The Carbon Rush

The Carbon Rush

How to view: http://www.thecarbonrush.net/
Watch the trailer now and watch the whole movie on YouTube on August 13th 2014.

Director: Amy Miller | Producer: Byron Martin

Produced | Country: Worldwide

Run Time: | Language: English

Synopsis: Hundreds of hydroelectric dams in Panama. Incinerators burning garbage in India. Biogas extracted from palm oil in Honduras. Eucalyptus forests harvested for charcoal in Brazil.

What do these projects have in common? They are all receiving carbon credits for offsetting pollution created somewhere else. But what impact are these offsets having? Are they actually reducing emissions? And what about the people and the communities where these projects have been set up?

THE CARBON RUSH takes us around the world to meet the people most impacted. They are the least heard in the cacophony surrounding in this emerging “green-gold” multi-billion dollar carbon industry.

From indigenous rain forest dwellers having their way of life completely threatened, to dozens of Campesinos assassinated, to the livelihood of waste pickers at landfills taken away, THE CARBON RUSH travels across four continents and brings us up close to projects working through the United Nations, Kyoto Protocol designed Clean Development Mechanism. This groundbreaking documentary feature asks the fundamental questions “What happens when we manipulate markets to solve the climate crisis? Who stands to gain and who stands to suffer?”

Opinion:

Recommendation:

Stand Up Planet

Stand Up Planet

How to view: Watch a sneak peak of the television premier http://www.standupplanet.org/2014/03/tune-in/
The show premiers on May 14th 2014 on Pivot, Link TV and KCET Los Angeles

Director: David Munro  | Producer: Wendy Hanamura

Produced | Country: USA

Run Time: | Language: English

Synopsis: Stand Up Planet began with a hypothesis: the world is full of struggle. Comedy comes from adversity. This must be one hilarious planet. To prove it, they ventured around the globe to places dealing with serious issues. The world's highest HIV infection rate in South Africa. A sanitation crisis of staggering proportion in India.
Punchlines were unmistakable - spilling out of huts, shacks, and makeshift comedy clubs. The sound of laughter everywhere, led by young rebel heroes of a new stand up insurgency who were slaying eager audiences with the truth.
Stand up Plant followed jokes into the lives of the joke tellers - fearless members of an exploding global comedy underground who are raising their voices, making people laugh and making people think.


Opinion: There is nothing inherently funny about hunger, poverty an disease. But there is something powerful - affirming about laughing in the face of hardship. Humor is humanity's antibody to defeat, and it is as much about survivals the air we breathe.

Recommendation: Why not do a screening in your city on May 14? The film does not prescribe solutions to poverty, so be prepared to speak with your audience and bridge the solutions and call to action to support US foreign aid and aid transparency.

The Reality of Food Aid: Bill Pritchard

The Reality of Food Aid: Bill Pritchard 

How to view: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJc0tYNGcWo

Director: TEDx | Producer: TED Talks

Produced | Country: Australia 

Run Time: 13.05 minutes | Language: English 

Synopsis: Bill Pritchard, human geographer, challenges our views on what it takes to create a food-secure world. Bill is an Associate Professor in Geography at the University of Sydney, where he teaches and researches on food, agriculture and rural and regional development. He embraces a geographer's passion to understand the world, believing that the best way to understand an issue is to see it first hand and talk directly to the people involved.

Opinion: Interesting insight into food aid from a geographical perspective.