Documentary films and other media

1. A 64-minute documentary titled "The Man Who Stopped the Desert" was released in 2010. Yacouba Sawadogo, a farmer in Burkina Faso, located in the drought-striken Sahel region of central west Africa (along the southern border of the Sahara desert), decided to use ancient water conservation techniques to make his family farm more productive. The Man Who Stopped The Desert has won awards in a number of film festivals, and Mr. Sawadogo's farm group has begun a collaboration with the United Nations. Here is its official website, with film clips and full background information, plus developments since 2010:

http://www.1080films.co.uk/Yacoubamovie/

2. David Blume's "Alcohol Can Be A Gas" is available both as a DVD (2 hours and 40 minutes) and as a 596 page hardcover book. It discusses the history of alcohol as a natural fuel, its current availability, cost factors, and much, much more. Here's David's website with that and much more information:

http://www.alcoholcanbeagas.com/node/282

3. If you do an internet search on the term "perennial vegetables" you will see several pages of results. Here's the first, which contains a list of sample perennial vegetables divided by climate zones:

http://perennialvegetables.org/perennial-vegetables-for-each-climate-type/medite...

4. The current issue of Permaculture magazine has a great article on "How To Survey A Site," for anyone who is trying to figure out what vegetables and grains will best grow in a given location. In the same issue, their article "How To Make A Pallet Shed" is also quite informative, and so is "Build Your Own Solar (food) Dryer" and "Food Secrets Of The Incas" which taught me that cotton is originally from South America. Here's a link to their current issue:

http://www.permaculture.co.uk/latest-issue

5. The Mother Earth News magazine's website has a list of 170 books for wise living. Here's that link:

http://www.motherearthnews.com/shopping/browse.aspx?searchtype=C&search=book...

I just viewed a documentary about food production, Fresh: New Thinking About What We're Eating. It's not touchstoning yet.

The film's website is FRESHthemovie.com
It shows a diverse use farm side by side to one which is monocultural. It shows free range chickens and cattle and confined animals.

It features a 3 acre intensively cultivated urban farm in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

highly recommended.

eta touchstone the title.

From Thursday, November 8th, 2012, here is a radio interview hosted by Caroline Casey (who has spoken and headlined at many Bioneers conferences), in a dialogue with scientist Ellen LaConte. Ellen discusses how the results of the 2012 presidential election makes sense from a standpoint of biological evolution. They discuss many potential solutions to today's environmental crises, solutions explained in Ellen's new book from New Society Publishers (October 2012), Life Rules:

http://coyotenetworknews.com/radioshow/electing-the-earth/

See our Sustainability Group Zeitgeist section for more information on the book form of "Life Rules."

Has anyone seen the documentary "Black Gold"?

Rozax, I haven't even heard of it before, but here's its official documentary website:

http://blackgoldmovie.com/

Here is the website of sustainability author Sharon Astyk:

http://sharonastyk.com/

It includes a link to her earlier blog entries, now subsumed within her author website.

Edit Nov. 28, 2012: Independence Days: a guide to sustainable food storage & preservation, Sharon's 2009 book, is well worth reading. In my only disagreement so far - with her advice to briefly freeze grain (to kill insects and their eggs that might have hitchhiked into the grain) in advance of long-term storage - When you freeze grain, you destroy the symbiotic organisms that for one thing help all baked (breads) or fried (pancakes) foods to rise. ... this cure is worse than the disease.

A photography group has started to promote their new project, which they title "The Lexicon of Sustainability." Here are links to their work in progress:

http://www.usaprojects.org/project/the_lexicon_of_sustainability_southern_series

http://www.lexiconofsustainability.com

To exit the above links, use the Back Arrow on your internet browser.

It looks like they are focusing on the agricultural side of sustainability. What I like about their ag photos is that even if you are a regular at farmers' markets, the photos show the ground truth that the average person doesn't normally get to see.

This photography group talks about "consumers" of sustainably raised ag products, but I've gotten to prefer "customer" or "citizen" in my own lexicon of sustainability. A term like "consumers" just seems too passive and bland to me; "citizen" or even "customer" is much more empowering.

For sustainability folks who are single, here are some internet sites you may want to check out:

http://www.greensingles.com/

http://www.40plus-green-singles.com/

The January/February 2013 issue of BackHome magazine ("your hands-on guide to sustainable living") includes Part 1 of a 2-part article on hydropower titled Microhydro Basics, Part 1. I bought this issue because my family's rural property contains some spring water.

The "weir method" of most accurately calculating the volume of water flow is discussed, but for more detailed information, the author recommends the following web page:

http://www.canyonhydro.com/resources.html

The Winter 2012 issue of Permaculture magazine summarizes the results of some no-dig experiments conducted by Charles Dowding in the UK. For example, the no-dig method of gardening saves cultivation time, involves less weeding, fewer slugs, and easier watering. Over a 6 year period, there was higher output from the undug beds in 4 out of the 6 years of the experiment "with total harvest now at 355 kg from the dug beds and 379 kg from the undug beds." For more info, see his website:

http://www.charlesdowding.co.uk

Through a radio broadcast, I heard about one of the most highly acclaimed sustainability internet sites. A new version of the author's book "World Changing" (by Alex Steffen) came out in 2011:

http://www.worldchanging.com/bios/alex.html

The Sustainability group's zeitgeist section already contains a listing describing the title The Urban Homestead, but Urban Homestead's website has undergone a name change and complete makeover, so here is their listing of "comrades" who operate affiliated businesses:

http://www.rootsimple.com/comrades/

I find their new color photographs and step-by-step descriptions very helpful throughout their website.

TheGreenGrok.com is a sustainability blog featured on the Scientific American website. Its author is a member of the National Academy of Sciences. It has interesting entries, an interesting BlogRoll list of recommended sustainability blogs, and also has some videos on YouTube. Here's the blog itself:

http://blogs.nicholas.duke.edu/thegreengrok/thegreengrok/page/2/?s=nuclear&x...

A short film on sustainability is available on the U.S. Botanic Garden website:

http://www.usbg.gov/sustainability-us-botanic-garden-0

Strategies for sustainable farming from the website of the Union of Concerned Scientists:

http://www.ucsusa.org/food_and_agriculture/solutions/advance-sustainable-agricul...

More expert advice on reducing climate emissions by individual citizens from the Union of Concerned Scientists:

http://www.coolersmarter.org

In addition, this Cooler Smarter book has a comprehensive resources section. Some of the interesting websites they recommend are:

http://www.realclimate.org

Rating hybrid vehicles against each other:
http://www.hybridcenter.org

Here's something similar:
http://www.greenercars.org

Home Energy Saver - developed by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, this online tool allows you to input precise information about your home, from energy prices and insulation R-value to window sizes and appliance year, to determine where you can find the largest energy savings:
http://www.hes.lbl.gov/consumer

Climate friendly gardener - this 12-page booklet provides guidance for home gardeners interested in climate-friendly practices:
http://www.ucsusa.org/assets/gardenguide

Food carbon emissions calculator -- CleanMetrics, a private consulting group, has set up a simple food emissions calculator based on its proprietary database of food carbon emissions using life cycle analysis:
http://www.foodemissions.org

The Institute for Solar Living in Hopland, California (north of Santa Rosa on the 101 freeway, and just south of Ukiah), has a never-ending array of workshops related to solar living. They are highly recommended.

http://www.solarliving.org/

Has anyone seen the film David versus Monsanto?

Here's a YouTube short clip:
https://www.minds.com/blog/view/391309490944741376/nobody-has-a-right-to-put-pat...

You might be interested in a program called Deconstructing Dinner. It started as a radio program, and then several TV episodes were produced.

http://www.deconstructingdinner.com/

From their blurb:

"Food has fueled and propelled humans throughout our evolution. The story of food is our story. But, where we once enjoyed an intimate, tactile, nourishing and soulful relationship with food, we are now largely disconnected from it and oblivious to its source.

Deconstructing Dinner: Reconstructing Our Food System aims to change this.

Through its documentary series created by Jon Steinman and Declan O’Driscoll, its informative webisodes, and an interactive web site, Deconstructing Dinner invites us to rediscover food – in our kitchens, our communities, and through one of our most precious assets… our sense of taste."

The Greening of Southie documents the construction of the first residential green building in South Boston. The Macallen Building is an 11 story high-end co-op. The film does a fairly decent job of looking at all sides. From blue collar residents feeling displaced to man on the ground laborers and ironworkers, to the design team. From successful innovations to those that didn't work out so well. Notably, the pressed wheatboard cabinets swell with moisture, the bamboo floors buckle because the low-VOC glue isn't strong enough, and have to be torn out and replaced. The roof plantings die and have to be re-planted. The building attains a gold rating from LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design), but the rating doesn't address the carbon cost of materials brought in from all points on the globe.

March 9, 2016: Permaculture Magazine just announced on Facebook they will very shortly begin publishing a North American edition! Very wonderful news.

The US Department of Energy has a page that helps you find out your local community's energy profile, plus how to assess your region's greenhouse gas emissions. Hopefully, the Trump administration will not remove these calculators, but who knows?

http://apps1.eere.energy.gov/sled/#/

Here is a BookTV video from April 2017, announcing Project Drawdown. The goal of Drawdown is to identify and support all the things that can be done by individuals and groups to encourage the mitigation, slowing, or even reversal of global warming, without involving government. I'm also listing the book version on our Zeitgeist thread. Link:

https://www.c-span.org/video/?427029-2/drawdown

This presentation is hosted by the one and only Paul Hawken. Here is the extensive Drawdown website, including a link to the book, which was edited by Paul Hawken:

http://www.drawdown.org

Linked here is the official trailer for the 2017 documentary film, An Inconvenient Sequel : Truth to Power. Many news media movie reviews have already been created for this film. Keep in mind, however, that one can only say so much in a film with a running length of 140 minutes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=huX1bmfdkyA

The Rodale publishing group is about to go live ("Fall 2017") with its new publishing focus on sustainability titles for children and teens:

https://www.rodalekids.com/about-us/

The British Library has placed online an Old English language edition of an ancient herbal encyclopedia, with usage instructions:

http://mymodernmet.com/medieval-herbal-remedies-guide-online/

A documentary film on boreal forests from a scientist who has written a number of books on the subject:

http://calloftheforest.ca/

January, 2018: A singer/songwriter's latest album -- on climate change. The critics admire it:

https://cstrecords.com/cst123/

We had a film screening this week of a documentary called Living the Change. It's by two indie documentary makers in New Zealand, outlining the issues we face with fossil fuels, pollution, and being disconnected with each other and the environment. This is a bit of a downer, but the other half of the documentary is a series of case studies of people "living the change" I guess, being the change they want to see in the world. I'm not sure how sustainable many of their models are, I would like to see how individuals can be sustainable in a city, in an apartment or urban house, as that's how a lot of western people live. However, it was a well made documentary. They have the whole film available from their website can be rented through Vimeo, and individual sections have been published to youtube.

Couple turn abandoned land into thriving forest garden over 30 years
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GJFL0MD9fc

Australian corporate worker chasing the big bucks moves to NZ and creates an ecosystem on a lifestyle block
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kReM07px25U

Dr and wife go tiny and hippy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsA4nHsynS0

Whole film is here
https://livingthechangefilm.com/

May 8, 2017: If you live within commuting distance of New York City, you can attend the theatrical production Seedlings, based on Paul Fleischman's YA novel Seedfolks: "When Ana, an aged resident of Gibb Street, sees Kim, the Vietnamese child, digging in the lot, she assumes the girl must be burying drugs or a gun. When Ana's investigation turns up only beans, she enlists Wendell, a retired janitor, to help save the tiny seedlings." (Excerpt from Laurel Graeber's theater review in today's NYTimes newspaper.) Theater link:

https://www.newvictory.org/Show-Detail.aspx?ProductionId=8682

May 2018: An essay on future choices with environmentalism. Essential reading:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0Us9ezm1Jr1SlpGak15T2IzUTA/view

Films and other media on self-sufficiency pioneers Helen and Scott Nearing: http://www.goodlife.org

Website and Twitter feed for the explosively popular http://www.buymeonce.com Twitter @buymeonce

August 2018: An indepth and informed analysis of the Paleo Diet from the NYTimes:

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/06/well/why-take-diet-advice-from-a-cave-man.htm...

Watch a Japanese Craftsman Lovingly Bring a Tattered Old Book Back to Near Mint Condition (10:36)
April 27th, 2015

...other craftspeople...lavish attention on a suitcase, grater, and a stuffed toy penguin...
(a series it looks like, not all with English subtitles, e.g. photograph restoration)

http://www.openculture.com/2015/04/watch-a-japanese-craftsman-lovingly-restore-a...

As discussed in the October 2018 issue of WIRED magazine, an organization called Ocean Cleanup has deployed a prototype machine to start cleaning up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch:

https://www.theoceancleanup.com/

June 2019 - an award-winning documentary film on family farming:

https://www.biggestlittlefarmmovie.com/

September 2019: Coming up near the end of this month is a green film festival in San Francisco, CA:

https://www.greenfilmfest.org/

September 30, 2019: The following essay analyzes many different views on the intelligence of the Earth's plant kingdom. Films, books, and other writings are discussed:

https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2019/09/26/the-intelligence-of-plants/

My family and I watched the HBO Emmy-winning drama Chernobyl this weekend, all five hours worth in one go. Even 5 hours does not tell the entire story, but this film hits a high bar for accuracy. Its only factual weakness is its assumption that gender makes no difference in radiation exposure risk. Many 20th and 21st century scientific analyses say otherwise, but that is a story for another day. The metaphor they use in this film to explain radiation effects is that each radioactive particle is a bullet, shooting outward in all directions for minutes, hours, days, years, or millennia. And that brand-new multi-billion Euro sarcophagus? That will have to be replaced every 100 years.

October 2, 2019: A new calculator from the Climate Central website lets viewers select cities for each US state for which a warming trend has been calculated. Remember, climate is defined as the average weather pattern over a 30 year period. Link:

https://climatecentral.org/gallery/graphics/fall-days-above-normal-2019

Scroll down that page until you see the option to "select your city." Currently, for example, San Francisco is experiencing 26 more warm fall days each year.

Calculating the carbon footprint of ... financial instruments?

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-09-12/banks-are-finally-starting-to...

The latest online offering from Bloomberg is today's new website, http://www.bloomberggreen.com

Their article on the fire risks of the new lithium battery-powered business or home solar power storage systems is essential reading:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-01-28/everyone-s-favorite-climate-s...

US magazine article on the cultural impact of the cable TV show Frontier House:

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/home-on-the-range-62046479/

Starting in March 2020, and continuing thru the duration of the COVID-19 global pandemic, free books at the National Emergency Library of the Internet Archive:

https://blog.archive.org/2020/03/24/announcing-a-national-emergency-library-to-p...

Permies.com is also allowing free access to certain films. I watched Inhabit: A Permaculture Perspective. I've lost track of the current offering.

Climate experts call for 'dangerous' Michael Moore film to be taken down (Guardian)

A new Michael Moore-produced documentary that takes aim at the supposed hypocrisy of the green movement is “dangerous, misleading and destructive” and should be removed from public viewing, according to an assortment of climate scientists and environmental campaigners.

The film, Planet of the Humans, was released on the eve of Earth Day last week by its producer, Michael Moore, the baseball cap-wearing documentarian known for Fahrenheit 9/11 and Bowling for Columbine. Describing itself as a “full-frontal assault on our sacred cows”, the film argues that electric cars and solar energy are unreliable and rely upon fossil fuels to function. It also attacks figures including Al Gore for bolstering corporations that push flawed technologies over real solutions to the climate crisis.

Planet of the Humans has provoked a furious reaction from scientists and campaigners, however, who have called for it be taken down... describing it as “full of misinformation”...

>44 John5918:

The film is at https://youtu.be/Zk11vI-7czE

The Guardian article says that environmental campaigners are negative about the film, but I have just received a circular from an ecological spirituality centre in the USA (where I spent some time 25 years ago) who are recommending it, so as with most things I suppose there are contrasting views. Generally I like Moore. I'll try to watch the film and see what my own impression is.

I've watched it now and found it worthwhile. I have no way of verifying his facts and conclusions, but he asks interesting and awkward questions, which is usually a good thing. As such I think it is a useful addition to the conversation.

Once again Michael Moore stirs the environmental pot – but conservationists turn up the heat on him (Guardian)

Planet of the Humans film has had 5m views on YouTube and has enraged renewable energy experts who are demanding an apology...

What Michael Moore’s new film gets wrong about renewable energy (Science News)

Planet of the Humans relies too much on outdated information...

Well, he's certainly succeeded in sparking a conversation. What I took away from the film was the simple fact that we are consuming too much at an unsustainable level and the solution is not technology but a simpler and less consumptive lifestyle. And that capitalism is unable to provide that solution.

May 21. 2020: Currently described online at NHK World, a 15-minute interview was broadcast today on the NHK Direct Talk TV show with Vinesh Sinha, founder of the Malaysian company FatHopesEnergy, which collects formerly waste cooking oils from kitchens and refines it to sell to biodiesel companies in the US and Europe. Growing up in Malaysia, he witnessed the pollution caused by used cooking oil, and created a company to eliminate that pollution. Sinha began his interview by saying, "The world is not a big place." Link:

https://www.facebook.com/pg/FatHopesEnergy/posts/

A new digital photo book, approx. 70 pages long, looks at current international efforts to assist small rural communities, many of which are in Africa, to adopt principles of sustainable living:

https://www.ifad.org/en/web/knowledge/publication/asset/42182109