What’s better than the opportunity to make a video that sends an inspiring message about climate change to our next president? How about the chance to win a cash prize and your video broadcast on internet and TV channels?1Sky and Brighter Planet are inviting Americans to create powerful video messages that deliver a clear message to Washington: We’re ready for strong leadership on climate change. Upload your 30- or 60- second video to the contest page on Vimeo.com before September 22, 2008 to compete for $4,500 in cash prizes: www.vimeo.com/climatematters.
The ten videos with the most views per day will be judged by a select panel that includes award winning documentary filmmaker and producer Rory Kennedy (Ghosts of Abu Ghraib) and Academy award-winning producer Tia Lessen (Trouble the Water, Fahrenheit 9/11 and Bowling for Columbine), among other notable individuals.
The extent to which politics plays a role in scientific reports on the environment is incredibly disappointing for those of us that care about climate change. Government whistleblower Rick Piltz and journalist Ross Gelbspan featured in Everything’s Cool demonstrated that many government and news reports have been skewed to misrepresent the threat that global warming presents – thus widening the gap between what scientists know and what the public understands.
“Our investigation,” the report said, “found that during the fall of 2004 through early 2006, the NASA Headquarters Office of Public Affairs managed the topic of climate change in a manner that reduced, marginalized or mischaracterized climate change science made available to the general public.”
Revkin also noted that Senator Frank R. Lautenberg, the New Jersey Democrat who wrote the request for the inquiry stated:
“Global warming is the most serious environmental threat we face, but this report is more evidence that the Bush administration’s appointees have put political ideology ahead of science,” Mr. Lautenberg said in a statement e-mailed by an aide. “Our government’s response to global warming must be based on science, and the Bush administration’s manipulation of that information violates the public trust.”
There is no doubt that this type of suppression is having an impact on our government policy or the lack thereof. Our partners at 1Sky are mobilizing for strong climate legislation from the next Congress. In the mean time we will continue to push for the truth.
Are you interested in bringing together your friends and neighbors for an entertaining and engaging conversation about global warming? This month the Sierra Club’s book and film club, Let’s Talk, is featuring Everything’s Cool, so you can do just that. Every other month Let’s Talk recommends an illuminating movie and book while providing background reading materials, tips on hosting a film club, and questions to help spark a good discussion.
Make your screening meaningful, check out the Sierra Club’s Cool Cities and Cool Counties campaigns and get involved by urging your local government to move forward with innovative energy solutions that curb global warming, save taxpayer dollars, and create healthier cities!
Our partners at Clif Mojo and Focus the Nation want you to propel your creative Global Warming solutions into action with Project Slingshot. Three winners will receive up to $10,000 to slingshot their ideas into reality. How can you best utilize your skills, talents and passion to make a difference? There will be one winner in each of three categories:
1. Outdoor Fanatics: How will you protect the places you love to play?
2. Artists: How will you inspire your communities?
3. Innovators: How will you challenge our expectations?
Ok all you aspiring filmmakers. ..If you’ve been inspired by the global warming messengers in Everything’s Cool, now’s your chance to put your filmmaking skills to use and do your part to get the message out about global warming. Current TV’s 60 Seconds to Save the Earth contest is your chance to encourage folks to be part of the solution (and for you to win prizes) . You just have to make a spot of 15, 30, 45 or 60 seconds that inspires people to get off the couch and do their part to reverse global warming. For more info on the contest check out the 60 Seconds to Save the Earth page on the Current TV site.
Remember that School House Rock segment called I’m Just a Bill , where the scroll of paper named Bill talks with a little boy about how he wants to become a law? Well just like the cartoon Bill the clean energy legislation passed by the House and Senate has not quite become law.
The good news is that the hard work of activists like us assured that the House version of the bill included a renewable energy standard (RES) that requires utilities to get at least 15% of their electricity from clean, US based, renewable energy sources by 2020, and the Senate version included an increase in CAFE, or fuel efficiency standards for vehicles. The bad news is that the differences between the two bills have to be hammered out in conference committee and then, just like we learned from School House Rock, the final version must be signed by the president. For this clean energy bill to have the same happy ending as the school house rock Bill, who does become a law, we must keep up our pressure on President Bush and our Congressional representatives. Read more about the legislation at It’s Getting Hot in Here, a blog by youth climate change activists, and then find the find and write your elected officials to tell them you want both increased CAFE standards and the RES in the final version of the bill.
Want to know what’s happening to farmers on the Cape Verde Islands because of global warming? For info about how these islands off the coast of Africa, along with the rest of the world, are being affected by human fueled climate change you can tune into National Public Radio (NPR). On both their morning and afternoon news shows they are is doing a year long series called Climate Connections that features stories about “how climate changes people and how people change climate.” In addition to the radio stories the Climate Connections website features interactive games and tools for learning more about your own carbon footprint and an archive of past stories.
BusinessGreen blog gives an update — Exxon Mobil is still funding global warming deniers. Research from Greenpeace gives the full story: “We have found that, despite the rhetoric, ExxonMobil continues to fund the majority of the organizations which have been central to the global warming denial campaign the company has run for the past decade or more.”
From time to time Working Films finds interesting news articles we want to share with you.
Check out this article from the Atlanta Journal Constitution about the testimony of experts witnesses who shared their concerns about the impact of global climate change with Congress. Also take a look at the responses of Congressional Representatives who don’t believe the scientists. This article reminds me how much work there is to do. Like the global warming messengers in Everything’s Cool we all have to keep up the pressure to make sure that more of our leaders understand the reality of global warming.
Scientists warn of global warming doom; skeptics scoff By BOB DART The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Published on: 04/27/07
“Mexican butterflies fluttering around Austin, Texas, could be harbingers of a global apocalypse caused by climate change, scientists warned a congressional committee Thursday.Global warming is reaching a point at which flooding, pestilence, fire, disease and starvation could threaten human existence, academics told the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming.
Earth is approaching “tipping points of the system with the potential for irreversible deleterious effects,” said James Hansen, director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies…”]
On Sunday, April 15th Everything’s Cool co-director Judith Helfand and Robert West, co-founder and executive director of Working Films, participated on a panel at the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival about using film to support the movement to end global warming. Working Films is coordinating the two-year audience and community engagement campaign for Everything’s Cool. The panel was sponsored by the Fledgling Fund and moderated by Fledgling’s founder Diana Barrett. Diane Weyermann and Lisa Day of Participant Productions were also on the panel speaking about An Inconvenient Truth.
The panel emphasized the need for filmmakers to listen to the needs of organizers in order to form a campaign that will effectively support the movement. Robert and Judith illustrated Working Films’ methodology for the audience by discussing their partnerships formed around the Everything’s Cool world premiere at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival.
Audience members asked: What comes first, the film or the movement? The panel made it clear that it has to be a reciprocal relationship. Robert said, “the environmental movement – like all strives for justice – needs the skills of filmmakers, crafting the stories that will incite and ignite audiences. Film and video hold unique power to move audiences to action.” Judith explained that it is helpful to get feedback early on in the production process in order to create a movie that can be used as a tool for the movement. By working in close partnership with the organizations and activists on the ground, filmmakers are able to connect their stories to current campaigns and initiatives which take the film and audience to another level of engagement – action.
