Last night I attended the world premiere of the documentary "Carbon Nation" at Millennium Park. It's a feel-good 90 minutes worth of solutions to our carbon intense industrial aged culture. It's not about limitations to our lifestyles, or going backwards, but, rather, about radically reducing the use of fossil fuels and creating a cleaner world, based largely on efficiency, solar, wind and geothermal. It's as inspirational as much as Gore's "Inconvient Truth" was depressing. We don't need buzz kills, we need a price to be placed on pollution to allow for our creativity and innovation to flourish.
I scanned the audience. There were a number of grade school aged kids at the show (in addition to the college-aged set and their 350.org t-shirts) and the movie did offer hope, e.g. highlighting business people involved in growing industries. It showed teenagers installing rooftop solar panels and recommended kids become engineers. It mentioned how a decrease in the use of fossil fuels will mean a more human labor intensive world.
That being said, a movie can cover only so much. So, while I enjoyed the parts of "Carbon Nation" which draw the connections between the health of our local air, water and soil with the use of subsidized fossil fuels, it wasn't about kids or for kids. There's another documentary I'd like to see and its appears to be more about getting kids outside, to give them a chance to bond with, and fall in love with, the earth, rather than stuck in front of electronic screens. It's called "Play Again." If you'd like to be involved in hosting a screening, let me know. Here's the link: http://www.playagainfilm.com
And, oh, here's the link on information for Carbon Nation: http://www.carbonnation.tv/
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