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The United Film Festivals present "Environmental Day" Saturday, June 12th

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Jesse Martinez
Published on Jun 10 2010 in blog
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The United Film Festival opens up this Friday and it has something for everyone. From relationships, the rise and fall of the pinball machine, road trips, to animal rights and not to mention midnight screenings of classics such as The Fly (free).

 

The San Francisco United Film Festival, is about bringing art and creativity together to create a united film community, is excited to be returning to the Bay Area for its second year at the historic Roxie Theater, right in the heart of the thriving Mission district June 11th - June 17th. The festival's focus is to bring together talented filmmakers from~ diverse backgrounds, thus creating a "United" showcase of creative energy and talent.

 

What is really interesting in addition to Animal Rights, is Saturday is devoted to movies that deal with the environment. Will we start to see a new film movement here? Especially in the wake of what is happening with the Gulf Coast and BP? There are some really great films lined up and I am really looking forward to seeing them (well most). The movie Dive! really hits home because of the excess food that is discarded by both restaurants and grocery stores here in the Bay Area.


Take a look at some of the Environmental films being shown with Homegrown being the Premiere Film.


HomeGrown The inspiring true story of a family "living off the grid" in the heart of urban Pasadena, California. They harvest over 6,000 pounds of produce on less than a quarter of an acre, while running a popular website that is known around the world.

Dive! Follows Jeremy Seifert and his friends as they dumpster dive in the back alleys and gated garbage receptacles of L.A.'s supermarkets. In the process they salvage thousands of dollars worth of good food and uncover a disturbing truth about waste in America. The goal quickly becomes finding out why so much edible food is thrown away instead of being given to those who need it. The result is equal parts entertainment, guerrilla journalism and call to action.

Beyond The Pole A mockumentary film crew follows the first carbon neutral, organic, vegetarian expedition ever to attempt the North Pole. Brian and Mark hope to simultaneously save the planet and get into the Guinness Book of Records- unfortunately, they have never done anything like this before.


So come on out with the family and support these films at the Roxie. Here’s a link to their schedule and to learn more: http://www.theunitedfest.com/sanfrancisco/schedule.htm

Are Improved Planned Cities An Answer to Global Warming?

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Rohini Batra
Published on Apr 13 2010 in blog
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What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you hear that we have to fight global warming and greenhouse gas emissions? As many others would, we think of solar powered houses and electric cars. No, that need not be the case. This month’s speaker at EcoTuesday event suggests a better alternative that reduces greenhouse emissions without altering the present-day life style of people. What is so incredible is that this plan addresses the root cause of the emissions.

 

“Building Climate-Friendly Communities (BCFC)” is a grass root movement supported by Sierra Club, Loma-Prieta chapter. Megan Fluke is the Organizer of this movement and we are proud to have her as our next speaker. Megan Fluke is a Bay Area native with a passion for sustainable living and community engagement. She graduated from San Jose State University in May 2008 with a degree in Environmental Studies. During her time at SJSU, she served as the Director of the Environmental Resource Center and as an intern with the Silicon Valley Land Conservancy. After graduation, she was hired as Community Director for GenerationEngage Silicon Valley where she worked to engage young adults in their community and the political process. Megan is a graduate of Community Leadership San Jose, which identifies emerging leaders within the Silicon Valley metropolitan area and exposes them to a broad range of issues vital to the community. She currently serves on the organizations’ board of directors.

 

After a year of serving as a member of their Executive Committee, she was hired by the Loma Prieta Chapter of the Sierra Club as the Grassroots Organizer for the Building Climate Friendly Communities Campaign. In her new position, Megan is working to increase public support for vibrant, walkable, transit-accessible communities in San Mateo and Santa Clara counties.

 

Come and meet Megan on Tuesday, April 27th, as she talks about her experiences and her ideas of creating sustainable communities. You will also be able to interact with other EcoTuesday members and share your ideas of changing the world to a better place. This is a free event but registration is required! Please register at www.ecotuesday.com/events.

 

EcoTuesday event on Tuesday April 27th, 2010:

 

Speaker: Megan Fluke, Grass root organizer, BCFC, Sierra Club-Loma Prieta Chapter

 

Venue: Wild Palms Hotel, 910 East Fremont Avenue, Sunnyvale CA.

 

Thanks,

Rohini Batra and Anand Iyer

Ambassadors, Silicon Valley Chapter

EcoTuesday


Dave Rochlin Rocked EcoTuesday on March 23rd!

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Anand Iyer
Published on Apr 01 2010 in blog
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Climatepath’s mission could be summed up in one sentence – “make consumers aware of the real carbon economy and not limit them to the market economy”.

 

This is what Dave Rochlin, CEO of Climatepath, expounded during the last week’s EcoTuesday event. We are living in a capitalist society, where we believe price is always set by market forces, supply and demand. We also believe that the true cost of a product is already reflected in the price we pay. But contrary to the wisdom, market forces subsidize the product cost in many ways. What we pay may be just the production cost (fixed cost + variable cost + transportation cost). But, each product has its own lifecycle and many of the lifecycle costs are hidden from the consumer.

 

When we pay less for the products we use, we are actually pushing the problem to another part of the world or to the next generation. Therefore awareness needs to be created in the society regarding these costs. Dave demonstrated the lack of awareness by posing three simple questions to the audience:

(1) Do you use organic material because it is good for the environment? – Many hands went up.

(2) Do you use fair trade products and practices so that you are aware of how the product is produced? – Again many hands went up.

(3) Do you buy carbon offsets to reduce your carbon footprint? – None of the audience raised their hands. 

 

Dave mentioned simple steps to adopt conservation in everyday life:

Wash clothes in cold water – the detergents work great in cold water as well as hot water. Washing in cold water cuts the fuel consumption tremendously. Also drying them in sunlight really helps.

Transportation, esp. air transportation is the biggest user of fuel. Cutting down non-essential travel, limiting the air travel to few trips per year can really help with the fuel consumption.

Dave is big on technology help to solve the sustainability problem. He suggests usage of network computing, cloud, storage on network as possible solution to prevent people migration.

 

Overall, the talk was both entertaining and enchanting for an audience of nearly 12 people (26 registrants). Dave truly rocked!!


West Coast Green Thursday, October 1, 2009 9:00am - Saturday, October 3, 2009 5:00pm

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Thursday, October 1, 2009 - 9:00am - Saturday, October 3, 2009 - 5:00pm
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West Coast Green

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