Frankly Green

Ship of Plastic Bottles to Send Eco-Message

Trek across Pacific will be atop 10,000 empties and dome with shower
Link to Article

SAN FRANCISCO - You've heard of a ship in a bottle. How about a ship made of plastic bottles? That would be the Plastiki, designed to sail the Pacific on an 11,000-mile voyage highlighting the dangers of living in a throwaway world.

"Waste is fundamentally a design flaw. We wanted to design a vessel that would epitomize waste being used as a resource," said expedition leader David de Rothschild.

The boat is named in honor of the 1947 Kon-Tiki raft sailed across the Pacific by explorer Thor Heyerdahl, an ocean adventure that inspired de Rothschild.

There's a bit more of a tie-in. One of the Plastiki team members is Josian Heyerdahl, the explorer's granddaughter.

Meltdown: A Global Warming Travelogue

Since 1999, Gary Braasch has traveled the world to see where and how climate change has affected people.

Braasch says photos best illustrate what is already happening, but can lead the discussion on where we are going. He quotes a Chinese proverb: If we don't change direction, we'll end up where we're going."

Link to Slide show of photos

For a long time -- the first 15 years that we knew about global warming and did nothing -- there were no pictures. That was one of the reasons for inaction.

Climate change was still "theoretical," the word that people in power use to dismiss anything for which pictures do not exist. It is the reason we don't see shots of coffins coming back from Iraq; it's the reason the only prison abuse we really know about was at Abu Ghraib. Without pictures, no uproar; not in a visual age.

But now the pictures have started to come, and they will not cease.

PBS' Nightly Business Report Explores the Alternatives for Fuel and Energy

Miami, FL (May 12, 2008)—Driven by serious climate issues, dwindling resources, and stiff geopolitical pressure and rapidly escalating prices, green options for fuel and energy have skyrocketed to the forefront of global concern and necessity.  But what are the options and when will they be available?  In a special 4-part series running Tuesday, May 13 through Friday, May 16, PBS’ Nightly Business Report examines some alternative energy options and the challenges in the race to bring them into the marketplace.

“Renewable, greener energy isn’t just an issue for the scientists and environmentalists, it’s an issue for the business world as well—and a major one at that.” explained Rodney Ward, Executive Editor/Senior Vice President, Nightly Business Report.  “This series examines many of the current alternative programs, resources, and companies that will be shaping how we meet our energy needs in the future.” 

Series overview:

Tuesday, May 13th:  Demand for grain is more intense than ever now that ethanol manufacturers are using the same agricultural resources as food producers.  To meet the need for both biofuel and food, the Monsanto Company is growing corn that uses little water, and seed that can grow more corn from a single plant.  The research is not without controversy, though, since bioengineered crops remain banned in most countries around the world.

Wednesday, May 14th:    In Florida, scientists are using pulverized sugar cane to create ethanol.  Known as cellulosic ethanol, sugar cane is not its only source material, and with modifications, it could be created from any green plant.  The trick is lowering production costs to make it viable.  Answers should come next year when Florida Crystals’ sugar mill begins small-scale production.

Thursday, May 15th: Biotech company Zymetis has created a bacterium that can turn materials like scrap paper, pulp and woodchips into ethanol, which can eventually fuel your car.  The first challenge is obtaining enough raw material to process into ethanol on a large scale.  Another issue is transporting the ethanol from the factory to the pump, which could potentially negate many of ethanol’s environmental gains.

Friday, May 16th: Methane hydrate—a frozen gas—is a fossil fuel that exists in abundance in many areas throughout the world.  The problem is that extracting methane hydrate is costly, and could potentially trigger environmental catastrophe.  NBR speaks to a Japanese research team that is leading the effort to extract and harness this potentially viable resource.

San Francisco Ocean Film Festival - Feb 1-3, 2008

For readers in the Bay Area, this coming weekend, Feb 1-3, is the San Francisco Ocean Film Festival. For those outside the Bay Area, check out the trailers below. Looks like some really great stuff!! Here is a sampling of a few of the films to be screened this weekend. For a complete schedule, see this link.

Surfing Thru
(USA) Chloe Webb, 25 mins »watch trailer
Three women with late-stage cancer live and surf in the immediacy of the moment. Their attitude, courage, and sharp, dark humor combine with the restorative surge of the ocean beneath them to help them face that one last wave.

Restoring Balance: Removing the Black Rat from Anacapa Island
(USA) Kevin White, 28 mins »watch trailer
Rats were eating just-laid eggs of endangered birds on Anacapa Island, part of the Channel Islands National Park off Southern California. After years of planning and court battles, the rats were poisoned. Populations of native species—from lizards to mice to birds—encouragingly recovered. Since we’ve helped hitchhiking rats occupy 80 percent of the world’s islands, who or what will stop their devastation of native plants and animals if we don’t?

Around Tasmania: Sea Kayaking Australia
(USA) Jon Bowermaster, 26 mins »watch trailer
Off remote Tasmania’s wind-lashed, wave-carved coast, explorer Jon Bowermaster and team tackle kayak the biggest seas of their lives. When not braving 40-mph winds and sliding down 20-foot waves, they venture inland to visit with aboriginals and a few million muttonbirds amid magnificent scenery.

Dungeness
(UK) Janette Scott, 21 mins »watch trailer
World Premiere
If you’re thinking crab, you’re in for a surprise, and a different kind of delectable treat. This Dungeness is a small coastal community perched on the southeastern tip of England with a way of life that is teetering on the edge of survival. Its flat, almost rainless terrain is as unique as its fishing families, artists, and purveyors of smoked fish. And then there’s the wind.

Ordinary Won’t Change the World
(UK) Chris Lotz and Lewis Gordon Pugh, 8 mins »watch trailer
West Coast Premiere
Lewis Pugh needs no steamy jungle for his heart of darkness—just a couple of swim caps, goggles, and some lovely open water at the North Pole, where the real polar bears log their miles. — SH

Global Focus: Iceland – Orri Vigfüsson
(USA) Will Parrinello, 5 mins
For years, the numbers of spawning salmon returning to the streams and rivers of Europe’s North Atlantic were steadily dropping. In the early 1990s, Orri Vigfüsson, Icelandic businessman and angler, decided to do something unheard of—negotiate directly with the driftnet fishermen to see if they would shift to another occupation or seek other fish. His success has been remarkable. However, some driftnet fishers were not happy, believing that sport anglers and factory fishing bore equal responsibility. Time will tell.

Saving Luna
(Canada) Suzanne Chisholm & Michael Parfitt, 93 mins »watch trailer
The subtleties of relationships between humans and wild animals are explored in this moving feature documentary, which follows the life of Luna, an orphaned baby orca. Luna appears surprisingly far into Nootka Sound on the west coast of Vancouver Island, where he befriends and charms the local residents. Seen by some as a treasure and others as a nuisance, Luna’s presence stirs deep conflict within the local community.

In the Shadow of the Moon - Movie Review

What does In the Shadow of the Moon have to do with the environment. A lot, actually. One of the most powerful moments in the film is when former astronaut Charles M. Duke, Jr. talks about seeing “the whole circle of the Earth” at once. “That jewel of Earth was just hung, up in the blackness of space,” he says, holding his hands out, cupped, as if to cradle the sphere. Definitely worth watching!

Film Takes Us Back 38 Years, to That First Walk

September 4, 2007
By John Schwartz

Link to Article

They are old men now. That much is obvious from the tight camera shots. Nonetheless, it is hard to fathom: has it been 38 years since the first of them set foot on lunar soil?

“In the Shadow of the Moon,” a documentary that premieres this week in New York and Los Angeles, tells the story of the Apollo program and the race to reach the moon, as President John F. Kennedy declared in 1962, “before this decade is out.” And so, on July 20, 1969, we did.

Note the “we.” It is from one of the most powerful, lump-in-the-throat moments of this exceptional film. Michael Collins, who orbited the moon during the Apollo 11 mission while Neil A. Armstrong and Edwin E. Aldrin Jr. took their lunar module down to the surface, said that after the flight, on the around-the-world tour that NASA sent them on, “Wherever we went, people, instead of saying, ‘Well, you Americans did it!’ — everywhere, they said, ‘We did it! We, humankind, we, the human race, we, people, did it!’ ”

His voice breaks slightly in the telling, and he says: “I thought that was a wonderful thing. Ephemeral, but wonderful.”

Merry Christmas!

The Bearman family Christmas tree....

The 11th Hour - Produced and Narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio

I have not yet seen The 11th Hour but I am anxious to do so. Here is a link to the official site where you can view the trailer. I have heard some good reports from a few friends. I would love to hear from any readers who have seen the movie.

Global Warming Concerts: A Lot of Hot Air?

The Live Earth show might leave a big environmental footprint but supporters say it could push people to action.
By Steve Hargreaves, CNNMoney.com staff writer July 6 2007

Link to Article

We've all seen them. The "No Blood for Oil" bumper stickers on the Grand Cherokees, "Save the Whales" pasted on the back of an old, smoke-belching '77 Volvo.

So when anti-global warming activists throw eight concerts on six continents this Saturday - the biggest charity concert ever, with 150 big-name acts and an expected audience of 2 billion - is there reason to think the hundreds of thousands of fans driving to stadiums and chugging bottled water by the caseload may actually do more environmental harm than good?

"There is definitely going to be some local impact with having an event like this," said Jim Motavalli, editor of E/The Environmental Magazine and author of the book "Green Living."

Organizer Kevin Wall has tapped former Vice President Al Gore and a host of rock stars for an event that is by any measure huge.

Billed as Live Earth, the U.S. concert will be held at New Jersey's 80,000-seat Giants Stadium. Talent includes The Police, Bon Jovi, Roger Waters, Kanye West, Alicia Keys and Kelly Clarkson, among others...

But an event of this scale is bound to draw fire, and it should come as no surprise to an environmental community long-familiar with accusations of hypocrisy...

So far, all things being equal, Live Earth has gotten off pretty easy. That could have something to do with the care concert promoters have put into the event.

Directions for mass transit to the events are posted online. For the New Jersey show, shuttle buses have been arranged from rail stations to Giants Stadium.

Plans call for nearly all the waste at the show to be recycled or composted and for energy used to get offset with carbon credits.

But environmentalists say the shows should not be judged by the one-day footprint of concert goers.

"It's impossible not to have some environmental impact with any event," said Motavalli, who isn't involved in the Live Earth concerts. He noted that concerts happen year-round and that in the long run the concerts should be good for the environment.

Rather, supporters say, the show should be judged by its ability to motivate those people to push for broader changes in society.

"The path to a solution lies with policymakers in this country taking action, not you and I changing our light bulbs," said Chris Miller, director of global warming for Greenpeace.

Specifically, Miller said he hoped to hear artists and speakers at the event calling for laws requiring big, mandatory reductions in carbon dioxide emissions, the purchase of renewable energy by utilities, and conservation measures like higher fuel efficiency standards.

Chris Jordan

Thanks to Michael E. for the link to more work by Chris Jordan who was featured in an earlier post on this site.

An Inconvenient Truth...or Convenient Fiction?

April 14, 2007

San Francisco Journal

In a Filmdom Premiere, a Foe for Gore

By JESSE McKINLEY

Full Text Article

Thanks to my father for sending this. Perhaps Mr. Hayward should read the report by Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change wherein a leading group of international climate scientists called global warming “unequivocal.”

SAN FRANCISCO, April 13 — The screening here on Thursday night had many elements of a classic film-world shindig. There were gift bags and television cameras, cold cocktails and hot popcorn. Ushers showed V.I.P.’s to their seats, and local politicos rubbed shoulders with the movie’s backers and flacks.

In fact, according to the movie’s star, Steven F. Hayward, there was only one thing missing from what could have otherwise been a typical Hollywood opening: liberals.

“I don’t know how much of the enemy we have here tonight,” said a smiling Mr. Hayward, a resident scholar at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, based in Washington. “San Francisco is usually a target-rich environment.”

The occasion for the festivities was the world premiere of Mr. Hayward’s filmic debut, “An Inconvenient Truth...or Convenient Fiction?” It is a point-by-PowerPoint rebuttal of former Vice President Al Gore’s global warming documentary, “An Inconvenient Truth,” which played last summer in nearly 600 theaters, won two Academy Awards (including the one for best documentary) and grossed nearly $50 million worldwide.

Mr. Hayward’s movie is aiming somewhat lower, with a handful of free screenings planned over the next month, including one next week at the offices of the Heritage Foundation, another conservative Washington research group, where the film was shot. Mr. Hayward said the point of his 50-minute movie — basically a lecture like “Inconvenient Truth,” though half as long — was to dispute Mr. Gore’s depiction of potentially devastating consequences of global warming.

“I agree that we’re warming,” he told a reporter, “and I agree that we’re playing a role in it. What I disagree with is his overall pessimism.”...

Not everyone, however, was thrilled by the movie. Judith Anderson, 46, a local artist and self-described “free-market fan” who had come to see the film because she was “interested in the rebuttal” to Mr. Gore’s movie, gave the flick the ultimate thumbs-down.

“It was terribly boring,” Ms. Anderson said. “I didn’t get his point.”