Posts filed under ‘What is Sustainability?’
How to Reverse Climate Change by Greening the Worlds deserts
In this March 3, 2013 TED talk, Allan Savory proposes that most global climate change is due, much more than from use of fossil fuels, to grasslands becoming deserts in over half of the land mass of the world. But, he also shows how, contrary to our preconceptioins, grazing animals can, and are actually restore the deserts back to grasslands.
“Changing Tides,” A Film on Hawaii’s Marine Debris Issues, Premiers at the 2012 Maui Film Festival
The Sustainable Living Institute of Maui (SLIM), Positive H2O (+H2O) and Surfrider Foundation teamed up with award winning filmmaker Danny Miller to produce the new documentary, CHANGING TIDES. This 15 minute film was officially selected for the 2012 Maui Film Festival. It was 100% filmed in Hawaii, yet it brings the issue of oceanic garbage into a global dialogue, where ideas are formed and solutions proposed. Click here for a link to the trailer.
The engaging story is told through the eyes of Hawaiian kapuna, professional watermen, scientists, and volunteers who share their passion for the ocean and what they are doing to protect it. Their stories bring us an in-depth look at oceanic garbage in the Pacific, and what it means for residents of Hawai’i and other Pacific islands impacted by the waste. CHANGING TIDES dispels the myths and demonstrates the real dangers of the Northern Pacific Gyre and provides solutions that individuals can take to decrease their plastic footprint.
The film will be shown at the Maui Arts and Cultural Center on June 16 at 4:00. Positive H2O and Surfrider will be holding a beach cleanup at Launiupoko Beach from 9-12 with a free lunch from Lulu’s afterwards. Bring your boards to enjoy our clean water playground after the cleanup. SLIM, +H2O, and Surfrider invite the Maui community to join us for the clean-up and lunch at Launiupoko, and at the MACC that evening to see our film, Changing Tides.
Changing Tides trailer
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse Speech to Congress on Climate Change
Bioneers 3.0
Visionary Bioneers founder Kenny Ausubel paints a very lucid picture of the humanity-wide risks we face, what will be required to solve the problems and the history of the Bioneers contribution to the solutions.
24 Hours of Climate Realty: Al Gore, Hour 24: New York
Presented on September 14 and 15, spanning 24 hours, 24 time zones and multiple languages, 24 Hours of Reality features a new multimedia presentation about climate change created by Vice President Gore and delivered by an army of personally trained slide show presenters from around the world. Beginning in Mexico City and proceeding westward around the globe, 24 Hours of Reality offers a round-the-clock snapshot of the global climate crisis in real time, sharing unique perspectives on the crisis from Tonga to Cape Verde, Mexico City to Kotzebue, Alaska, Jakarta to London. With one event scheduled in each time zone at 7 p.m. local time, the entire 24 hours was streamed live online from start to finish, and culminated in this final ‘Hour 24’ presentation by Vice President Gore in New York at 7 pm.
Mayor seeks to give more attention to sustainability
Maui Mayor Alan Arakawa said Monday that Maui County should create a new division to focus on sustainability issues, and that adding “sustainability” to the Department of Environmental Management was one of his top priorities for charter amendments.
Have Corporations Hijacked the Word Sustainable?
Sustainable is defined as “capable of being maintained at a steady level without exhausting natural resources or causing severe ecological damage.” But lately, some are trying to redefine the term to their own advantage.
Read the full AlterNet article.
Film Festival—Free “Green” Films
“Green” Film Series: 8 p.m—June 20—SandDance Theater on Wailea Beach.
The film will screen as part of a that includes the feature film Dirt: The Movie. Admission to the screening is free.
Free showing of:
• SUSTAINABLE LIVING 101: Looking to Maui’s Past to Inform a Sustainable Future
a SLIM documentary short premiering at this year’s 2009 Maui Film Festival.
• DIRT!
The Movie tells the story of humans trying to re-connect to Dirt – the living skin of the earth. For thousands of years we humans got along very well with this magical matrix of all life on land. Then we grew apart. DIRT! The Movie explores how we can restore and repair this broken relationship… before it’s too late.
Sustainable Living 101 addresses the urgency for addressing Maui’s most critical sustainability challenges and also raises the awareness of community initiatives currently underway. Featured initiatives range from locally based projects in the fields of sustainable agriculture, watershed restoration, renewable energy, and green building.
Sustainable Living 101 is a documentary short focused on raising awareness within the Maui Community and beyond of the urgency for addressing sustainability challenges at the local level. Several Maui based initiatives addressing local sustainability concerns are highlighted and their champions interviewed. This documentary short places special emphasis on approaching challenges by blending both modern and traditional technologies and practices. Local food sustainability, education and community empowerment are featured topics.
The film was produced by The Sustainable Living Institute of Maui (SLIM) and University of Hawaii- Maui Community College (UH-Maui CC),
SLIM Executive Director Alex De Roode states, “In raising people’s awareness about projects already underway to address sustainability challenges within our own communities and informing them about how they can become involved in these efforts, our hope is to empower communities to create the reality they envision for themselves and to promote positive and meaningful change.”
Sustainability 101 was made possible by a grant from the Hawaii Community Foundation-Pikake Fund. The film is a collaborative project between SLIM ‘s Alex de Roode, veteran film maker Danny Miller and writer Janet Six of UH-Maui CC. SLIM is currently seeking support expand Sustainability 101 into a feature length documentary that explores sustainability within a Maui Island context.
Ecology Action
Ecology Action is a Santa Cruz, CA nonprofit environmental consultancy delivering cutting edge education services, technical assistance, and program implementation for initiatives that assist individuals, business and government to maximize environmental quality and community well being.
Since 1970 Ecology Action has combined municipal, foundation, and private funding to establish cutting-edge conservation programs, prove their effectiveness financially and operationally, and establish each program as a permanent community resource.
They seek innovative ways to instill environmental awareness, promote pragmatic change, and create opportunities for individuals, businesses, and community agencies to save money, create jobs, and contribute to a sustainable local economy.
Browse some of their current programs:
Focus Green Lectures now on Video
The January and February 2009 Focus Green lectures are now available at YouTube.
South Maui Sustainability 