Crazy Radical Environmental Fruit-Nuts

In the past month or so I’ve watched two very intriguing documentaries about environmental activists who go to prison for their actions. Readers of this blog know I advocate for nonviolent social action, and I just want to highlight that again in the context of these two films.

The first is If A Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front (PBS, film website, Wikipedia, IMDB, DemocracyNow!) which follows the story of Daniel McGowan. As a member of the ELF, McGowan had participated in arson as a tactic for social and environmental change. The film simultaneously tells the ELF’s story and follows court proceedings against McGowan.

If a Tree Falls is compelling story-telling. It is a provocative look at the sociological, psychological, and political factors that radicalized the local environmental activist community. I appreciated that the filmmakers allowed the activists and the law enforcement personnel to be complex; they weren’t dumbed down to one-dimensional caricatures. These are complex issues with complex actors, and I value that this messiness was allowed to come through.

More recently, I watched Bidder 70, which looks at the actions of Tim DeChristopher relating to conservation and climate change (film website, organization, Facebook, IMBD, Peaceful Uprising). Rather than take a violent or destructive approach like McGowan, DeChristopher interfered with an auction of extraction rights by holding up his bidding number, 70.

I have a deep respect for people who find creative and meaningful ways to live our their values. I respect even more those who dedicate themselves to pursuing this integration of values and living in peaceful or nonviolent ways.

Reflection Questions

1. Am I as committed to my values as these two young men are?
2. To what degree have I integrated my values and actions? What holds me back from doing this more fully?
3. What sacrifices am I willing to make to live what I believe and to promote my values?
4. What role did community play in the lives of these two men? How did community influence them before, during and after the actions noted in these films?
5. In the area of environmental activism, what is needed today? What issues, strategies and tactics are most important at this stage in world history?

BONUS

Want to find more films that address some of these same themes? Check out the follow twelve films on protest and social action:

1. Encounter Point (2006, documentary)
2. Budrus (2009, documentary)
3. 5 Broken Cameras (2011, documentary)
4. The Singing Revolution (2006, documentary)
5. This Is What Democracy Looks Like (2000, documentary)
6. Pray the Devil Back to Hell (2008, documentary)
7. Rage Against the Machine: Revolution in the Head and the Art of Protest (2010, documentary)
8. 180 South (2010, documentary)
9. A Force More Powerful (1999, documentary)
10. The Edukators (2004, movie)
11. Sophie Scholl: The Final Days (2004, movie)
12. Amazing Grace (2006, movie)

Friday Web Round-up

Today’s list is shorter than usual. I’ve been distracted with other things.

• Thumpers. Bill O’Reilly is right: Conservatives should stop thumping the Bible to justify their views on gay marriage—or anything else. (William Saletan, Slate)
• Sex Trafficking: High Tech’s Humanitarian Revolt Against the Johns (Rebecca Iliff, Huffington Post)
• The poor and democracy (Mahendra Lawoti, eKantipur)
• Woody Harrelson ‘Ethos’
• DocumentaryTube.com
• Is that enough money to still call it Owlcatraz? (Sports Illustrated)
• SOA Watch Delegation to El Salvador (SOA Watch)

News Round-up

Religion

• Religions for Peace

Education

• Zinn Education Project
• Justice with Michael Sandel (Harvardx)

Politics

• Waking From My Moral Coma (William Rivers Pitt, Truth Out)

Environment

• Students for Climate Justice: We’re Not a Single-Issue Movement (Lauren Ressler, Sachie Hopkins-Hayakawa & Sally Bunner, Yes!)
• Tar Sands Resistance Escalates in Massachusetts (Chris Longenecker, Truth Out)

Food

• Guerilla Gardeners In South Central LA (Prana, TED)
• The Himalayan Stove Project (George Basch, Live Better Magazine)
• Day Eleven Photo Report: The March for Rights, Respect, and Fair Food reaches Tampa! (CIW)
• 7 must-see movies from the D.C. Environmental Film Festival (Melissa Breyer, MNN)

War +Violence + Peace

• Teaching Men Not to Rape: Survivor Zerlina Maxwell Defies Threats After Speaking Out on Fox News (DemocracyNow!)
• Two enemies discover a ‘higher call’ in battle (John Blake, CNN)
• An Open Letter to Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel: A 10-Point Plan (Veterans for Peace)
• Why the truth about ‘Zero Dark Thirty’ matters (Linda J. Gustitus, The Hill)
• On the Obfuscation of the Sources of Violence or, How to Blame the Victim (Paolo Freire, Do Justice Love Mercy)
• Rachel Corrie

Business  Ethics

• Building A Cell Phone That Doesn’t Kill People (Ben Schiller, Fast Company)

World

• Why Chavez and the Bolivarian Revolution matter to Africa (Hakima Abbas, Aljazeera)

SEE ALSO:

• List–Living Well
• List–Christian Social Ethics

Related Documentaries

Tonight I finished watching Nobelity (2006, site 1, site 2), which features a series of interviews with Amartya Sen, Wangari Muta Maathai, Desmond Tutu, Jody Williams and other Nobel winners. Topics covered include health, energy, peace, war, culture, religion, the environment, over-population and hunger. This diversity of topics keeps the film moving, but it also means that no topic can be addressed in depth. The final consideration of love and family was especially meaningful to me. I believe this is a critical theme–we’re all in this together; we’re all interdependent.

Two other films that compliment Nobelity are I Am and The End of Poverty?

Ashoka: Beyond Corporate Social Responsibility

While watching Beyond Corporate Social Responsibility today from Netflix, these two unrelated quotes stood out to me:

Time & Imagination (13:07)

In 1997, I and my wife, Mara, Decided to take a sabbatical. A year of learning, of traveling, of doing nothing…. At the end of this year…an idea came to create in Brazil Instituto Ethos for business and social responsibility. In fact, practically all the initiatives I’ve taken that have resulted in creating new endeavors, new organizations happened at times of doing absolutely nothing. One of the great risks today, with the issue of stress, with people not having time for themselves, with their full schedules, is that they don’t leave room in their minds. They don’t leave room for their imagination, for their creativity, for anything new to happen. It is essential for anyone who really wants to undertake new things and think about the meaning of things to leave room in their time, in their schedule, so that new things can come.

Personal Responsibility (43:55)

Whenever anyone says that the problem is too big to be solved by each one of us, that he feels to small and weak to change the world, I always say, “It doesn’t matter if you will be able to do those things, if they will have any consequence on the world. It is important that you do your part.” It is important that you do everything that must be done in your beliefs, because everything you do will reflect on future generations and will reflect on your children. And it’s awful if one day your child should come to you and say, “You knew the world was in danger. You knew the environment was being destroyed. You knew about social conditions. Why didn’t you do your part?” So it is very important to build an honorable life, a dignified life, and try to do things. Because one day you will have to evaluate your life, and when you have a positive balance, there is no better gratification.

The Interrupters

The documentary The Interrupters is both deeply moving and troubling to me. It looks at the work of street leaders in Chicago who are putting their lives on the line to interrupt violence in their neighborhoods. While the interrupters do meet as a group and do intervene in group situations, the one-on-one conversations and the personal relationships developed by the interrupters stand out as the most powerful locations of change.

I will never have street cred in Chicago. I will never speak peace on those corners. But who can I reach out to in my own sphere of influence? Who needs me in my neighborhood or apartment complex? How can I be a peacemaker and a mentor here? Those are the questions the film raises for me.

Recommended Reading (and viewing)

Here is your reading assignment for today:

Environment & Health:

• Humans Have Been Responsible for Greenhouse Gases Since the Roman Empire
• Russia Bans Monsanto’s GMO Corn
• Yvon Chouinard & Vincent Stanley at Yale
• Teetering on the Edge
• 10 green retro activities making a comeback
• Russia’s small-scale organic agriculture model may hold the key to feeding the world
• Hotter than Paul Ryan
• Monsanto Roundup weedkiller and GM maize implicated in ‘shocking’ new cancer study
• Germ killer in hand soap may weaken muscles
• Gus Speth: ‘Ultimate insider’ goes radical
• The Terrible Tragedy of the Healthy Eater
• Remembering Russell Train
• Steph Davis: Vegan Rockstar

Society & Culture & Life & Activism & Stuff:

• Dole wants corporations to get away with murder. Literally.
• How to Help End Human Trafficking
• Inner City Adventist Family Shows Real Courage in the Face of Tragedy
• Is the bus “cool”? This ad sure is!
• Opinion: Kate’s breasts, Pussy Riot, virginity tests and our attitude on women’s bodies
• Who Taught You to Fear?
• Take a stand against mental illness discrimination with this great PSA
• Young Persons Called to Private Grand Jury for Owning Books
• Pussy Riot’s Lawyers: In Jail, Rape Is Only the Least of the Dangers

Off-center Religion and Politics and Government:

• The Long Journey of a Christian Pacifist
• Getting Beyond Presidential Politics
• Barry Bussey’s Critical Question
• TRUST: On Mission and Chavez
• Staying “On Message” for Jesus
• Pussy Riot and the Temple Incident
• Ignorance and Apathy: A Reflection on Social Justice in the Church
• Should I Help the Empire with My Hand?
• Caring for the Poor is Government’s Biblical Role

Coffee:

• Why does coffee never taste as good as it smells?
• Caffeine: The Silent Killer of Emotional Intelligence
• Top 10 tips to alkalize your body and detox naturally

Prana’s Wisdom:

• 12 Things Happy People Do Differently
• Handbook For Life 2012.2
• 50 Yoga Poses To Cure Any Problem

Economics:

• Poverty Tourism Taxonomy 2.0
• No Recession Here! – U.S. Arms Sales Set Global Record
• What Does it Mean to Be Poor? [related to next link]
• Should Anything Be Done To Integrate Schools?
• Who Is The Smallest Government Spender Since Eisenhower? Would You Believe It’s Barack Obama?
• Journalist Evaluates Obama, Romney Economic Plans
• How big is our big deficit?
• COALITION OF SOCIALLY RESPONSIBLE INVESTORS URGE HOUSE LEADERS TO ACT ON BUSINESS TRANSPARENCY ON HUMAN TRAFFICKING BILL

Selected Canadian Views on US Politics and Economy:

• Hardheaded Socialism Makes Canada Richer Than U.S.
• U.S. election campaign enters ‘Dali phase’

Against Democrats:

• Democrats Retreat on Civil Liberties in 2012 Platform
• Obama Trade Document Leaked, Revealing New Corporate Powers And Broken Campaign Promises
• Secret ‘Kill List’ Proves a Test of Obama’s Principles and Will
• We Won—for Now
• John Cusack & Jonathan Turley on Obama’s Constitution
• Hope and Change 2 – The Party of Inclusion

Against Republicans:

• The Geography of Nope
• SECRET VIDEO: Romney Tells Millionaire Donors What He REALLY Thinks of Obama Voters
• Unpopular Mandate
• Everything you know about Paul Ryan’s budget is (probably) wrong
• Romney Vows Immediate Approval of Keystone XL on First Day in White House
• Women’s Issues Once Had GOP Support, Democratic Lawmakers Say
• Ron Sider on the Proposed Republican Budget
• Romney’s Death Squad Ties
• Tutu demands Hague trial for Bush‚ Blair

What’s an Independent to Do?

• Why vote? When your vote counts for nothing
• Electing Not to Vote

Random bits for the unemployed:

• Bible Versus for Job Seekers and Career Transitions
• #152 Being Embarrassed About Their IKEA Furniture
• Belt Shelves

BONUS 1: Three Classic Articles on Christian Social Ethics

• I believe in… (Peter Rollins)
• The state is still the state (David C)
• Christian nonviolence (Walter Wink)
  

BONUS 2: I AM

On Health and Healing

The story of Bhava Ram learning to get up and find new life is inspiring to me. It reminds me of these three documentaries:

CRAZY, SEXY CANCER (2007)

MAY I BE FRANK (2010)

FAT, SICK & NEARLY DEAD (2011)

Watch this third one for free on Hulu.

Thoughtful Bits on a Screen

In the past week or so, I’ve watched the following:

(1) Budrus. “The film is about non-violent demonstrations conducted by the residents of Budrus (a Palestinian town in the Ramallah and al-Bireh Governorate) during the early 2000s to protest against the building of the Israeli West Bank barrier inside of the village” (Wiki).

(2) No Impact Man. “The film, which premiered September 4, 2009, follows Colin Beavan and his family during their year-long experiment to have sustainable zero impact on the environment” (Wiki).

(3) Finding Your Roots — Samuel L. Jackson, Condoleezza Rice, and Ruth Simmons. “The ancestral pasts of actor Samuel L. Jackson, former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and Brown University President Ruth Simmons.” My wife thinks there’s a chance I’m related to one of the three. You can infer how that would work.

Peak Oil & New Urbanism

These three documentaries on Peak Oil have interested me:

The Power of Community (2006, trailer, Wiki). This looks at the economic crisis in Cuba following the break-up of the Soviet Union, which significantly reduced Cuba’s access to cheap oil. The way food production, transportation, education and other sectors adapted is telling. Cuba is said to be a test case for global peak oil. I appreciated the focus on local food production/permaculture.

A Crude Awakening (2006, trailer, Wiki). General description of Peak Oil and the potential ramifications of passing the peak.

The End of Suburbia (2004, trailer, Wiki). I like the first two films better, but this one made more obvious the reason people are pushing for fracking today–dwindling natural gas accessible via traditional approaches of extraction. All three films demonstrate why there is pressure to build the XL pipeline. One thing I appreciated about this film was its consideration of new urbanism (Wiki), though they admit it could be too little too late. A documentary I value on new urbanism is A Convenient Truth (Curitiba, Brazil, 2006, trailer, IMDB).

I have not watched the 2007 follow-up, Escape from Suburbia, which received mixed reviews (pro, con, Netflix).