Documentaries to Watch

Carbon Nation, an 80 minute documentary with cute, poppy graphics, highlights a few American businesses that are leading the charge against climate change. The idea is that if going green can be shown to be lucrative, then society will follow. The filmmakers propose several thoughtful ideas that would help create jobs and decrease dependency on fossil fuels:

1. After showing a successful wind farm in Roscoe, Texas, the filmmakers suggest that our empty automobile factories could be converted to wind turbine factories. 
2. The documentary highlights Dan Nolan's energy efficiency task movement, which uses foam insulation to decrease air-conditioning in military tent installations in the dessert, and looks to the future, when the Department of Defense may use wind turbines and solar power to create self-powering domes so that soldiers don't have to risk their lives to transport oil to the front lines. Some believe if the military adopts this technology, the research will help make its use cheaper and more acceptable to civilians.
3. Now some drivers are using external power units to reduce idling in long-haul trucking. The filmmakers believe universal implementation would reduce carbon emissions by 11 million tons/year and save 1 billion gallons of fuel per year.
4. Algae ponds in Anthony, TX. Just one acre can produce 5,000 gal of oil, which may be used to create airplane fuel. Though expensive now, it could be viable with more research and use.
5. A new industry is cropping up around energy efficient buildings. Between retrofitting old and building better new ones, the filmmakers think we could use up to a third less energy as a result. This also creates many new US jobs because buildings can't be shipped to foreign nations for this service.
6. Feeding the electricity from an electric hybrid back into the electric grid for high-use days. This way, we can actually store extra electricity instead of creating large power plants designed for peak periods.

Check out Carbon Nation for more surprising, creative ways people are making money while saving the world. It's available on Netflix.




Other recommended films:

• Dive! Living Off America's Waste, a radical approach to fighting food waste. It'll change your view of trash.
• Blue Gold: World Water Wars, a scary look at our water supply. Are you ok with foreign companies owning your city's water utilities?
• 10 MPH.  The scooters are not fast, exciting, or cool, but they are electric and they did make it all the way across the country. Will they ever catch on?