"Carbon Nation"

I saw an important documentary today called, "Carbon Nation". Director, Peter Byck, did a terrific job of explaining the problem in the first 15 minutes, that of too much CO2 and other global warming gasses being emitted into the atmosphere. This part won't convince your typical hard-core denier, but it's compelling to any rational person.

The rest of the film consists of a series of interviews with committed people who are tackling various aspects of energy from all angles. You come away energized to act, because you know how serious the problem is, but more importantly, you have just seen a lot of people having significant effect on their part of the problem. They give you all kinds of great ideas how you can help.

You meet a one-armed Texan who organized his local area farmers into building the world's largest wind energy cooperative, a military strategist making huge gains in reducing military energy waste, Van Jones, The Man when it comes to creating green jobs for those who need them most.

Our good friends, Jim Woolsey and Ed Kjaer expound on global security and utility side solutions respectively. There are many more, and every one of them is making real gains against this massive problem.

There are some poignant moments between some of these people and their fathers. It's almost as if these elders were taking the place of Mother Earth in that their progeny, all too aware of the dangers to their planet, were trying to save them from death. The severity of the issue compels an all out effort.

Peter drove home the point that we have to "PUT A PRICE ON CARBON" (my shouting). This is the most important take away from the film. Without it, we make scant progress.

I was disappointed there was no mention of population. In the Q&A, Peter said they really wanted to discuss it, but to do it justice would have taken too much time. I understand, but in every discussion on this subject, we need to always bring it up.

Watch the terrific trailer here and take action of your own by seeing this movie in a theater if you can. If not, their website has a button for arranging your own screening. Invite some friends over, or better, get your local middle school and high school to show all the kids. That's where we make some progress.

From their website:

How you can help Carbon Nation...
We are thankful for all the support you have shown over the past few years and thrilled that our movie opens in theaters this February.

Many of you have asked how you can help promote Carbon Nation.

We have the perfect solution - organize a group to go see the film opening weekend in your city! You can buy tickets for your employees, sponsor a local youth group or religious group, or buy tickets for your child's class or school! If you can organize a group to go see the film on opening weekend in your city it will help get the word out about our optimistic and solutions based film. All you have to do is email jackiepapier@hotmail.com and she will facilitate your group purchase with the theatre from start to finish.

Here is our schedule – the film will run for a week in each city:
2/10/11 - Premiere - New York, NY– Film Society of Lincoln Center
2/11/11 - New York, NY– Cinema Village
2/18/11 - Los Angeles, CA - Laemmle Sunset 5 Theatre
2/25/11 – Austin, TX – Regal Arbor Cinema
3/4/11 – Portland, OR – Regal Fox Tower Stadium
3/4/11 – Seattle, WA – SIFF Cinema
3/11/11 - San Francisco, CA - Landmark Opera Plaza Cinema