Franklin Area Climate Team: January 2010

Green Reel - Flow

A series of films on sustainable living called "The Green Reel" will be held Sunday evenings in North Attleboro. The films are presented free of charge. Some refreshments are available. Discussion about the film is encouraged.

"Flow" will be shown Feb 7th at 7:00 PM

Flow (For Love Of Water)

"An astonishingly wide-ranging film. An informed and heartfelt examination of the tug of war between public health and private interests." - New York Times

"Lively and engaging...Smartly Done" - Los Angeles Times

“The inconvenient truth at the center of Flow: For Love of Water is that while the oil crisis is intensely debated and documented, disasters involving an even more essential fluid go perilously unnoticed.” - Slant Magazine

“Focusing on pollution, human rights, politics, and corruption, filmmaker Salina constructs an exceptionally articulate profile of the precarious relationship uniting human beings and water. “ - Rotten Tomatoes
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Official Selection 2008 Sundance Film Festival

International Jury Prize 2008 Mumbai International Film Festival

Best Documentary 2008 Vail International Film Festival

Winner Best Documentary United Nations Association Film Festival

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Irena Salina's award-winning documentary investigation into what experts label the most important political and environmental issue of the 21st Century - The World Water Crisis.

Salina builds a case against the growing privatization of the world's dwindling fresh water supply with an unflinching focus on politics, pollution, human rights, and the emergence of a domineering world water cartel.

Interviews with scientists and activists intelligently reveal the rapidly building crisis, at both the global and human scale, and the film introduces many of the governmental and corporate culprits behind the water grab, while begging the question "CAN ANYONE REALLY OWN WATER?"

Beyond identifying the problem, FLOW also gives viewers a look at the people and institutions providing practical solutions to the water crisis and those developing new technologies, which are fast becoming blueprints for a successful global and economic turnaround.

The flyer for the full series can be seen here:

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Political landcape changes in the US

From 350.org

Readers in other parts of the world might be curious to know why so much attention has been focused on a single Senate race in the state of Massachusetts. The election, held ~~yesterday~~ las week to fill a vacancy created by the death of Senator Ted Kennedy, was won by a Republican, Scott Brown. This is unfortunate, because he's said that he doesn't know if human beings cause global warming, and because it strengthens the hand of those in the U.S. Congress who want to take no action. It will make it more difficult to passglobal warming legislation in America--and that will make it harder for other countries to set targets.

However, there was also one good piece of news ~~today~~ rcently. The Sierra Club, America's oldest and most important environmental organization, named a new leader today. He's Mike Brune, who used to run the Rainforest Action Network, and he's a real champion of strong action on global warming, and of 350. All of us here think the world of him, and look forward to working with him.

Green Community Workshop - Feb 4th

To help MCAN Chapters and their communities in Southern Massachusetts better understand and qualify to become a “Green Community” we have organized a Workshop in Attleboro on Feb. 4 at 6:30 p.m. Becoming a “Green Community” entitles Massachusetts towns to apply for state grants up to One Million Dollars to develop renewable energy and energy efficiency projects in their communities. Attached is a flyer with details on the workshop.

Please disseminate this attached flyer to your chapter/committee members and town officials such as: town managers, planners, officers of the municipal power and light department (if you have one) and Selectman encouraging them to attend to learn more and to take advantage of this important opportunity. We are working hard to have a good turnout at the Workshop and keep the ball rolling on this great program. Please help us do this.

Please send me the name and contact information on anyone from your community planning on attending. Thanks so much for your help. Fred Schlicher, MCAN program manager.

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Save File: converted-AttleboroWorkshop_Feb04_2010-converted.pdf

The Climate Movement 2009

From the 350.org blog:

Yeah, we know we've been posting a lot of videos lately. Here's a new, inspiring one we put together to link many of the great actions and events that took place in 2009 in every corner of the world. As Jamie wrote in his blog post below, all of us expanded the climate movement exponentially in 2009, bringing public pressure to bear on our own leaders, and at the Copenhagen climate talks. We educated our own communities, and helped form coalitions and groups that had never existed before. We couldn't fit all the amazing images and actions from 2009 in this short video, but we think this gives a taste of how inspiring we were last year. This is just the tip of the iceberg - let's define this decade by what we do this year, and go big in 2010.

Solar Energy and Incentives - Jan 14th - 6:30 PM

A workshop on "Solar Energy and Incentives" will be held on January 14th at 6:30 PM at the Bellingham Public Library.

The flyer is shown here:

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A similar seminar was held during 2008 at the Franklin Public Library and resulted in a solar installation at the Trolley Crossing Farm in Bellingham.

note: email subscribers will need to click through to the website to view the flyer.

Letter from Bill McKibben

Dear Friends,

I'm writing to say thanks for your incredibly hard work in the last year, and for your efforts in the year and the decade ahead.

Just to remind you how the 350 campaign got going, and what it accomplished, and what we still have left to do, here's a special page of videos we've prepared:

http://action.350.org/p/salsa/web/common/public/content?content_item_KEY=6821

It's a bit strange to send out the 350 year-end wrap up after the new year has already begun, but we didn't want this note to get mixed in with all the last-minute appeals for donations from worthy causes.

Money helps, but it's nowhere near as important as time and effort. There are people like you all over the world, or at least in the 181 countries that held 5,200 rallies on Oct. 24. Foreign Policy magazine just called it "the largest ever coordinated global rally of any kind," and it had enormous effect: more than half the countries that came to Copenhagen a month later backed a 350 target. Money can't buy that kind of commitment--only the passion for the earth and its future can. It's just that kind of passion that you've brought to this movement in the last year.

Take seriously the request at the end of the video recap page--we need your ideas about where we go next. We know what we have to do--keep the planet from overheating--and we know it's going to be hard.

We also know that because of your work, and everyone else's, it's going to happen.

Onwards,

Bill McKibben for 350.org