Notizie

With 57 days to the election and two days before the first presidential debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, actors who portrayed fictional superheroes including Mark Ruffalo (who has portrayed Bruce Banner/Hulk in the MCU franchise since 2012), Mandy Patinkin (who played Inigo Montoya from Princess Bride), and more teamed up with “real-life superheroes.” Whistleblowers Alexander Vindman and Jessica Denson, as well as climate activist Bill McKibben, and more luminaries shared their true stories alongside the fictionalized heroes’ journeys and how this relates to the American story, a shared interconnectedness,...

An Avenger, a Jedi and Inigo Montoya are putting their franchises aside to unite in support of Kamala Harris and real-life heroes.

Heroes 4 Harris is hosting a virtual Kamala-Con on Sunday, Sept. 8, featuring Mark Ruffalo, Rosario Dawson, Mandy Patinkin, Sean Astin, Alex Winter and more celebrity guests, all fundraising for the Democratic nominee ahead of her Sept. 10 debate with Donald Trump on ABC News.

“Heroic stories are more than just escapism—they are a call to action,” said Andrew Slack, creative director of Heroes 4 Harris, in a statement. “By uniting those who embody heroism on screen with those who fight for justice in real life, we are underscoring the power of these narratives to inspire and mobilize Americans to be heroes for Harris. This event is a testament to our collective strength and determination to support Kamala Harris and ensure a brighter, more equitable future for all.”

Emceed by Baratunde Thurston,...

Electric cars are awesome. Now, thanks to new vehicle-emissions standards proposed this week by the Biden administration that aim to accelerate the adoption of electric cars, it’s pretty obvious the internal-combustion engine is the dodo bird of energy technology, soon to exist only in the memories of aging car buffs and mechanics. And that is a very big deal. If you care about the fate of human civilization in our rapidly warming world, this is a good moment to smile and feel hopeful that all is not lost.

But...

This story is part of The Hollywood Reporter’s 2023 Sustainability Issue (click here to read more).

Give up your climate guilt.

That’s the title of the first episode, and one of the principal themes, of A Matter of Degrees, a podcast for the climate curious from policy experts and advocates Leah Stokes and Katharine Wilkinson. The idea that fighting climate change is a lost cause, or one requiring an unrealistic level of personal sacrifice, is a kind of trap, they say, that leads to defeatism and inaction and lets institutions off the hook. Stokes and Wilkinson instead cut through the noise by conducting deep-dive investigations into greenwashing and other environmental misdeeds, and by showing how existing technology and policies — if widely and intelligently rolled out — can make a difference on the structural level.

Along the way, the hosts keep things accessible by bringing in big names, such as Vice President Kamala Harris,...

California is expected to vote on Thursday to ban the sale of new gasoline-powered cars by 2035.

“The climate crisis is solvable if we focus on the big, bold steps necessary to stem the tide of carbon pollution,” Governor Gavin Newsom said in a statement.

The landmark move toward electric vehicles would be phased in over several years, with a target of 35 percent of new vehicles that don’t emit fossil fuels being set for 2026, a target of 51 percent for 2028, 68 percent for 2030, and finally a target of 100 percent for 2035.

The California Air Resource Board...

In a victory for Native American communities, climate activists, environmentalists, farmers, ranchers, and all human beings who want a livable planet, the Keystone Xl pipeline is officially dead. According to reporting from the Wall Street Journal, the Canadian firm Tc Energy Corp and the provincial government of Alberta have officially abandoned the plan for the pipeline that would have moved dirty crude from Canada’s tar sands across the Great Plains states en route to refineries and export terminals on the U.S. Gulf coast.

The Keystone Xl fight was extraordinary.

Patti Smith, Dave Matthews, and Michael Stipe are among the artists set to take part in the World Environment Day livestream concert happening on June 4th at 3 p.m. Et. The virtual concert was organized by Pathway to Paris, 350.org, and the United Nations Environment Program North America Region, and it will be available to watch on each organization’s Facebook page.

The lineup features a mix of musical performances and speakers. Joining Smith, Matthews, and Stipe on the music end will be Jack Johnson, Ben Harper, Rocky Dawuni, Priya Darshini,...

The following op-ed has been signed by dozens of leading climate and science journalists, listed below.

We are science and climate journalists. We are researchers and weavers of information, creating a fabric that explains the work of scientists who themselves are working to describe our natural world and universe. We are published in the nation’s leading outlets, both large and small, including Scientific American, Nature, National Geographic, MIT Technology Review, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, The Washington Post, The New Yorker and many more.

On May 25, YouTube pulled the Michael Moore-produced environmental documentary Planet of the Humans, a few weeks after the provocateur launched the film for free on his highly trafficked YouTube channel. The tech giant cited a copyright infringement claim made by photographer Toby Smith over a four-second clip used in the controversial doc, which takes on some of the environmental movement's most beloved figures, including Al Gore and Bill McKibben, and explores big money's influence on sustainability efforts. Smith said in an interview with The Guardian that he made the claim because he disagreed with the film's thesis, and ...

On May 25, YouTube pulled the Michael Moore-produced environmental documentary Planet of the Humans, a few weeks after the provocateur launched the film for free on his highly trafficked YouTube channel. The tech giant cited a copyright infringement claim made by photographer Toby Smith over a four-second clip used in the controversial doc, which takes on some of the environmental movement's most beloved figures, including Al Gore and Bill McKibben, and explores big money's influence on sustainability efforts. Smith said in an interview with The Guardian that he made the claim because he disagreed with the film's thesis, and ...

Exclusive, updated with new details, 11:42 Am: Michael Moore and Jeff Gibbs’ controversial documentary Planet of the Humans has been removed from YouTube, where it was streaming for free — a move the pair calls a “blatant act of censorship.”

Ep Moore and writer-producer Gibbs told Deadline they discovered today that their film, which has racked more than 8.3 million views in a month-plus, was taken down from YouTube after a copyright claim was lodged against the documentary over four seconds of footage it contains.

“This attempt to take down our film and prevent the public from seeing it is a blatant act of censorship by political critics of Planet of the Humans,” Gibbs said in a statement provided exclusively to Deadline (read it below). “It is a misuse of copyright law to shut down a film that has opened a serious conversation about how parts of the environmental movement have gotten...

As America’s most famous activist filmmaker, Michael Moore has made his name with documentaries that prompt strong reactions from the right, from conservative pressure that led some theater chains to ban “Fahrenheit 9/11” to an entire film dedicated to explaining that “Michael Moore Hates America.” But now it’s prominent progressive activists and filmmakers — people who have been inspired by and have championed his work — who are calling on the filmmakers to retract and apologize for the latest project to bear his name, “Planet of the Humans.”

The documentary, directed and produced by “Fahrenheit 9/11” and “Bowling for Columbine” collaborator Jeff Gibbs and executive produced by Moore, offers a blistering critique of the modern environmental movement and its promotion of wind, solar, and biomass energy. But some filmmakers, activists, and scientists are pushing back against what they say is a film that relies on cherry-picked facts, gotcha interviews, and...

In mid-March, as major cities began locking down, environmentalist and Rolling Stone contributor Bill McKibben called activist Winona Laduke, both in “different corners of rural America with low bandwidth,” to talk about climate change, JPMorgan Chase, and Laduke’s seven-year effort to stop the construction of an oil pipeline called Line 3.

Laduke lives on the White Earth reservation, part of the Ojibwe nation in northwestern Minnesota. She’s been a booming voice in Native American land rights for three decades, and in recent years that has intersected directly with campaigns against fossil fuels.

Starting on April 22nd, the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, celebrities will join activists, politicians, and artists for Earth Day Live, a three-day live stream and online mobilization led by youth climate leaders.

Earth Day Live will include performances and appearances from entertainers across music, TV, and film. There will be DJ sets each evening to help build community and grow the climate movement.

The program includes unique celebrity-activist exchanges, including a segment with communities on the frontlines of the climate crisis, hosted by actor Luke Baines and journalist Sharon Carpenter and a discussion about climate grief with New York Magazine Deputy Editor and “The Uninhabitable Earth” author David Wallace Wells and climate psychologist Margaret Klein Salamon.

In the midst of a global pandemic, Earth Day Live aims to spur collective action to protect our communities and our planet, through performances, conversations, and training sessions curated by climate activists.

Earth...

With the 50th Anniversary of Earth Day (April 22) fast approaching, now more than ever we need to connect as a global community united in our fight to protect the health and welfare of the planet and its people.

In support of this global movement, illustrious and preeminent religious leaders, environmental advocates, celebrities, musicians and government officials will be celebrating Earth Day with a variety of first-person video pieces demonstrating their commitment to our planet.

These messages, talks, teach-ins and performances will be part of Earth Day Network’s robust 15-hour (9am Et to 11pm Et) live digital event on the homepage for the planet, earthday.org, as well as part of a comprehensive social media partnership with Twitter (#EarthDay2020), and as part of Earth Day Live.

The incredible lineup of personal video messages for Earth Day 2020 includes:

Ed Begley Jr., Actor, Environmentalist, Global Advisory Committee Member

Zdeno Chara, Captain of the Boston Bruins

Sylvia Earle,...

Running as a parallel section to the main festival, The Inspiration Forum has grown to be an integral and unique offering of the Ji.hlava Intl. Documentary Film Festival (Oct. 24-29).

Over the course of the six-day festival, 100 invited guests – authors, academics, scientists, analysts and politicians – will speak on six main topics: climate change; women in society; the crisis of democracy; the rise of China; the role of the Catholic Church in today’s world; and “How Not to Be Afraid” at a time when news about environmental crises through to terrorism dominates the headlines.

The Inspiration Forum does exactly what its name suggests – providing inspiration, ideas and dialogue for festival-goers alongside the documentary screenings and talks.

Crucially, says festival director Marek Hovorka, the Forum also helps open up the documentary festival to new and different types of audiences who will “hopefully then discover the great power of documentary cinema.

Washington — The nearly decade-old campaign to force major universities, investment firms, and insurance companies to divest from fossil fuels just notched one of its biggest victories yet.

In a new op-ed for the Los Angeles Times, the chief investment officer for the University of California system and the chairman of the Uc Board of Regents’ investments committee announced that the Uc system’s endowment and its pension-fund were going “fossil free.”

The two officers, Jagdeep Singh Bachher and Richard Sherman, write that they have already eliminated all fossil-fuel investments from Uc’s $13.7-billion endowment fund.

Bill McKibben is no stranger to getting arrested for protesting. Usually it’s when he’s protesting fossil fuel companies in response climate change, but on Thursday, the climate activist was arrested along with six others who refused to leave Rep. Elise Stefanik’s (R-n.Y.) Glen Falls office in a protest of President Trump’s immigration policies.

“It’s one of these moments in history with the horrible shootings last week and racist tantrums that our president’s throwing, it’s obviously time for people to stand up,” McKibben told videographer Austen Halpern-Graser,...

Xiuhtezcatl Martinez was sitting in his living room in Boulder, Colorado, watching the environmental documentary The 11th Hour, when it hit him for the first time. “I kind of began to grasp the idea that human beings are responsible for creating a crisis that threatens not just nature but humanity — everything about our civilization.” He was six years old. Martinez became one of 21 child plaintiffs suing the U.S. government for failing to protect them from climate change. He was 15 when they brought the suit. He turns 19 in May. It still...

There are few people who’ve understood the perils of climate change longer than Bill McKibben. And few who are better at inspiring people to take action against it. His 1989 book The End of Nature was the first to spell out to a general audience what greenhouse gases were doing to the Earth’s atmosphere. He’s written more than a dozen books since, including the just-released Falter: Has the Human Game Begun to Play Itself Out? [Find the Book Here]

But his advocacy has extended far beyond writing. In 2006, he organized his first climate protest,...

Jesse Paris Smith and Rebecca Foon co-founded the nonprofit Pathway to Paris five years ago after the People’s Climate March in New York City in 2014. Their mission, combating global climate change and helping cities reach their carbon reduction goals, is spread through eclectic showcases featuring global music, poetry readings and scientific talks by environmentalists such as Bill McKibben. They’re often held at tony establishments like Carnegie Hall. This year, Smith and Foon wondered: Could this ever work for kids?

This month — which is both Earth and Poetry month...

Excerpted from “Falter: Has the Human Game Begun to Play Itself Out?” by Bill McKibben. Published by Henry Holt and Company April 16th 2019. Copyright © 2019 by Bill McKibben. All rights reserved.

Oh, it could get very bad.

In 2015, a study in the Journal of Mathematical Biology pointed out that if the world’s oceans kept warming, by 2100 they might become hot enough to “stop oxygen production by phyto-plankton by disrupting the process of photosynthesis.” Given that two-thirds of the Earth’s oxygen comes from phytoplankton, that would “likely result in the...

At around 1 p.m. Et in Midtown Manhattan on Saturday, protest puppeteer Elliot Crown twirled a paper mache planet over a bed of flames, playing a silent violin. Around him, a neon-dotted crowd gathered next to the Plaza Hotel to protest the collapse of life on Earth. Numbers soon swelled to around 300, a solid local turnout for the Extinction Rebellion’s first national day of action in the United States. A marching band began to play, and activist performance group Reverend Billy and the Stop Shopping Choir hopped around the perimeter of the crowd,...

The other day, after visiting the Camp Fire near Paradise, California, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke figured out who was to blame for the worst wildfire in California history, which has burned more than 105,000 acres, destroyed 12,600 homes, and killed at least 81 people (as of Wednesday morning, there are still more than 1,000 people unaccounted for). “I will lay this on the foot of environmental radicals who prevented us from managing the forests,” Zinke told Brietbart. “This is absolutely on them.”

This is of course bullshit. California is burning because industrialized nations of...

North Carolina punk stalwarts Superchunk teamed with Fucked Up singer Damian Abraham for a new song, “Our Work Is Done.” The track was released via Merge Records as a limited edition seven-inch single with proceeds benefitting Bill McKibben’s climate change organization, 350.org. The b-side boasts a cover of Klaus Nomi’s “Total Eclipse.”

“Our Work Is Done” is a blistering ripper packed with angular guitar riffs that spark around a rush of drums and Mac McCaughan’s urgent vocals. “Time flies when you’re on the run,” McCaughan belts...

In a blow to the Trump administration’s fossil fuel agenda, a federal judge in Montana has blocked completion of the Keystone Xl pipeline, ruling that the administration was “arbitrary and capricious” in ignoring climate impacts cited by the Obama State Department when it halted the pipeline in 2015.

The pipeline — a flashpoint in the global fight over climate change for nearly a decade — would carry more than 800,000 barrels a day of tar-sands crude oil from Alberta, Canada, to refineries and export terminals on the Gulf of Mexico. This crude is...

Explosive devices and/or suspicious packages were sent to a number of major Democratic Party-linked figures this week, including Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, philanthropist and financier George Soros, former DNC chair Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, Sen. Kamala Harris (D-ca), and former CIA chief John Brennan.

The offices of the San Diego Union-Tribune were also evacuated after “suspicious packages” were found, and a device was removed from the Time Warner center in Manhattan, home to CNN.

Early news stories drew immediate connections to aggressive and irresponsible rhetoric from the right, including from President Trump.

On September 14 Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. will introduce Jackson Browne as he receives the Gandhi Peace Award from Promoting Enduring Peace at the Lyman Center for the Performing Arts starting at 7:30 pm.

Kennedy, the second son of the late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, is an American environmental attorney, author, and activist who serves as president of the board of Waterkeeper Alliance, a non-profit environmental group that he helped found in 1999.

Dr. Joseph Bertolino, president of Southern Connecticut State University, will greet the audience, as will Andrew Wolf, New Haven’s Director of Arts, Culture and Tourism. Ben Grosscup and Luci Murphy of the People’s Music Network will begin the evening with musical tributes. Chris George of Iris (Integrated Refugee & Immigrant Services) and Frida Berrigan, columnist for Waging Peace and daughter of Philip Berrigan, will also speak.

Jackson Browne is the first artist to receive the Gandhi Peace Award.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs singer Karen O and skateboarding legend Tony Hawk will join the lineup at the newly announced Pathway to Paris Los Angeles. The concert takes place on September 16th at the Theatre at Ace. Tickets for this Pathway to Paris Los Angeles are on sale at the venue’s website. This is Pathway’s second California date following the previously-announced San Francisco event on September 14th.

Pathway to Paris is a nonprofit founded by musicians and activists Jesse Paris Smith and Rebecca Foon, who develop and curate events where artists,...

Bob Weir, Patti Smith and Flea lead the lineup for 2018’s Pathway to Paris concert, set for September 14th at the Masonic in San Francisco, California. The event, which caps off the Global Climate Action Summit, focuses on the potential for cities to achieve and extend beyond the climate targets outlined in the Paris Agreement.

Former Animals singer Eric Burdon, environmentalist Bill McKibben, Canadian cellist Rebecca Foon, Tibetan musician Tenzin Choegyal, French pop-soul artist Imany and Pathway to Paris co-founder (and Patti Smith’s daughter) Jesse Paris Smith will also appear during the concert,...

Tonight’s Real Time with Bill Maher is the last of his 2017 shows — and includes Chelsea Handler, Carl Bernstein and Max Brooks as guests. Environmentalist Bill McKibben is the top-of-show interview guest. In a telling American Magazine interview, McKibben implored conservative people to look to the Bible as evidence that climate change and human hands involved in the desecration of the earth are real and worthy of their concern. Citing the Book of Job, he said: “That soliloquy that God delivers at the end of Job 38 and what follows is I think the longest speech that God gives anywhere...read more...

Pathway to Paris gave voice to the urgent issue of climate change on Sunday night at Carnegie Hall, celebrating the launch of its 1,000 Cities initiative and the organization’s three years of environmental advocacy.

Patti Smith and Flea perform on stage during Pathway To Paris Concert For Climate Action at Carnegie Hall

Credit/Copyright: Kevin Kane/Getty Images for Undp

Founded by Jesse Paris Smith and Rebecca Foon, Pathway to Paris orchestrated the event in partnership with the Un Development Programme and 350 org – bringing together a collection of artists, activists, academics, musicians, politicians, and innovators to shine a light on 1,000 Cities’ imperative mission, supported by a Care2 petition which invites the world’s cities to transition off of fossil fuels in a call to action.

The evening opened with powerful speeches and performances by Jesse Paris Smith and Rebecca Foon, who curated the event, encapsulating the essence of Pathway to Paris.

The world is transitioning into a new era; a world no longer dependent on fossil fuels. Last week, Pathway to Paris and Care2 launched the 1000 Cities initiative, a bold mission to meet and go beyond the targets of the Paris Agreement.

The initiative invites all cities of the world to transition off of fossil fuels and move to 100% renewable energy by 2040, in order to turn the Paris Agreement into reality. Click here to take action. Every signature will automatically send an email letter to the governing body of the the signer’s city, urging them to join this crucial cause.

“Pathway to Paris is more than a name – it’s an ideal,” said Rebecca Foon. “Cities have a remarkable and necessary part to play in moving us towards achieving, and possibly even surpassing, the goals of the Paris Agreement.”

Jesse Paris Smith added: “The climate movement is in urgent need...

Another music legend has joined the line-up for November’s historic Pathway to Paris Concert for Climate Action in New York.

Singer, songwriter and activist Joan Baez will perform along with Patti Smith, Michael Stipe, Flea, Talib Kweli, Cat Power and more.

The news was confirmed at the United Nations today, during a press conference to preview the concert.

“I’m incredibly honored and excited to be part of this event,” said Joan Baez. “Climate change is the issue of our time and it will take all of us – musicians, activists, policymakers and business leaders – to truly make a difference.”

The concert, set to take place at New York’s Carnegie Hall, will also feature speeches and musical performances from Bill McKibben, Dr. Vandana Shiva, Tanya Tagaq, Tenzin Choegyal, and Pathway to Paris founders Rebecca Foon and Jesse Paris Smith.

The role of cities in reducing carbon emissions and tackling...

Pathway to Paris, a climate change initiative focused on turning the Paris Agreement into reality, will partner with the Un Development Programme (Undp) and 350.org for a concert on climate action, to be held at Carnegie Hall in New York City on November 5, 2017.

Pathway to Paris promises to be a night of incredible musical performances and rousing speeches aimed at advancing the important work of fighting climate change while offering innovative solutions.

Set to take place on the eve of Cop 23 – the United Nations conference on climate change that kicks off in Bonn, Germany – the evening will feature internationally recognized musicians and speakers, including Patti Smith, Bill McKibben, Dr. Vandana Shiva, Tanya Tagaq, Flea, Talib Kweli, Cat Power, Michael Stipe, Tenzin Choegyal, and Pathway to Paris founders Rebecca Foon and Jesse Paris Smith.

Tickets for the concert are on sale now and can be purchased by calling CarnegieCharge at 212.247.7800 or...

On a particularly bad day for Earth's wellbeing – the Epa revealed massive budgetary cuts while the Trump administration waffled on the Paris Agreement on climate change – environmentalist and 350.org founder Bill McKibben appeared on Real Time With Bill Maher to discuss the dire situation and how the American people can fight back.

"The level of complete corruption from the fossil fuel industry that marks this administration is like nothing we've ever seen," McKibben said, adding that new Epa chief Scott Pruitt frequently sued the Epa on behalf of energy companies while Attorney General of Oklahoma.

Donald Trump is no stranger to controversial tweets but when he took aim at Meryl Streep following her passionate Golden Globes speech, Twitter users fired back to defend the beloved actress.

After the president-elect told the The New York Times over the telephone that he had not watched the awards show but was “not surprised” that he was attacked by “liberal movie people,” Trump took to Twitter to share his distaste for the 67-year-old movie star.

“Meryl Streep, one of the most over-rated actresses in Hollywood, doesn’t know me but attacked last night at the Golden Globes,” Trump, 70, wrote...

Debut feature from Planetary Collective, directed by Guy Reid, is set for a day-and-date theatrical and Vimeo on Demand release on April 22.

Abramorama, Vimeo and Shft.com have partnered to distribute Planetary.

The team will present the film globally day-and-date theatrically and on Vimeo on Demand on Earth Day, April 22. Directed by Guy Reid, the film will world premiere next week at SXSW on March 17.

It marks the first time that Vimeo has partnered to present the theatrical release of a feature film, in addition to its exclusive Vimeo on Demand window.

Planetary is the follow-up to the award-winning short film Overview. It interweaves imagery from Nasa Apollo missions with interviews from renowned experts such as astronauts Ron Garan and Mae Jemison and environmentalist Bill McKibben too show how our worldview is profoundly affecting life on our planet.

The partnership was negotiated on behalf of the filmmakers by Abramorama’s Richard Abramowitz and Thought Engine’s [link...

Is there a more resonant indication of the religious right’s dementia than its preemptive strike against Darren Aronofsky’s Noah for making its hero an “environmentalist wacko?”—a sort of biblical Bill McKibben? What in heaven’s name were they expecting? In the Old Testament original, God wipes out all but a handful of people while ensuring the survival of every sort of beast — and yet the fundamentalists are incensed because the movie’s Noah doesn’t eat meat and thinks that humans have been poor caretakers of their God-given Earth. They should be delighted that, in an age marked by nihilism and widespread dismissal of Judeo-Christianity as a bunch of mismatched fairy tales, a $125 million Hollywood movie peddles the idea of an all-seeing deity with the power and inclination to wipe out humanity as a punishment for moral degeneracy. Like it or not, this apocalyptic film has been...

Los Angeles, home of the most ambitious and successful environmental movements, will see eight free screenings of “A Fierce Green Fire” in late September and early October

The timing couldn’t be better for seeing A Fierce Green Fire: The Battle for a Living Planet -- the first big-picture exploration of the environmental movement, fifty years of activism from conservation to climate change. From Fukushima to fracking, Keystone Xl to climate change, the world has never been more in need of a reminder that people can, and have, solved huge environmental problems.

And what better place to show this landmark film than Los Angeles, home to some of the most ambitious, innovative and successful environmental efforts in the country. From saving Mono Lake and healing Santa Monica Bay, to leading efforts to reduce smog that changed the entire automobile industry and pioneering climate legislation, no region in America has had a more distinct record of environmental success.

Directed and written by Mark Kitchell, Academy-Award nominated director of Berkeley in the Sixties, and narrated by Robert Redford, Meryl Streep, Ashley Judd, Van Jones and Isabel Allende, A Fierce Green Fire premiered at Sundance Film Festival. It chronicles the largest movement of the 20th century and one of the keys to the 21st. It brings together all the major parts of environmentalism and connects them. It focuses on activism, people fighting to save their homes, their lives, the future – and succeeding against all odds.

The film unfolds in five acts, each with a central story and character:

• David Brower and the Sierra Club’s battle to halt dams in the Grand Canyon • Lois Gibbs and the Love Canal residents’ struggle against 20,000 tons of toxic chemicals • Paul Watson and Greenpeace’s campaigns to save whales and baby harp seals • Chico Mendes and Brazilian rubber tappers’ fight to save the Amazon rainforest • Bill McKibben and the 25-year effort to address the impossible issue – climate change

Surrounding these main stories are strands like environmental justice, going back to the land, and movements of the global south such as Wangari Maathai in Kenya. Vivid archival film brings it all back and insightful interviews with activists shed light on what it all means. The film offers a deeper view of environmentalism as civilizational change, bringing our industrial society into sustainable balance with nature. It’s the battle for a living planet.

The film arrives at a moment of promise: 25 years after Dr. James Hansen first warned of global warming; 8 years after Katrina; 3 years after the Gulf oil disaster; 2 years after meltdown at Fukushima and first stopping the Keystone Pipeline; and 1 year since the wake-up call that was Hurricane Sandy, the capper to the hottest year on record. 2013 may be the year that grassroots pressure finally forces action to halt climate change. A Fierce Green Fire gives us reason to believe.

All of the Southland screenings are free and (except UCLA) open to the public. Each will be followed by a discussion featuring local environmental leaders and the filmmaker. Below is a list of screenings and participants.

The Big Four:

Wednesday, September 25, at 7 pm Santa Monica Public Library, 601 Santa Monica Blvd., Santa Monica, CA Panel discussion: Matthew King, Heal the Bay; Robert Gottlieb, renowned author of “Forcing the Spring” and professor at Occidental College

Friday, September 27, at 5:30 pm West Hollywood Public Library, 8272 Santa Monica Blvd., West Hollywood, CA Panel Discussion: Angelo Logan, East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice; Juana Torres, Sierra Club; Michele Prichard, Liberty Hill Foundation’s Common Agenda

Thursday, October 3, 6 pm Pasadena Central Public Library Auditorium, 285 East Walnut Street Pasadena, CA Speaker: Shannon Biggs of Global Exchange on fracking coming to California

Friday, October 4, at 6 pm G2 Gallery, 1503 Abbot Kinney Blvd., Venice, CA Panel Discussion: Bill Gallegos, Communities for a Better Environment; Michele Prichard, Liberty Hill Foundation’s Common Agenda (opening of G2’s Green Earth Film Fest -- space is limited, so RSVP: theG2Gallery.com)

Three area colleges and an arts center in Long Beach:

Pitzer College, Robert Redford Conservancy -- Monday, September 30 in Claremont, CA UCLA Institute of Environmental Sciences -- Wednesday, October 2 (campus community only) Csu Long Beach, Multicultural Center -- Thursday, September 26, noon CALBArts, Bungalow Art Center, 729 Pine, Long Beach -- Friday, September 27th, 7pm

About The Film

Early Praise for A Fierce Green Fire:

"The material is vast and it’s an incredibly dynamic film. It’s shaping up to be the documentary of record on the environmental movement." - Cara Mertes, former director of Sundance Institute’s Documentary Film Program

"Winningly spans the broad scope of environmental history… connecting its origins with the variety of issues still challenging society today." - Justin Lowe, The Hollywood Reporter

"Rarely do environmental-themed films come with the ambitious scope of ‘A Fierce Green Fire’… which aims at nothing less than the history of environmentalism itself." - Mark Olsen, Los Angeles Times

"The most ambitious environmental documentary since 'An Inconvenient Truth' tries to make the case that we just might win." - Michael Roberts, Outside Magazine

"The film left me emotionally drained and profoundly hopeful." -Bruce Barcott, On Earth Magazine

"Brilliant! Should be assigned viewing for all of us, especially those political leaders currently manning the helm of spaceship earth." - Jay Meehan, Park Record

About The Principals And People Featured In The Film

Director/Producer/Writer Mark Kitchell’s Berkeley in the Sixties – one of the defining films about the protest movements that shook America during the 1960s – received the Sundance Audience Award and was nominated for an Academy Award. Executive Producer Marc Weiss is the creator and former Executive Producer of P.O.V., the award-winning series now in its 26th season on PBS. Interviews were shot by Vicente Franco. It was edited by Ken Schneider, Veronica Selver, Jon Beckhardt and Gary Weimberg. Original music is by George Michalski and Dave Denny, Garth Stevenson, Randall Wallace and Todd Boekelheide. Narrators include: Robert Redford; Ashley Judd; activist Van Jones; author Isabel Allende; and Meryl Streep.

Featured In The Film Are:

The incomparable Lois Gibbs, leader of Love Canal; Paul “I work for whales” Watson; Bill McKibben, author and founder of 350.org; Paul Hawken and Stewart Brand, alternative ecology visionaries; Martin Litton, at 92 thundering, “If you haven’t got any hatred in your heart, what are you living on?”; Carl Pope and John Adams, longtime heads of the Sierra Club and Nrdc; and Bob Bullard, who closes the film on a universal note: “There’s no Hispanic air. There’s no African-American air. There’s air! And if you breathe air – and most people I know do breathe air – then I would consider you an environmentalist.”...

By David Ropeik

(Click here for original article.)

The last line in Pandora’s Promise, Robert Stone’s new documentary about the environmental advantages of nuclear power, comes from Michael Shellenberger, co-head of the Breakthrough Institute. “I have a sense that this is a beautiful thing, the beginning of a movement,” he says. Provoking a new environmental movement in favor of nuclear power is a tall order, but a recent screening of Pandora’s Promise suggests that it might play a part, for some intriguing reasons.

Stone’s film premiered at Sundance to positive reviews (Variety, Slate) and is scheduled for theatrical release this summer. It makes a convincing case for nuclear power as a carbon-free source of energy to reduce the harm of climate change in a world in which population is rising and the demand for electricity is soaring as the developing world develops. (For the record, I...

In celebration of Earth Day, environmental documentary "Bidder 70" will be shown in theaters across the country on April 22. Documenting activist Tim DeChristopher's trial and conviction for disrupting a federal oil and gas lease auction in Utah, the film will screen one day after his release from federal prison.

As HuffPost previously reported, the 31-year-old received a two-year prison sentence in 2011 for bidding on, and winning, millions of dollars worth of land parcels under false pretenses at a Bureau of Land Management auction in 2008.

DeChristopher's case also drew attention from environmentalists, including many who saw him as acting in the name of conservation and climate action. He was "acting on behalf of every landscape left on the planet," argued author Bill McKibben.

The film, which is being distributed by Gathr Films, will be released in a crowd-funded "theatrical-on-demand" format. Individuals must order a ticket in advance, but they will only...

Chicago – Godfrey Reggio’s “Koyaanisqatsi,” “Powaqqatsi,” and “Naqoyqatsi” comprise one of the most fascinating trio of documentaries in the history of the form and whoever works at Criterion that decided to collect these landmark works into one Blu-ray and DVD box set deserves a raise. Not only is eash film lovingly restored for the release and accompanied by hours of special features but being able to fully appreciate “The Qatsi Trilogy” as one body of work is something all film fans should experience.

Rating: 5.0/5.0

“The Qatsi Trilogy” is more than a mere trio of documentaries. Each of the films feels more like a visual poem than a traditional piece of film work. Working with compositions by Philip Glass, Reggio uses time-lapse footage that often contrasts the natural world versus the man-made one. These are works of music and visual compositions that try to move the viewer to think or even act without words.

The Qatsi Trilogy is a collection of films made by Godfrey Reggio between 1983 and 2002. Each film offers an extraordinary and unforgettable cinematic experience, and their messages are, astonishingly, even more pertinent and vital today. The visual and aural wonders of The Qatsi Trilogy fall into no preset genre or easily explainable category of filmmaking. The simplest description would be a grafting of somber political treatise with I-Max style sensory joyride.

To fully understand these unique works, one must understand the filmmaker, and his singular background and sensibilities. Godfrey Reggio is not an assembly line graduate of the USC film school. In fact, he spent the 1960s as a social worker and political activist, founding several community programs for disadvantaged youth in New Mexico. He also spent 14 years in training for the priesthood, but abandoned that quest to pursue a deeper understanding of the philosophy and mysticism of the Hopi Indians.

Read the Guardian editorial staff's choices and add yours in the comments below

It was the year of the Olympics, the omnishambles, the Higgs boson and the Facebook flotation. In American and Russian elections voters stuck with the faces they knew, while France and China ushered in a new slate of leaders. The eurozone teetered on another brink, while the southern hemisphere powered ahead. But who were the people that shaped 2012? Below, Guardian editors and staff nominate their pick for Person of the Year. Add your selection, or endorsement, to the comment thread below. We will then conduct a readers' poll of the six most popular choices.

Malala Yousafzai – nominated by Lucy Lamble, global development editor

The assassination attempt on 14-year-old Pakistani schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai made the world acknowledge her bravery in defending girls' right to education.

In a speech last November, Malala said: "I know the importance of education...

Appearing on the October 5 episode of "Real Time with Bill Maher," author and environmentalist Bill McKibben cautioned Maher's panel on the effects of climate change on Earth's polar regions: "We broke the Arctic."

While on the show, McKibben expressed his frustration with those who perpetuate the idea that scientists remain divided about the existence or human origin of climate change. He says, "Scientists figured it out. That's why we have scientists."

McKibben cites 2012's record temperatures and severe drought as confirmation of what Nasa climate scientist James Hansen has called a "planetary emergency."

Indeed, Hansen and his colleagues released a statistical analysis this summer suggesting that the odds are too great for many of the past decade's most extreme weather events to have happened by chance. He wrote in the Washington Post, "our analysis shows that, for the extreme hot weather of the recent past, there is virtually no explanation other than climate change.

Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: Dec. 11, 2012

Price: DVD $79.95, Blu-ray $79.95

Studio: Criterion

Filmmaker and artist, Godfrey Reggio is best known for his galvanizing trio of documentary-like “moviescape” films Koyaanisquatsi, Powaqqatsi and Naqoyqatsi, which comprise The Qatsi Trilogy.

Astonishingly photographed, and featuring unforgettably hypnotic musical scores by Philip Glass (Mishima), the three films are immersive sensory experiences that meditate on the havoc humankind’s fascination with technology has wreaked on our world. From 1983’s Koyaanisqatsi (the title is a Hopi word that means “life out of balance”) to 1988’s Powaqqatsi (“life in transformation”) to 2002’s Naqoyqatsi (“life as war”), Reggio takes viewers on a journey from the ancient to the contemporary, from nature to industry and back again, all the while keeping our eyes wide with wonder.

Technology overruns the world in 2002's Naqoyqatsi.

Here’s a breakdown on the three films:

Koyaanisquatsi (1983)

A sensation when it was released in the early 1980s.

Friday night on HBO's chat salon "Real Time with Bill Maher" will feature a great panel of pundits. The series continues its tenth season Friday, Oct. 5 (10:00-11:00 p.m. live Et/tape-delayed Pt), exclusively on HBO, with an instant replay at 11:00 p.m. following the live presentation. Allowing Maher to offer his unique perspective on contemporary issues, the show includes an opening monologue, roundtable discussions with panelists, and interviewswith in-studio and satellite guests. The roundtable guests this week are columnist Will Cain, former Fla. Rep. Mark Foley and actress Kerry Washington; political consultant Frank Luntz and environmentalist Bill McKibben are interview guests. If you remember, six-term Rep. Mark Foley resigned amid reports that he had sent sexually explicit Internet messages...

While much of business media is filled with doom and gloom, positive coverage of innovation and enterprise is breaking through

Many moons ago, megatrends guru John Naisbitt analysed print media to get a sense of where the world was headed. In the dog days of August, in the spirit (but not style) of Naisbitt, we decided to buy every business magazine we could lay our hands on – tearing them apart as we hunted for evidence on whether coverage in key media sees us heading towards one of two scenarios: breakdown or breakthrough.

Breakdown is the 100% negative scenario. A world in which early experiments and enthusiasm fade in the face of wider incomprehension and resistance to change. Our businesses, cities and economies overshoot ecological limits, bringing the planetary roof down on our heads.

And then there is the breakthrough scenario, which increasingly shapes and informs our own agenda. This assumes that,...

Who is "Bidder 70?" A new film from husband and wife documentarians George and Beth Gage examines the case of 30-year-old environmental activist Tim DeChristopher, who derailed a federal oil and gas lease auction for public land in southern Utah in 2008.

The film, which was shown this week at the Human Rights Watch Film Festival in New York City, follows DeChristopher for three years during the much-delayed criminal investigation and federal trial that culminated in a guilty verdict and his two-year prison sentence in March 2011.

Through the film, DeChristopher's story is punctuated by delays in the trial that ultimately forced him to confront the fate that had been looming over him for so long. Emboldened by the support he received from members of his Unitarian church and the Salt Lake City-based group Peaceful Uprising, DeChristopher visited mountaintop removal mining sites in West Virginia and lent his voice to rallies for...