More info at: www.bluegold-worldwaterwars.com

Wars of the future will be fought over water as they are over oil today, as the source of human survival enters the global marketplace and political arena. Corporate giants, private investors, and corrupt governments vie for control of our dwindling supply, prompting protests, lawsuits, and revolutions from citizens fighting for the right to survive. Past civilizations have collapsed from poor water management. Can the human race survive?

Blue Gold: World Water Wars is a 2008 documentary film by Sam Bozzo, based on the book Blue Gold: The Fight to Stop the Corporate Theft of the World’s Water by Maude Barlow and Tony Clarke.
Initial release: April 26, 2009
Director: Sam Bozzo
Running time: 89 minutes
Initial DVD release: April 7, 2009

END:CIV examines our culture’s addiction to systematic violence and environmental exploitation, and probes the resulting epidemic of poisoned landscapes and shell-shocked nations.

Based in part on Endgame, the best-selling book by Derrick Jensen, END:CIV asks: “If your homeland was invaded by aliens who cut down the forests, poisoned the water and air, and contaminated the food supply, would you resist?”

Directors: Franklin Lopez
Language English
Studio: Mvd Visual
Release Date: 25 Jan 2011
Run Time: 75 minutes

More info here

Petroleum Exploration and Development licenses have already been granted across Somerset and the Glastonbury festival site is at risk.

Michael Eavis is against fracking, but the government is seeking to change the trespass law to allow underground drilling for shale gas without our permission.

This involves pumping a toxic cocktail of chemicals right under our feet, polluting this ancient landscape for generations to come.

We need you to act NOW. Please sign this petition www.frackfree.org.uk

“The UK shale basins are heavily faulted, from the shale layer right to the surface, in contrast to those of the USA. Pre-existing faults provide a potential fast-track pathway for fracking fluid and produced gas to escape upwards into drinking water aquifers and even to the surface.”

David K. Smythe BSc, PhD Emeritus Professor of Geophysics, University of Glasgow, formerly of the British Geological Survey.

The UK Government is intent on using fractional hydraulic extraction or fracking across the UK to obtain gas and oil from under our feet, despite the governments of France, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic and the Netherlands all suspending shale gas exploration activities due to warnings from organizations like the EU.

“Risks of surface and ground water contamination, water resource depletion, air and noise emissions, land take, disturbance to biodiversity and impacts related to traffic are deemed to be high in the case of cumulative projects.” European Union*

The festival site is seriously threatened, as are the water, biodiversity and people of Somerset. Please act now to safeguard our future by signing our petition.

Thank you for reading this. If the situation concerns you please forward this onto friends who will help.

More info here

Director – Nils Aguilar – Q & A

What made you make the film?

I had a bad experience whilst traveling in South America, witnessing first-hand some of the struggles being faced by indigenous farmers fighting off large-scale industrial agriculture companies. That was very sad, but when I started looking around to see what could be done against this kind of thing, I found all these brilliant examples of what people were doing to take back control of their local communities and make them happier, more resilient places to live. And I found that these approaches were everywhere!

What unexpected thing did you learn?

I found that swarm intelligence is just overwhelmingly powerful! I had the chance to experience this in practice, with awesome transition initiatives being born in the cinema halls – just like that – after film screenings and finally, once Milpa Films became a 3-4 persons team, also in our daily work! For instance, we managed to build a coworking and co-sharing space from scratch all by ourselves, without further help from outside and one year later there were 60 of us in a 400 sqm building, moving and shaking. So now I know that cooking with synergies is the best thing you could ever do. It keeps on surprising me every day.

How big do you think the risk of civilization’s collapse is? And what kind of timescale?

Predicting the future is impossible, but lots of very smart people and even institutions are telling us to prepare for turbulence. NASA, the IPCC, even the American military – they’re all saying that things could get pretty rough quite soon. I’d rather be ready for that, and try to lessen the causes of catastrophic disruptions before they happen. One of the major arguments we make in Voices of Transition is that making these changes, freeing ourselves from addictive consumerism, can be very difficult, but once you step aside and do that stuff it will make you feel good and, most of all, politically re-empowered! Also, better relationships with our friends and neighbours, more time spent with our families… These are great things.

Can we feed 9 billion humans without using oil?

Yes, absolutely! Just to give you an idea, majority of the food we produce globally is still being nurtured on small hold family farms, so these need to be supported and protected from Monsanto’s ideology “the more artificial your farming method, the better”. Put another way – it’s clear that we won’t be able to feed 9 billion humans with oil. Too much energy is being wasted to grow too little food. For every 20 calories of energy we expend growing our food crops, we only get one nutritional calorie back. That’s crazy! So when peak oil starts to bite, the only sustainable way to wean ourselves off oil-based farming is to re-discover intelligent “solar” farming, to draw inspiration from nature’s most efficient ecosystems – our forests.

What can we do at home and in our lives to make a difference?

We can all make changes in our daily lives – consuming differently, intelligently and less, recycling – the usual suspects, but what is most important is to build communities of likeminded people that can achieve large scale actions together. There are really inspiring examples from all over the world of ordinary people doing extraordinary things to prepare for those challenges. Voices of Transition was really meant as a sort of loud hailer and multiplying kit for some of these initiatives. The Transition Towns movement, for example, is a broad church that welcomes many different approaches. Everything from local power generation projects to community supported agriculture and repair cafés. Long story short, I would encourage people to start organizing themselves with neighbours and friends!

Filmed in Balcombe at the controversial Cuadrilla fracking site in West Sussex, Seize the Day’s ‘Frakka Hakka is premium grade creative activism.

www.nodashforgas.org.uk

The last ice age happened in 6 months. 6 months for the planet to unleash an army of apartment-building-size ice blocks across Europe and the United States. It was a climate tipping point where the balance is knocked completely out of control and threatens the survival of everything — and three more tipping points exactly like it are on the verge of happening.

It’s our “holy shit” climate moment according to a leading NASA scientist, and only a holy shit massive coordinated day of action response, right now, can change the future we’re facing.

One agreement with common sense steps to end dirty energy can save us. That’s why the UN has called an urgent climate meeting in just over 100 days with all major world leaders — if we greet them on September 20th with the largest ever global climate mobilisation in history we can break through the walls of mega coal, oil, and business that prevent even the best politicians from doing what is right.

There’s no way to get around how big a task this is. But together, each small action will add up into a millions-strong movement that literally drowns out the opposition and gives our leaders the best reason to break free and build a hopeful, clean and green future. Click below to join in:

https://secure.avaaz.org/en/join_to_change_everything/?bSJdoeb&v=41059 

“Tipping points” are feedback loops, where climate change feeds back on itself and causes rapidly accelerating, catastrophic consequences. Right now, methane gas that is 25 times worse for global warming than CO2 is frozen in our ice. But as the ice melts, the gas leaks, causing more melting and each melt loses us another layer of reflective ice shield that we rely on to keep the planet cool, more methane and less ice means more warming still, and everything starts to spin out of control. And that’s just one example… it’s why scientists are yelling from the rooftops that we have to act now.

We actually have the tools and the plan we need to make sure we don’t cross into a world where tipping points destroy us. And while it will take global cooperation on a bigger scale than ever before, our 36 million-strong movement already has the people power necessary to move leaders from every country to take the first steps. Just days ago, the United States and China announced serious new plans to curb their pollution — momentum is building ahead of next year’s critical Paris climate summit where a deal could be inked, and in just over 100 days we can take it up a notch further.

Taking to the streets on September 20th in a record setting show of power and coordination is one of the most effective ways to create change — from the anti-Apartheid movement in South Africa to civil rights in the US, it’s sometimes been the only way. This is our chance to bring that power to the most important issue of our time: survival and a thriving future for our families, and their families and the generations of people to come. Click below to be a part of it all:

https://secure.avaaz.org/en/join_to_change_everything/?bSJdoeb&v=41059 

We know we can do this… and do it big. When our community was just 3 million people we held 3,000 actions on the same day to protect our planet. We’re now 36 million strong, ten times the size! Imagine what we can achieve together now… 

With so much hope for our future, 

Emma, Iain, Lisa, Ricken, Alice, Emily, Sayeeda, Uilleam and the rest of the Avaaz team 

MORE INFORMATION

Global warming: it’s a point of no return in West Antarctica. What happens next? (The Guardian)
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/may/17/climate-change-antarctica-glaciers-melting-global-warming-nasa 

A Call to Arms: An Invitation to Demand Action on Climate Change (Rolling Stone)
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/a-call-to-arms-an-invitation-to-demand-action-on-climate-change-20140521 

Mini ice age took hold of Europe in months (New Scientist)
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20427344.800-mini-ice-age-took-hold-of-europe-in-months.html

Report: Prepare for climate tipping points (Politico)
http://www.politico.com/story/2013/12/national-research-council-report-climate-change-could-hit-tipping-points-environment-100615.html