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13 Episodes 2013 - 2013
Episode 1
Wed, Aug 21, 201327 mins
Second Nature: The Biomimicry Evolution explores biomimicry (from bios, meaning life, and mimesis, meaning to imitate), a new discipline that studies nature's best ideas and then imitates these designs and processes to solve industrial problems. Set in the wilds of South Africa, the film follows biologist, author, and Time magazine Hero of the Environment Janine Benyus and her team as they illustrate how organisms in the natural world can teach us how to be more efficient and sustainable in our designs and processes. Nature provides the models: solar cells copied from leaves, steely fibers woven like a spider-web, shatterproof ceramics drawn from mother-of-pearl, medical advancements compliments of chimpanzees, and a closed-loop economy that takes its lessons from redwoods, coral reefs, and oak-hickory forests. After 3.8 billion years, life has discovered not only how to survive but also how to thrive as a system. Organisms are the consummate aviators, builders, chemists, and physicists of our planet. They have done everything that we want to do, without polluting their homes or mortgaging their future. Benyus brings a deep affection and admiration for the natural world as she guides the viewer toward a vision of a planet in balance between continued human progress and ecosystem survival.
Episode 2
Wed, Aug 28, 2013
Truck Farm tells the story of a new generation of American farmers. Using green roof technology and heirloom seeds, filmmaker Ian Cheney plants a vegetable garden on the only land he's got in the heart of New York City: his Granddad's old pickup. Once the mobile garden begins to sprout, viewers are trucked across New York to see the city's funkiest urban farms, and to find out if America's largest city can learn to feed itself. Blending serious exposition with serious silliness, Truck Farm entreats viewers to ponder the future of urban farming, and to consider whether sustainability needs a dose of whimsy to be truly sustainable.
Episode 3
Wed, Sep 4, 2013
Who's responsible for some of North America's most creative environmental victories, such as saving over 89,000 of gallons of water, campaigning for food justice and educating thousands elementary school students about sustainability? Young people who have yet to celebrate their 23rd birthdays! Get to know the young winners of the 2012 Brower Youth Awards, and learn about their many inspiring accomplishments! The 2012 Brower Youth Award prize recipients include: Asa Needle, 16, of Massachusetts, for leading Toxic Soil Busters, a youth-run cooperative that does lead-soil remediation, sustainable urban landscaping, and public outreach Brittany Stallworth, 21, of Maryland, for campaigning and educating for food and environmental justice Jacob Glass, 21, of Connecticut, for supporting a movement to protect the Scotchmann Peaks from commercial development through his documentary "En Plein Air" Martin Figueroa, 21, of California, for driving a campus-wide movement to save water Maya Salsedo, 19, of California, for promoting food justice through the Youth Food Bill of Rights Ryland King, 22, of California, for organizing hundreds of college students to teach thousands of first and second-graders about sustainability through his organization Environmental Education for the Next Generation (EENG).
Episode 4
Wed, Sep 11, 2013
This documentary demonstrates that it is possible to rehabilitate large-scale damaged ecosystems, to restore ecosystem functions in areas where they have been lost, to fundamentally improve the lives of people who have been trapped in poverty for generations, and to sequester carbon naturally. This approach has been dramatically proven on the Loess Plateau in China, the highland area spanning some 640,000 square km in north central China. It is the birthplace of the Han Chinese, headwaters of The Yellow River and home to a new environmental and economic paradigm; a degraded ecosystem of more than 35,000 square km of land now teems with life and supports the sustainable economic, social, and agricultural activities of its people. Shot in stunning HD on location in China, Ethiopia and Rwanda, the film features a diverse collection of interviews, from world leaders such as president of Rwanda HE Paul Kagame, to local people telling their own stories.
Episode 5
Wed, Sep 18, 2013
A portrait of a family living an intentional life. In a world of climate change and environmental challenges, two sisters, Anna and Emma and their companions, the California Condors, stand out as a beacon of hope. Their father, Chris Parish is the director of the Condor Project for the Peregrine Fund at Vermillion Cliffs. Their mother, Ellen Parish is a teacher and leader for the organization Roots and Shoots, founded by Jane Goodall. Together, the family work together to save and reintroduce the Californian condors back into the wild. Learning of and from the condors, as well as their parents, Anna and Emma's lives are unique in their growing understanding that if we do not take care of the life surrounding us, we will in the end face the possibility if our own extinction. The California Condors have shown us the very beauty of life itself. As long as they soar the sky, there will always be a hope for the future.
Episode 6
Wed, Sep 25, 2013
Living green is something many of us strive for in today's world, but did you know that you can die green as well? Set in the foothills of the Appalachians, "Dying Green" explores one man's vision of using green burials to conserve land. Dr. Billy Campbell, the town's only physician, has radically changed our understanding of burials in the United States. Dr. Campbell's dream is to conserve one million acres of land. "Dying Green" focuses on the revolutionary idea of using our own death to fund land conservation and create wildlife preserves.
Episode 7
Wed, Oct 2, 2013
It's not just 'Old MacDonald' on the farm anymore. All across the U.S. there is a growing movement of college educated young people who are leaving the cities to take up an agrarian life. What they are discovering is a strong sense of community, new ways to address a broken food system and a way to fulfill their dreams of doing something meaningful with their lives. GROW! takes a look at this new generation of sustainable farmers through the eyes, hearts and minds of 10 passionate, idealistic and fiercely independent young growers in Georgia. In the film they speak of both the joys and the challenges involved in tending the land.
Episode 8
Wed, Oct 9, 2013
Meet six extraordinary young people who were recognized in 2011 for their outstanding activism and achievements in the fields of environmental and social justice advocacy.
Episode 9
Wed, Oct 16, 2013
Using three stories from around the American West, The Next, Best West explores how the conventional concept of progress has influenced the exploitation of our natural resources, and how our collective understanding of progress is coming full circle with the promise of a brighter future. In southern Colorado, we go out on the range with a ranching family that practices a new approach that uses livestock to heal damaged places and takes a 500 year view of the future. In Eastern Montana, the American Prairie Reserve is embarking on perhaps the largest single ecosystem regeneration effort in American history. On Washington's Olympic Peninsula, the historic Elwha River Restoration Project is the nation's largest dam removal project to date.
Episode 10
Wed, Oct 23, 2013
Individual movers and shakers creating environmental and social change. These films give a look into the lives of people dedicating themselves to their cause and the personal struggles and successes that come with the journey. Meet climate change activist and professional skier, Alison Gannett, and founder of Adventurers and Scientists for Conservation, Gregg Treinish.
Episode 11
Wed, Oct 30, 2013
At dawn, nine-year-old Anzelma walks for miles in search of firewood. Many in her village have died from drinking dirty water, and firewood is a valuable commodity, used to boil water to make it safe. Anzelma's small body bends under the heavy loads of wood balanced on her head, but she won't stop. She knows her long journeys into the forest are crucial for her family's survival. Unsafe water claims more lives than war. In Kenya, water insecurity is a life-threatening reality, and the population is expected to leap from 40 million to 60 million in the next twenty years. Most of the country still depends on wood and charcoal for household energy, and forest cover is dwindling. At the same time, the climate is changing: rainfall is decreasing, river levels are low and water contamination is on the rise. In the fierce competition for shrinking resources, the most vulnerable are women and girls, who are responsible for finding water and fuel for their families. One company is attempting to change this by providing 900,000 water filters to the people of Kenya's Western Province, for free. This is the largest household water treatment program in the developing world, and it's being financed with carbon credits earned through the reduction in use of firewood. If successful, it will cut carbon dioxide emissions by 2 million tons per year for a decade or more. But it requires changing the habits of 4.5 million people first.
Episode 12
Wed, Nov 6, 2013
The bald eagle was once an important avian predator in the Channel Islands, a group of islands just off the coast of Southern California. Then in the early 60's the bald eagles disappeared due to egg collecting, hunting, and extensive DDT contamination. RETURN FLIGHT chronicles how a dedicated team of biologists have been working tirelessly for decades to bring the bald eagle back to the Channel Islands, leading to some amazing results.
Episode 13
Wed, Nov 13, 2013
Carrie and Mary Dann are feisty Western Shoshone sisters who have endured five terrifying livestock roundups by armed federal marshals in which more than a thousand of their horses and cattle were confiscated. The Dann sisters grazed their livestock on the open range outside their private ranch in northern Nevada. That range is part of 60 million acres recognized as Western Shoshone land by the United States in the 1863 Treaty of Ruby Valley. In 1974 the U.S. sued the Dann sisters for trespassing on that land, trespassing on "U.S. Public Land without a permit". That ignited a dispute between the Dann sisters and the U. S. government that swept to the United States Supreme Court and eventually to the United Nations. Contrasting the Dann's personal lives with their political actions, "American Outrage" examines why the United States government would spend millions of dollars persecuting and prosecuting two elderly women grazing a few hundred horses and cows in a desolate Nevada desert.