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Across the world, extreme weather events are affecting local conditions. Some areas are getting drier and hotter, while others are getting wetter, as floods are becoming more frequent and more extreme. While formal weather records going back 150 years indicate wildly varying climates, conditions have never changed as rapidly as they are changing now.
The central Pacific nation of Kiribati is expected to be one of the first countries to disappear as a result of climate change. Sea level rise and increasing salinity are threatening the homes and lives of 105,000 residents spread over 33 atolls. One of the least developed countries in the world, Kiribati has contributed little to worldwide carbon emissions, yet has the most to lose from global warming.
THE HUNGRY TIDE shows clearly the tragic impact of climate change on Kiribati, and exposes the stark global inequalities driving the global warming phenomenon. The film personalizes the story by following the life and work of Maria Tiimon, who evolves to become one of the most prominent advocates for the rights of Pacific Islanders. Originally from Kiribati, Maria works for an organization in Sydney as an impassioned campaigner for her sinking nation. But right from the start, Maria finds herself frequently torn between the needs of her family on Kiribati and her role on the world stage.
A rather shy Maria travels to the Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen to press for a new binding treaty to dramatically reduce greenhouse emissions. "Industrial countries are causing change in the climate," she says, "and we are the first to feel the consequences." Later, as a more confident advocate, she travels to Cancun for the next Climate Change Conference (COP16).
While Maria's life and work unfold, the situation in Kiribati deteriorates. Seawalls protecting an entire community are swept away. Only decisive global action will save Kiribati from disappearing. But pledges made at the climate change conferences to cut carbon emissions have fallen far short of their targets. And promises to assist poorer countries to adapt to climate change haven't materialized. As a result, Kiribati's President believes that relocation may be the only option. "To plan for the day when you no longer have a country is indeed painful but I think we have to do that."
Reviews
"This is a marvelous film, strong in narrative, imagery, argument and character." - Sylvia Lawson, Inside Story
"For Maria, climate change becomes less an environmental issue than a human-rights issue - a problem of justice. This is the message she takes to the climate-change conference in Copenhagen, where the Kiribati delegation battles to be heard. Tiimon and her team give their talks and perform their dances; they show a short film and brief the journalists but it quickly becomes apparent her people are drowning not only in seawater but in global indifference. Indeed, watching Tiimon and the delegation being ground to dust by the wheels of international diplomacy is one of the more moving parts of the film." - The Sydney Morning Herald
"The personal encroaches on the political in The Hungry Tide as Maria is torn between her family in Kiribati and her role on the world stage... Reporting the facts is important, but it's our understanding of the people behind the headlines that can sow the seeds of real engagement¡Xand in the longer term, the possibility of real change." - Dan Edwards, Real Time Arts
Award
Winner, Special Jury Prize, Oceania Documentary Film Festival, Tahiti
A Wild Idea explores Ecuador's unprecedented proposal for fighting global warming and preserving a large area of pristine rainforest from oil development - called the Yasuni-ITT Initiative.
In exchange for compensation from the world community, Ecuador pledges to leave untouched a large oil reserve, the ITT block with over 850 million barrels of oil. If the proposal succeeds, it will protect one of the most bio-diverse places on Earth, respect the rights of two of the last nomadic indigenous cultures who live there, and avoid the emission of over 400 million tons of CO2 into the atmosphere. Exploiting the ITT oil reserve seemed a logical step that Ecuador had to take, as a relatively poor country that depends upon oil for a large percentage of its revenue. But political changes have transformed the way the country views oil development.
The film takes the viewer to the Yasuni National Park in the Ecuadorian Amazon, capturing the rainforest's stunning biodiversity and profiling the tribes that live there. Through rich archival footage and commentary from government officials, environmentalists and others, A Wild Idea shows how the seemingly utopian ideal of keeping valuable oil underground turned into an official proposal. The political twists and turns that made the proposal possible could also threaten the success of this revolutionary idea.
A Wild Idea is a thought-provoking film that explores the complexity of contemporary oil development within a fragile ecosystem, and how creative, new approaches might be of significant local and global benefit.
Review
"A thought-provoking film¡Kshows how the seemingly utopian ideal of keeping valuable oil underground turned into an official proposal - and the audience sees what's at stake if the proposal is not accepted." - Reel Earth Film Festival, New Zealand
Awards
Best Short Film - Colorado Environmental Film Festival
Silver Star - Cinema Verde Film Festival
Best Thesis Film - 8th Annual ReelHeART International Film Festival
Best Student Film - Green Screen Film Festival
Honorable Mention Award Portrayal of Human vs. Wildlife Interaction -International Wildlife Film Festival
Honorable Mention Award, Documentary Short - International Film Festival for Peace, Inspiration, and Equality.
There's plenty of serious documentaries on the world's environmental problems. How to Boil a Frog takes a different approach, mixing fast-paced comedy with hard-hitting facts to help make complex subjects both understandable and more engaging.
This highly entertaining film features everyman dad narrator, Jon Cooksey (a screenwriter in real life), who is a guy worried about his daughter's future. Cooksey effectively plays a dozen different characters in the film to illustrate his points, from a lab-coated scientist to a surfer. He recounts his own wake-up moment, on the subject of climate change, and his subsequent discovery that global warming is part of a bigger problem: "global overshoot" - humans putting too much demand on our limited natural world.
After presenting the consequences of overshoot, Jon launches into a clever review of five major problems and how they're connected: overpopulation, the war on nature, income inequality, peak oil and finally global warming. From there, he offers a set of positive solutions that can be accomplished by individuals and families to help turn things around. Along with the comedy, the movie interweaves high quality animation and world-class experts in relevant fields (presented both briefly and humorously) to help encourage both awareness and action.
Reviews
"A feisty little film which is down-home in style, and humorous." - Vancouver Sun
"Ambitious and insightfully practical¡KI give this one high marks. (Cooksey) has tapped in to an important way to communicate tough issues to an increasingly distracted audience: make 'em laugh. He presents it all with an edgier take on the whole Bill Nye the Science Guy vibe. Only, the PG-13 version. Hey, it works for Jon Stewart." - Transition Voice
Awards
Best Environmental Film, FilmShift Film Festival
Best Documentary & Best Director, Los Angeles Movie Awards
Best Green Film, Mammoth Film Festival
Finalist, Screenwriting Award, Writer's Guild of Canada
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.
Climate change is pushing the world's coral reefs to the edge of extinction. The growing damage is an early warning of the danger climate change poses to the world's oceans and other ecosystems. These rich, sensitive ecosystems are vital to the survival of one-quarter of all sea life and the economies of many countries.
This DVD classroom resource is the ideal tool for teaching about the science of climate change, its impact on our oceans, and how coral reef ecosystems work. With its video modules and guide, Climate Change and Coral Reefs is designed to optimize student learning and engagement. It encourages student discussion, research and presentations to learn more about the issues involved and discover possible solutions to this serious environmental challenge.
The video modules and guide are aligned with national science standards -- scientific understanding, science as inquiry and science as a human endeavor.
The DVD includes:
Four 8-minute video modules hosted by Dr. Kiki Sanford.
The modules feature Dr. Sanford and excerpts from a presentation by Prof. Ove Hoegh-Guldberg:
Introduction to Climate Change and Coral Reefs
Coral Bleaching
Ocean Acidification
The Future of Coral Reefs.
The full 28-minute presentation by Prof. Hoegh-Guldberg.
Details his scientific findings about the impact of climate change on coral reefs, with charts, graphs and other visuals.
Climate Refugees is the first feature film to explore in-depth the global human impact of climate change and its serious destabilizing effect on international politics. The film turns the distant concept of global warming into a concrete human problem with enormous worldwide consequences.
Experts predict that by mid-century hundreds of millions of people will be uprooted as a result of sea level rise and an increase in extreme weather events, droughts and desertification. Little is being done to plan for the potential mass migration of millions of refugees who will be forced to cross national borders. According to the UN, there are already more environmental refugees in the world than political or religious refugees. The Pentagon now considers climate change a national security risk and the phrase "climate wars" is being talked about in war-rooms.
The filmmakers traveled the world for nearly 3 years to document the impact of climate change, witnessing inhabitants of countries forced to leave their homes by climatic events with little or no protection. The film features a variety of leading scientists, relief workers, security consultants, and major political figures, including John Kerry and Newt Gingrich. All make a strong case that, whether human-caused or a product of nature, the changing climate is already creating humanitarian disasters and will inevitably lead to worldwide political instability.
Climate Refugees was filmed in Bangladesh, Tuvalu, China, Fiji, Chad, Sudan, Kenya, Maldives, Europe and the US.
Reviews
"Climate Refugees fervently captures the human fallout of climate change. Strong visuals and potent testimony¡Khelp sound the alarm for instituting new policies and working together to create solutions to cope with this imminent crisis." - Sundance Film Festival
"With leading researchers and high profile political figures, Climate Refugees presents a swell of compelling opinion about the challenges (climate) change puts on the global populations." - Variety
"After watching Michael Nash's eye opening documentary, you quickly begin to understand that our own national security is threatened by events happening both within and outside our borders. Nash has raised a very dark red flag; now, it is up to all of us to heed his warning." - Moving Pictures Magazine
Filmmaker, author and adventurer Jon Bowermaster provides a unique, up-close introduction to the stark beauty, fragility and importance of the remote continent of Antarctica. For six weeks Bowermaster and his team explored the Antarctic by sailboat, sea kayak, foot and small plane -- observing first-hand the fast -changing evolution of the continent.
The earth is a complex system with Antarctica its heart. The annual expanding and shrinking of the ice sheet, which holds about 70% of the earth's fresh water, affects the entire planet's weather and oceans. Today, the continent is increasingly impacted by human activities: global warming is causing the ice to melt at a greater pace and endangering wildlife, nations are fighting over Antarctica's natural resources, and the area has become a major tourist destination.
Bowermaster's film mixes footage of stunning scenery with factual information in an engaging and entertaining way. We witness the rarely seen collapse of a massive ice arch, hike through massive snow mountains, visit with biologists tracking declining penguin populations, and scientists monitoring the ozone layer from the site where the hole in the ozone was first discovered.
Jon Bowermaster has traveled around the world for the last decade to study, film and write about the human impact on the world's oceans.
Awards
Winner, Best Ocean Issues, Blue Ocean Film Festival
Winner, Best of Festival, Vancouver Int'l Mountain Film Fest
This program looks at the Endangered Species Act; causes of species extinction; greenhouse warming and the consequences to the ecosystem; and the federal agencies that manage the ecosystem and the federal lands found within the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. There is also a discussion about cattle grazing in the ecosystem and the challenges it presents to wolf and grizzly management, and considers an important wild card in greenhouse warming that is often neglected: methane.
A critical concern for the planet today is global warming and its probable consequences. And whether warming trends are occurring because of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere or a cyclical change in the weather, we'll investigate this global issue from the polar Arctic to the polar Antarctic.
DVD (Closed Captioned) / 2008 / (Intermediate and up) / Approx. 23 minutes
Incredible amounts of ice are melting in the Arctic and the warmer temperatures have made it possible to sail all the way around Svalbard, the northern most civilization in the world. What is happening in the Arctic islands is the best illustration of what happens to nature when global warming spreads. A cameraman has found space on a Russian expedition ship and has persuaded the crew to drop him off at several places around the islands. Completely alone on these harsh coasts, he experiences first hand the consequences of global warming on the Arctic environment. We come very close to starving polar bears as they have no hunting grounds due to the fast melting ice. We also meet walruses, polar foxes, and many birds, all of whom are feeling the affects of climate change.
Our appetite for the earth's resources and consumer goods has led to increased levels of carbon dioxide entering our atmosphere, trapping more heat from the sun and leading to global warming of the atmosphere.
This program argues that action could and should be taken at both international and political levels, then addresses the question of what each of us as individuals can do to reduce our use of non-renewable energy sources and lower our personal 'carbon footprint' on the planet.
Note : The above titles may have some territorial restrictions. Please feel free to send us an enquiry.
Explains the science and the uncertainties behind current global warming debates in Congress and the press. Program includes interviews with experts like: Richard Lindzen, MIT; Reid Bryson, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Howard Odum, University of Florida; Thomas Lovejoy, Smithsonian Institute and others.
Explains the science and the uncertainties behind current global warming debates in Congress and the press. Program includes interviews with experts like: Richard Lindzen, MIT; Reid Bryson, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Howard Odum, University of Florida; Thomas Lovejoy, Smithsonian Institute and others.
Learn what creates the Greenhouse Effect and discover how it affects weather patterns all over the world. Understand that we must take the threat of global warming seriously to ensure the continued survival of our species.
Learning Objectives:
1) Students will learn about the factors that contribute to global warming.
2) Students will learn why global warming is a threat to mankind.
3) Students will learn what people can do to reverse the trend of global warming.
Global warming is affecting the severity of droughts in semi-arid and sub-humid regions such as Africa, Asia, and North America and causing these regions to now face a high risk of desertification. This program explains desertification as a process that changes the landscape and resource potential of semi-arid or sub-humid areas, transforming landscape so that it eventually approximates the barrenness of a true desert.
Emphasizing the near irreversibility of desertification and focusing on the kinds of land use practices that intensify this process, this film illustrates each specific stage in the desertification process. Clear and concise at every stage of its explanation, this program concludes with a discussion of the human consequences of desertification and cautions against short term technological "fixes" that lack foresight and understanding of desert ecology.
What exactly are greenhouse gases? Are they really causing climate change? Global warming has suddenly become the hottest environmental issue, and this program clearly explains the science of greenhouse effect and the evidence that we are causing climate change. The DVD contains an advanced version for senior students, with in-depth analysis of greenhouse gases and their effects. In addition, there are fascinating extras including ice core research in Antarctica, how warming threatens coral reefs, and how carbon capture and storage work.