Carbon Nation is a terrific documentary that is opening today for one week in:
- Portland, OR – Regal Fox Tower Stadium
- Seattle, WA - SIFF Cinema
And it is opening next Friday for one week in San Francisco, at the Landmark Opera Plaza Cinema. The DVD will be out next month.
You can see the trailer — which I’m not entirely thrilled with — here:
Yes, this is “a climate change solutions movie [that doesn't even care if you believe in climate change],” which I suppose is okay for marketing purposes.
True, the film doesn’t focus on global warming, but it does make clear that it is in fact happening and humans are the cause. I doubt many people who don’t accept climate science will go to a movie titled Carbon Nation, no matter how it is marketed.
What makes the movie worth seeing is the personality-driven stories, like the one-armed wind developer. The tone and pacing are quite breezy, so I’m confident you will both learn something and enjoy the movie.
I did get to see some early cuts of the movie and offered them a few suggestions. The movie is a success because of the vision of Director Peter Byck, and his decision to focus on winning stories.
For more information, go to the website, where you’ll see many other positive reviews.
The DVD is being released in April and I may do another post then.
Previous in TP Climate Progress
Language Intelligence: Lessons on persuasion from Jesus, Shakespeare, Lincoln, and Lady Gaga
Movies like this should be aired 24h on all channels (literally speaking).
Wow, now Climate Progress is even determining my evening plans! My daughter’s taking the train home from college today and we’re going to the premier with the Portland folk I work with on climate change – thanks for the tip, Joe!
Looks like a good movie, but I’m not persuaded that parading CIA directors and airline execs shows that now we’re getting “serious”. The implication is that free market solutions are going to save the day, and are just around the corner, and maybe scientists and activists are getting in the way.
Not so fast. Congress just voted against removing tens of billions in fossil fuel subsidies (!?!). Sunk capital, volume, habit, and supplier chains are huge coal and oil market advantages that must be offset by (sorry, Tea Partiers) our government.
I think it’s great to have the tag line “a climate change solutions movie [that doesn't even care if you believe in climate change]”. I make this point to my friends all the time. The solutions to energy security are the same as for climate change. the solutions to having a less polluted world are the same as for climate change.
I’m totally fine with people being deniers (yes, their ignorance will still drive me crazy) as long as they embrace getting off oil for energy security and getting off coal for pollution purposes. I’d like that they embrace the obvious scientific evidence of climate but as long as they support the methods, I’m OK.
It comes down to appealing to the widest audience. We need to brand the solutions for climate change in ways that appeal to, well, anyone.
I haven’t seen the movie but I’ll be very intrigued to see how they frame the argument.
Mike Roddy said “…but I’m not persuaded that parading CIA directors and airline execs shows that now we’re getting “serious”.”
Yes, if you compare all the flicks with spies, torture themes and gadget weapons you could come to this conclusion. If the CIA would be serious about combating Climate Change, they would adapt their movie themes too. Same with other film directors. Everybody has responsibility …
But it is good to see at least a few people from various security branches getting involved and to see the US administration ramping up the vocabulary.
Let’s see what 2011 holds for us climate disrupting wise and record breaking eg. “die off magnitudes”, people asking for it – just look outside everybody drives gas vehicles just like we still had 1960.
I saw the premiere in Chicago, and am happy to say it is very worth seeing.
Well-paced, funny, hopeful. Look for the father and son theme.
It’s worthwhile to keep working the problem, right?
Being upbeat for the young adults that need to feel there is hope for the world they will living in much longer than some of us. That solutions can be found, maybe not all of these up but hope can bring change. For those of us that have been at this for years it’s harder to find.
I’m glad that this film is out, and that is has an optimistic message.
I think that it’s important to stress the practical and positive benefits of renewable energy more, even when outside of the context of solving AGW. I believe this in large part since it seems that many people are trying to “stick their heads in the sand” in part because the fossil fuel industry has convinced so many that renewable energy can’t work. This creates the impression in the minds of many that even if AGW is real, that nothing can be done about it. The problem just seems to be “too big” to some people.
Showing that we already have solutions that work (and offer immediate benefits) helps to “short-circuit” that mis-perception, and makes dealing with AGW more possible in the minds of some people. As more people see renewable energy as workable, and even beneficial, then dealing with AGW becomes less of a psychological challenge for them.
At least that’s my opinion.
Joe, thanks for posting about Carbon Nation. As a Producer of the film, I want Joe’s audience to know that I was completely inspired by Joe’s book “Hell and High Water” in the sense that it seemed that we needed a solutions film, especially after “Inconvenient Truth” which focused almost entirely on framing the challenges and growing problems due to rising CO2 levels.
Carbon Nation was in the making for four years before the theatrical release in February. The message of the film is all about solutions, and we found a new set of American heroes working on technologies and practices that are being implemented increasingly with speed and scale.
How the world has changed in four years, and it continues to evolve. My own work in promoting energy efficiency began almost 30 years ago, and the need to implement and accelerate energy efficiency is more important today then it was then. While we have made huge strides in increasing the energy efficiency of the US economy — some have suggested these efficiencies have saved over $500,000,000,000 (yes, that’s Billions) per year economy-wide, there are still enormous opportunities to continue mining energy through efficiency improvements throughout our economy.
Joe, thanks for your post, and it would be great if you could treat your readers to other segments of the film rather than just the trailer.
Check out http://www.carbonnationmovie.com and sign up to receive regular updates regarding the film. Order it on Netflix and Amazon — it will be available for shipping in May.
-Craig Sieben, CEO of Sieben Energy Associates (www.siebenenergy.com), and Producer, Carbon Nation.