environment

Education is a major component of Mountainfilm's mission so that’s why we care about the nascent Green Schools Initiative, which calls itself a "global network of schools guiding schools." Its goal is to encourage schools to make their operations more environmentally friendly and energy efficient while also "greening" students. The initiative is a global operation with nearly 3,000 member schools. Is your school a member? Is your alma mater a member? Is your kid’s school a member?

Bill McKibben and his hardworking cohorts at 350.org have good reason to celebrate: President Obama rejected a permit for the Keystone pipeline (see McKibben’s reaction below). There are many arguments to be made about this particular pipeline in regard to the environment, but the overarching issue to appreciate is that the President demonstrated that it's time to quit supporting a dependence on oil — regardless of where it originates.

For those worried about jobs and other issues related to the pipeline, read Robert Redford’s blog in the Huffington Post that takes these quarrels to task.

Bill McKibben of 350.org finds inspiration in Tim DeChristopher’s message, which he summaries as “Do more. Dig deeper. Don’t be afraid.” McKibben’s Orion blog, “Dig Deeper,” discusses how the environmental movement had lost impact and needed new tactics. With climate change as the current challenge, the timing for the environmental movement’s power loss was unfortunate, but DeChristopher’s actions have enlivened the cause and sparked activism on new levels.

For more from Orion about Tim DeChristopher, check out Terry Tempest Williams’ interview, “What Love Looks Like.”

Ben Knight and Travis Rummel of Felt Soul Media brought the story of Pebble Mine in Bristol Bay to Mountainfilm audiences in 2008 with their film, Red Gold. The issue of whether a copper and gold mine will wreck this pristine salmon run is still up in the air with many groups trying to prevent it, including a major push by the NRDC. Even though they have enlisted Robert Redford in this battle, it's an issue that could still use help.

Jeff Goodell was a guest at the Energy Symposium in 2007 and is a regular contributor to Rolling Stone. In his latest piece, Jeff makes a list called: Environment - Ten Things Obama Must Do. Number 9 is Pardon Tim DeChristopher.

"When Barack Obama won the Democratic nomination for president in 2008, he declared that future generations would remember it as "the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal." More than three years later, the oceans are still rising and our planet has done more howling – in the form of extreme weather – than healing."

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In October of 2010, as part of the inaugural Commitment Grant program, Mountainfilm awarded five individuals with a $5,000 grant and a MacBook Pro computer for film and photography projects. Two of the projects were featured in the 2010 festival (Mbambu and the Mountains of the Moon and the gallery show from Paul Colangelo entitled Sacred Headwaters) and the other three (Terra Blight, Soul of the Sea and Paradox Valley) are still deep in production and post-production stages. As we prepare to announce the recipients of the second annual Commitment Grant next month, we'll be posting a series of updates on last years' winners.

Our first update comes from Isaac Brown whose film Terra Blight—about electronic waste in the global economy—will be rolling out at festivals early in 2012.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is listed as the 10th richest person in America is putting his money up against Big Coal. Over the next four years, his philanthropic organization is giving $50 million to help the Sierra Club expand it's "Beyond Coal" campaign.

"If we are going to get serious about reducing our carbon footprint in the United States, we have to get serious about coal, " Bloomberg said. "Ending coal power production is the right thing to do, because while it may seem to be an inexpensive energy source the impact on our environment and the impact on public health is significant. Coal is a self-inflicted public health risk, polluting the air we breathe, adding mercury to the water we drink and the leading cause of climate disruption. ”

From Rolling Stone:

Al Gore penned a piece in the recent issue of Rolling Stone that eloquently addresses the "climate of denial"

From Rolling Stone:

The first time I remember hearing the question "is it real?" was when I went as a young boy to see a traveling show put on by "professional wrestlers" one summer evening in the gym of the Forks River Elementary School in Elmwood, Tennessee.

Insiders in the industry aren't sure that the lofty projections about natural gas drilling will hold.

From The New York Times:

Natural gas companies have been placing enormous bets on the wells they are drilling, saying they will deliver big profits and provide a vast new source of energy for the United States.

But the gas may not be as easy and cheap to extract from shale formations deep underground as the companies are saying, according to hundreds of industry e-mails and internal documents and an analysis of data from thousands of wells.

In the e-mails, energy executives, industry lawyers, state geologists and market analysts voice skepticism about lofty forecasts and question whether companies are intentionally, and even illegally, overstating the productivity of their wells and the size of their reserves. Many of these e-mails also suggest a view that is in stark contrast to more bullish public comments made by the industry, in much the same way that insiders have raised doubts about previous financial bubbles.