Can boiling a frog help the environment? Can you take a humorous approach, reach new people and motivate them to create change? We decided to find out at a recent Peace and Social Action event. The good news is that lots of people came out, enjoyed the movie, and we are starting a green neighbours group in the city core.
How to Boil a Frog is a feature-length eco-comedy that mixes rapid-fire humor and hard-hitting facts to show the consequences of “overshoot” - too many people using up too little planet - and what it means for our future. With an up-front Everyman approach, smart writing, world-class experts, and iconoclastic humor, How to Boil a Frog gives us the scoop on the imminent end of the world as we know it, and five surprising ways to save civilization while laughing along the way.
What I like about this movie is the personal approach and the lightheartedness of the host when faced with grim information. It takes us on a journey that ends up in a very hopeful spot. I can see this
being used as a starting point for intergenerational discussion, or with a youth group, as the approach is creative, fun, and empowering. Currently an eighty-six minute flick, a sixty minute version is in the works.
Earth: Alive Finite Hurting vimeo.com/28701717.
I was very moved by this five minute video which honours the earth protectors. The music and images are powerful. Watch it with friends.
The Tipping Point: Wake Up, Freak Out, then Get a Grip: http://vimeo.com/1709110.
If you or others in your circle do not know about the urgency of climate action, you may not understand the ‘tipping point’-the point when runaway climate change can no longer be prevented. This animated short video explains why it is so urgent for temperature rise to remain less than 2 degrees. Use it as a starting point for dialogue on action, whether that action is a tar sands moratorium, to stop the pipeline, or build renewable energy in your own community. It may also be to convert military spending to urgent needs, like transit, that can help us reduce our carbon emissions quickly. The military is responsible for as much as fifty percent of emissions, and is a huge waste of tax dollars that could otherwise help build our future, not destroy it.
For more films and how to organize a screening see http://www.climateactionnow.ca/films-climate-change-peak-oil-environmen…