farm Bill amendment allowing hemp research crops in ten states. But why does Federal policy still classify and confuse this non-psychoactive plant with marijuana as a drug? BRINGING IT HOME tells the story of hemp's past, present and future through interviews with global hemp business leaders and entrepreneurs, archive images, animation and footage filmed in Europe and the United States. The film features the designer of "America's First Hemp House" and his quest to find the healthiest building material available to construct a safe environment for his daughter with chemical sensitivities. He discovers non-toxic, carbon neutral hempcrete that is recyclable, pest-fire-mold-resistant and cuts energy bills in half. But the major drawback for U.S. builders is that the fiber for hempcrete must be imported. Current U.S. Federal policy does not distinguish hemp from its psychoactive plant cousin marijuana, despite a long history of hemp farming in America up until the 1940s.

BRINGING IT HOME follows the hemp trail to the U.K. where business owners, researchers, farmers and Kevin McCloud, TV host of Grand Designs, discuss industrial hemp use in their country. Also featured are interviews with CEOs of million dollar U.S. companies that are importing hemp for healthy, sustainable products, and those working for policy change at the state and federal levels. A lobbyist for the CA Narcotics Officers Association gives voice to the opposition.

BRINGING IT HOME makes the case for all the benefits of a misunderstood plant that will leave viewers wondering: why aren't we growing it here?

DVD / 2013 / (Grades 10-12, College, Adult) / 52 minutes

[Go top]

>>> Add Cart <<<


H2OMX

By Jose Cohen

A driver who was kidnapped for the contents of his water truck. A man filling dozens of fifty-gallon drums with water, in an urban neighborhood whose residents have spent more than three decades fighting for running water. Large drifts of industrial foam billowing through the air from a drainage canal, and contaminating crops with heavy metals and coliforms.

These are just some of the striking moments in H2OMX, a masterful, award-winning documentary about getting water to and from the 22 million people of Mexico City.

Built on a basin surrounded by mountains and with little drainage, the city is facing a water crisis driven by geography, population, and history. With a growing population, a depleted aquifer, and 40 percent of the water being brought in by aqueduct from another drainage area being lost to leaky pipes, the challenges are huge.

H20 MX captures the scope of the problem by taking us to a wide range of locations in and near the municipality, and introducing us to people dealing with a wide range of water-related issues. On the fringes of the city, we meet residents who can only access water by filling large jugs and hauling them back home with donkeys. We visit what will one day be the largest wastewater treatment plant in the country, only to learn that it is already five years behind schedule, and won't deal with many of the contaminants that make crops irrigated with the water dangerous to eat.

Meanwhile, as residents struggle to get access to fresh water, periodic floods¡Xcaused by storm sewers overwhelmed with torrential rains and sewage¡Xoverflow on a regular basis.

There are solutions: a pair of enthusiastic young industrial designers are helping rural communities install rainwater harvesting systems that, together, are collecting millions of gallons of water a year; fixing leaky pipes could mean not having to go as far afield for water; and proper treatment can allow purified water to go back into the aquifer. But none of this will be easy¡Xand time is running out.

From stunning shots millions of gallons of water on the move to Mexico City and aerial views of a drainage canal choked with miles of garbage, to interviews with those trying to solve the water problem and those who must live with it every day, H2OMX captures the complexities of trying to provide one of the most basic of human rights¡Xaccess to clean water¡Xto one of the world's megalopolises.

DVD (Color) / 2013 / 82 minutes

[Go top]

>>> Add Cart <<<


NOTHING LIKE CHOCOLATE

Directed by Kum-Kum Bhavnani

The story of Mott Green and the solar-powered Grenada Chocolate Company, a farmers' and chocolate-makers' co-op, which makes organic chocolate from tree-to-bar.

NOTHING LIKE CHOCOLATE tells the poweful story of Mott Green and the Grenada Chocolate Company he founded, which is a farmers' and workers' cooperative. This tree-to-bar factory, claimed to be the smallest in the world, turns out luscious creations that are organic and ethical.

In a world saturated with industrial chocolate--often made with cocoa harvested by exploited child labor--this solar-powered workers' co-op provides a viable model for creating sustainable communities in the global South and beyond.

Also featured are Michael Pollan, Vandana Shiva, and Christian Parenti.

DVD / 2012 / (Grades 10-12, College, Adult) / 68 minutes

[Go top]

>>> Add Cart <<<


WE ARE NOT GHOSTS

Directed by Mark Dworkin, Melissa Young

Detroiters are reinventing the old Motor City as a vibrant new self-sustaining and human-scaled city for a post industrial world.

Fifty years ago Detroit was booming with two million hard-working people living the American Dream. Then the auto industry crashed and so did the Motor City. Most moved away; whole neighborhoods turned into wastelands. But some didn't give up on the city they love. They had a vision of Detroit as a human-scaled city for a post industrial world, and they are working to make it real.

WE ARE NOT GHOSTS tells their stories: from community businesses, to place-based schools, to thriving urban gardens and spoken word artists. These are the tales of Detroiters remaking their city with vision and spirit.

Among those featured are Jessica Care Moore and Grace Lee Boggs.

DVD / 2012 / (Grades 10-12, College, Adult) / 52 minutes

[Go top]

>>> Add Cart <<<


ISSUES IN GLOBALISATION: ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS & SUSTAINABILITY

Can economic growth be environmentally sustainable? Residents of Dhaka's slums show how extreme industrial pollution is destroying their environment and health. Next we talk to Bangladesh's environmental activists, factory owners and government officials and ask what needs to be done to make industrial growth sustainable? We then see how a company sited in a UK National Park, is facing the same challenges, but is reducing their carbon footprint and saving money by reducing pollution, waste and energy consumption.

DVD / 2011 / 25 minutes

[Go top]

>>> Add Cart <<<


MALAWI'S GREEN REVOLUTION: SEEKING SUSTAINABILITY 1998-2015

By Charles Mann, Doug Karr, and Michael J. Palmer

Responding to recurrent food crises, by 1998 scientists in Malawi had developed and field-tested new maize varieties and crop combinations that promised Malawi a Green Revolution. However, with farmers too poor to purchase seed and fertilizer, how to empower Malawi's farmers with this new technology?

The answer came in a dramatic response to a food crisis in 1998 when donors and government distributed small Starter Packs of the new seed, fertilizer, and nitrogen fixing legumes to all smallholder farmers in Malawi ¡X 2.8 million households. Production soared, and by the end of year 2, Malawi had a large maize surplus. Judging Starter Pack's annual $25 million cost unsustainable, donors forced a change in concept from spreading the new technology to all farmers to providing a social safety net: lower productivity seed and less fertilizer in the pack, and packs only for Malawi's neediest. This change placed Malawi's Green Revolution on hold, and production fell towards traditional levels, so that by 2005, Malawi again was in desperate food crisis.

Over the objections of donors, the Government responded to the crisis by providing vouchers to all farmers allowing them to buy at a sharp discount two bags of fertilizer and improved seed. At a cost of about $70 million per year, the surge of improved seed and fertilizer restarted Malawi's stalled Green Revolution, and the country again moved into maize surplus. With the World Bank having judged this a "smart subsidy", perhaps this approach will prove sustainable, even though it overlooks much of the science that motivated the original Starter Pack approach.

The film brings to life some central dilemmas of development policy as supporters and opponents of Starter Pack express their views, and as donors press to reshape the program from a focused instrument of technological change into an element of a social safety net, then into something midway between.

DVD (Color) / 2011 / 39 minutes

[Go top]

>>> Add Cart <<<


SUSTAINABLE FUTURES: DEFORESTATION ISSUES

Thanks to sustainable rainforest management projects and government regulations, the deforestation rates in the Brazilian rainforest have declined over the past 10 years. However, 20% of the world's CO2 emissions are still caused by deforestation in Indonesia, Brazil and Congo. Kenya and Ivory coast are rapidly destroying thousand year-old jungles, affecting much more than just the local ecosystem. Overgrazing and urbanization are causing the loss of fertile land to deserts in Mongolia and China.

DVD / 2011 / (Senior High, College) / 24 minutes

[Go top]

>>> Add Cart <<<


SUSTAINABLE FUTURES: ECO TOURISM

Considering pollution from aviation industry and the cost of green air travel, sustainable tourism is a challenge. Despite the setbacks, eco-tourism is growing, supporting economies and conservation efforts of many countries. The Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park unites communities and ecosystems between South Africa and Mozambique that had been divided by colonial borders. Whale watching tours in Australia and nature reserves in Hong Kong and Bangladesh are important destinations for tourists, while the United Kingdom is seeing sustainable entrepreneurship in connection to its well-established culture of rock festivals.

DVD / 2011 / (Senior High, College) / 24 minutes

[Go top]

>>> Add Cart <<<


SUSTAINABLE FUTURES: ECONOMIC ISSUES

The benefits of carbon emission reduction go beyond environmental considerations. They affect future economies, agriculture, sustainability and energy security. Each country is entering sustainability economics with its own history of environmental problems. Local business startups around the world are responding to the demand for sustainable products and provide much needed employment. But, despite being the least responsible for carbon emissions, sub-Saharan Africa remains the most unprepared to face the challenges of climate change.

DVD / 2011 / (Senior High, College) / 24 minutes

[Go top]

>>> Add Cart <<<


SUSTAINABLE FUTURES: FOOD PRODUCTION

The prospect of using farmlands to grow fuel crops is expected to lead to an increase in food shortages and rises in food prices. The scientific community along with government agencies is searching for economic and regulatory incentives for sustainable farming. Genetically modified crops offer a smart but controversial solution to the threats of famine and malnutrition. In Kenya, people cook as a community, while in the Philippines, urbanites turn to subsistence farming.

DVD / 2011 / (Senior High, College) / 24 minutes

[Go top]

>>> Add Cart <<<


SUSTAINABLE FUTURES: GLOBAL WARMING ISSUES

Global climate change is characterized by increased extreme fluctuations in local weather patterns and an overall global warming. An experiment conducted at a biolab in the Rocky Mountains demonstrates how just a few degrees of warming completely change the local ecosystem. Lack of winter ice in the Disko Bay has affected the livelihoods of the locals. Scotland is working toward its record plan of cutting carbon emissions by 80% by the year 2050.

DVD / 2011 / (Senior High, College) / 24 minutes

[Go top]

>>> Add Cart <<<


SUSTAINABLE FUTURES: GREENHOUSE GAS ISSUES

Greenhouse gases have led to a steady increase in global temperatures. Local weather patterns are becoming more and more extreme. The receding and melting of polar ice caps provide easily observable evidence of global warming. Glaciologists measure the changes in the mountain ice, while the CryoSat Project records the changes in the polar ice masses from a satellite. Reduction of dependence of fossil fuels is central to the efforts to stop the greenhouse gas effect.

DVD / 2011 / (Senior High, College) / 24 minutes

[Go top]

>>> Add Cart <<<


SUSTAINABLE FUTURES: LANDFILLS AND WASTE ISSUES

Industrialized societies accumulate tons of waste, and the rising need for electronic devices only exacerbates the issue. The Sierra Club is pushing for standardization of electronic waste recycling, but so far it remains a limited market in the West. Recycling of electronics outsourced to India is done under terrible conditions, exposing workers to an array of toxic materials. Separation of organic and inorganic waste with subsequent recycling of everything from shoes to plastics into construction material is the base of an exemplary waste management program in the Philippines.

DVD / 2011 / (Senior High, College) / 24 minutes

[Go top]

>>> Add Cart <<<


SUSTAINABLE FUTURES: POLLUTION ISSUES

From cardiac and respiratory disease to climate change, the effects of air pollution pose significant health risks to individuals, society and the biosphere. The problem of waste management has transformed the landscapes of poor countries into a tragic view of rivers and drinking water sources, which are littered with unimaginable amounts of trash. See how governments and private organizations struggle to reduce the amount of pollutants from industrial and day-to-day activity.

DVD / 2011 / (Senior High, College) / 24 minutes

[Go top]

>>> Add Cart <<<


SUSTAINABLE FUTURES: SUSTAINABLE LIVING

Throughout the world, innovative thinkers and entrepreneurs are transforming their communities, making the dream of sustainable living a reality. The United Kingdom's push for sustainable housing developments raises awareness of energy efficiency and promotes eco-friendly home design. Cement alternatives developed in Australia reduce the carbon footprint for concrete production by 60%. Two industrial designers from Colombia are creating fashion items from recycled tires. In the Philippines, the inventor of coconut fiber nets shows how his company helps prevent devastating mudslides in the region and provides employment to locals.

DVD / 2011 / (Senior High, College) / 24 minutes

[Go top]

>>> Add Cart <<<


SUSTAINABLE FUTURES: THE CARBON ISSUES

Electricity, transportation, industrial, commercial and residential activities produce six recognized types of greenhouse gases, collectively known as carbon emissions. This episode profiles the approaches different countries are taking to reduce those carbon emissions. The city of Vaxjo, Sweden has pledged to become free of fossil fuels by 2030. There is a push to create an international court for environmental law. In the meantime, an emerging market is growing, with new technologies being implemented: from thermography and LED lights for the homeowners to solar fields and wind farms for whole regions.

DVD / 2011 / (Senior High, College) / 24 minutes

[Go top]

>>> Add Cart <<<


SUSTAINABLE FUTURES: THE ENERGY ISSUES

Worldwide fossil fuel consumption is depleting the natural resources and polluting the environment. The need for alternative fuel sources is growing. Photovoltaic power plants, geysers, small wind turbines and even grasses provide an opportunity for the development of cleaner fuel industry essential for sustainable economy.

DVD / 2011 / (Senior High, College) / 24 minutes

[Go top]

>>> Add Cart <<<


SUSTAINABLE FUTURES: THE WATER ISSUES

While some regions of the world enjoy an abundance of water, one billion people live in areas struggling with drought and drinking water contamination. By 2025, two-thirds of the world's population is expected to face a water shortage. This episode profiles water purification and conservation projects throughout the world, which aim to reduce the environmental and economic threats of a future where water is a scarce commodity.

DVD / 2011 / (Senior High, College) / 24 minutes

[Go top]

>>> Add Cart <<<


SUSTAINABLE FUTURES: TRANSPORT POLLUTION

Pollutants from automotive transport are a major source of greenhouse gases. Government organizations, volunteer and business startups throughout the world are taking steps to reduce emissions of particulate and gas emissions from cars, scooters, buses and commercial aircrafts.

DVD / 2011 / (Senior High, College) / 24 minutes

[Go top]

>>> Add Cart <<<


ECO COMPANY: SUSTAINABLE CROPS IN INDIA

Eco Company visits two amazing schools that are doing it right when it comes to helping the planet. First up is Sacred Heart Preparatory in Menlo Park, California. Not only do they have a large organic garden, but they boast a brand new, LEED Platinum-rated science and multi-use building and a state-of-the-art resource monitoring. Here you will find sustainability both inside and out the classroom.

DVD / 2010 / (Junior High, College) / 22 minutes

[Go top]

>>> Add Cart <<<


SOLA: LOUISIANA WATER STORIES

Investigates how the exploitation of Southern Louisiana's abundant natural resources compromised the resiliency of its ecology and culture, multiplying the devastating impact of the BP oil spill and Hurricane Katrina.

Everywhere you look in Southern Louisiana there's water: rivers, bayous, swamps, the Mississippi River, the Gulf of Mexico. And everyone in Cajun Country has a water story, or two or three or more. Its waterways support the biggest economies in Louisiana - a $70 billion a year oil and gas industry, a $2.4 billion a year fishing business, tourism and recreational sports.

They are also home to some insidious polluters: the same oil and gas industry, 200 petrochemical plants along a 100-mile-long stretch of the Mississippi known "Cancer Alley," the world's largest Dead Zone in the Gulf of Mexico and erosion that is costing the coastline twenty five square miles of wetlands a year. At the same time, SoLa is home to one of America's most vital and unique cultures; if everyone who lives there has a water story they can also most likely play the fiddle, waltz, cook an etoufee and hunt and fish.

DVD / 2010 / (Grades 7-12, College, Adult) / 62 minutes

[Go top]

>>> Add Cart <<<


WATER ON THE TABLE

An intimate portrait of international water activist Maude Barlow and the debate over whether water is a commercial good or a human right.

WATER ON THE TABLE features Maude Barlow, who is considered an "international water-warrior" for her crusade to have water declared a human right. "Water must be declared a public trust and a human right that belongs to the people, the ecosystem and the future, and preserved for all time and practice in law. Clean water must be delivered as a public service, not a profitable commodity."

The film intimately captures the public face of Maude Barlow as well as the unscripted woman behind the scenes. The camera shadows her life on the road in Canada -- including an eye-opening visit to Alberta's tar sands -- and the United States over the course of a year as she serves as the UN Senior Advisor on Water to Fr. Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann, President of the 63rd Session of the United Nations.

More than a portrait of an activist, WATER ON THE TABLE presents several dramatic opposing arguments. Barlow's critics are policy and economic experts who argue water is no different than any other resource, and that the best way to protect freshwater is to privatize it. It is proposed that Canada bulk-export its water to the United States in the face of an imminent water crisis.

DVD / 2010 / (Grades 10-12, College, Adult) / 79 minutes

[Go top]

>>> Add Cart <<<


EDENS LOST AND FOUND - SEATTLE: THE FUTURE IS NOW

Directed by Harry Wiland

Recognizing that the human community is growing faster than the aging infrastructure, the city of Seattle created an Office of Sustainability and Environment.

Seattle is synonymous with environmental awareness. Some have called it the city of the future. It leads the nation in the search for alternate fuels (Seattle Biodiesel) and was one of the first locations to create community-based biodiesel distribution co-ops.

The High- Point mixed-use housing development is the first planned sustainable neighborhood in a major American city. It garners visitors from around the world. High- Point has even restored streams that are critical to the region's salmon migration.

Salmon is an indicator species for the North West and it is an integral part of our story. We follow the plight of this remarkable species from the releasing of eggs into Lake Washington by schoolchildren, to a trip into Elliot Bay with an enlightened fisherman and, finally, with a visit to native American commercial fisheries that adhere to sustainable practices.

Also related to water, there is a heated debate on how to provide access to Seattle's remarkable shoreline. Will its aging Viaduct Highway be torn down and replaced with a tunnel? The issue is still being discussed.

Sometimes, even with the best of intentions, a citizen movement fails. Such a cautionary tale describes our final story, the 10-year battle to fund and build the citizen-inspired Monorail.

DVD (Color, Closed Captioned, With 45 Pages Teachers' Guide) / 2007 / (Grades 7-12, College, Adult) / 57 minutes

[Go top]

>>> Add Cart <<<


GREENING OF SOUTHIE, THE

Directed by Ian Cheney

The story of Boston's first LEED-certified residential green building, and the people who made it possible.

In the traditionally Irish-American working-class neighborhood of South Boston, MA, a new kind of building has taken shape. From wheatboard cabinetry to recycled steel, bamboo flooring to dual-flush toilets, the Macallen building is something different: a leader in the emerging field of environmentally friendly design.

But Boston's steel-toed union workers aren't sure they like it. And when things on the building start to go wrong, the young developer has to keep the project from unraveling.

Building Boston's first LEED Gold-certified building turns out to be harder than anyone thought. Yet among the I-beams and brickwork emerges a small cadre of unlikely environmentalists who come to connect their work with the future of their children

DVD (Color, Closed Captioned) / 2007 / (Grades 7-12, College, Adult) / 72 minutes

[Go top]

>>> Add Cart <<<


ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT, THE: ACCOUNTING FOR A SMALL PLANET

Dr. Mathis Wackernagel introduces the Ecological Footprint, a resource accounting tool that measures human demand on the Earth.

Humans are the most successful species on the planet. But our growing economy is placing unprecedented demand on the planet's limited ecological resources. How can we assure our future well-being?

"We can choose to live on a depleted planet or we can choose to live on a rich, biologically diverse, more stable planet" proposes Dr. Mathis Wackernagel, co-creator of the Ecological Footprint. He suggests that an essential step in avoiding depletion is to track ecological assets, allowing us to make more informed choices.

In the film, Wackernagel introduces the Ecological Footprint, a resource accounting tool that measures human demand on the Earth. Footprint accounts work like a bank statement, documenting whether we are living within our ecological budget or consuming nature's resources faster than the planet can renew them.

In just thirty minutes, the film paints a picture of our current global situation: for the first time, humanity is in "ecological overshoot" with annual demand on resources exceeding what Earth can regenerate each year. Most countries are running ecological deficits, with Footprints larger than their own biological capacity. Wackernagel explores the implications of these ecological deficits, and provides examples of how governments, communities and businesses are using the Footprint to help improve their ecological performance.

For Wackernagel, "Sustainability boils down to how we can all live well, how we can all have great lives, within the means of one small planet." He concludes on a hopeful note, showing how a new organization, Global Footprint Network, is partnering with government agencies, businesses, universities and NGOs to support the use of the Ecological Footprint and to help turn this vision of a sustainable future into reality.

DVD (Color, Closed Captioned) / 2005 / (Grades 10-12, College, Adult) / 30 minutes

[Go top]

>>> Add Cart <<<


DESIGNING A GREAT NEIGHBORHOOD: BEHIND THE SCENES AT HOLIDAY

To people driving past the old Holiday Drive-In Theater site in Boulder, Colorado, it might seem like a new neighborhood has sprung out of the ground overnight. But those who worked on the project's development know better. Collectively, hundreds of thousands of decisions and choices were made to create the 330-home neighborhood, where affordability and sustainability are primary goals. It wasn't exactly a simple mission.

In DESIGNING A GREAT NEIGHBORHOOD, director David Wann follows the progress of the Wild Sage Cohousing Community project, where future residents participate in the design of their own neighborhood. The stated architectural goal at the Wild Sage site in Boulder is a "zero emissions" neighborhood in which solar energy, energy efficiency, and changes in behavior eliminate the need for fossil fuels.

The master site developer, The Boulder Housing Partners (BHP), has a vision for creating affordable neighborhoods that are also lively, efficient and pedestrian friendly. More than 400 people with low and middle incomes will live at Holiday, many as first-time homeowners.

DVD (Color) / 2004 / (Grades 10-12, College, Adult) / 54 minutes

[Go top]

>>> Add Cart <<<


NEXT INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION, THE

William McDonough, Michael Braungart & the Birth of the Sustainable Economy

Architect Bill McDonough and chemist Michael Braungart bring together ecology and human design.

While some environmental observers predict doomsday scenarios in which a rapidly increasing human population is forced to compete for ever scarcer natural resources, Bill McDonough sees a more exciting and hopeful future.

In his vision humanity takes nature itself as our guide reinventing technical enterprises to be as safe and ever-renewing as natural processes.

Can't happen? It's already happening¡Kat Nike, at Ford Motor Company, at Oberlin College, at Herman Miller Furniture, and at DesignTex¡Kand it's part of what architect McDonough and his partner, chemist Michael Braungart, call 'The Next Industrial Revolution.'

Shot in Europe and the United States, the film explores how businesses are transforming themselves to work with nature and enhance profitability.

DVD (Color) / 2001 / (Grades 7-12, College, Adult) / 55 minutes

[Go top]

>>> Add Cart <<<


ANOTHER WAY OF LIVING: THE STORY OF RESTON, VA

By Rebekah Wingert-Jabi, Vicky Wingert, and Susan Jones

Chronicles urban planner Robert Simon's quest to create a new kind of suburban American town that values community, nature, diversity and social equity.

In the early 1960's Robert Simon had a vision for American life that was radically different from 1950's post-war suburban sprawl, which he felt isolated people. Simon dreamed of "another way of living" that valued community, nature, diversity and social equity. This innovative American planner set out to build a new kind of walkable suburban community that integrated citizens across racial, economic, and religious divides. His ambitious vision was realized in Reston, Virginia.

Inspired by the hill towns of Italy, Simon purchased 6,750 acres of farmland in Virginia with the intention of building a robust, inclusive community. The idea of a fully integrated community was unheard of at the time in Virginia, historically a Confederate state that was resisting integration. But Reston managed to draw in people who appreciated his unique vision as full of new opportunities.

Despite early challenges, including serious financial struggles, the town became an international model, inspiring new trends in suburban development - mixing residential and commercial zones, and creating open spaces and plazas to promote community. Simon's work to integrate nature into everyday living and reduce car dependency was also revolutionary among his contemporaries.

After a 20-year absence, Robert Simon returned to Reston as a community activist, working with other residents to ensure the town of 60,000 remains true to its founding principles, despite 21st century challenges presented by rapid urbanization and rising housing costs.

DVD (Closed Captioned) / (Grades 10-Adult) / 69 minutes

[Go top]

>>> Add Cart <<<


GREEN SCIENCE: HELPING PLANET EARTH - THE SCIENCE OF SUSTAINABILITY

The Earth is an amazing place. It cycles through the seasons like a giant clock. Like a heartbeat, the tides ebb and flow, summers turn to fall. It's an endless rhythm of life.

The great thing about the earth is that it renews and SUSTAINS itself throughout the cycles- if we let it. But humans are now consuming so much of the earth's resources that these cycles of renewal are having a hard time keeping up. Whether it is in the sciences of protecting our soil, or replanting our forests or in moving and protecting our water resources, you can contribute to help sustain life on Planet Earth. With your interest in the green sciences it will help insure that we stay green for generations to come. So, what science will you pursue?

DVD / (High School, College) / 22 minutes

[Go top]

>>> Add Cart <<<

***Price on web-site may not be current and is subject to modification by quotation***


Email :
inquiry@learningemall.com

Websites :
http://www.learningemall.com [ English ]
http://www.learningemall.com.hk [ Chinese ]

Follow us: facebook twitter linkedin linkedin