This week I watched the documentary, “Deep Green,” written and produced by Matt Briggs. The documentary takes the position that global warming is real and global warming is serious but, “We can fix this.” Using a combination of animation shorts such as “The Krill is Gone” along with interviews of leading global warming influencers, the documentary says that if we don’t cut out carbon emissions between 80-90 percent in the next few years, it will be too late to reverse its course and well, we’re doomed.
The documentary travels to nine different countries including Germany, Sweden, China and the U.S. to take a look at actions taken to solve global warming. The film features green building projects, renewable energy technologies such as wind and solar and highlights energy efficiency strategies. Briggs interviewed several environmental “who’s who’s” including Lester Brown, the founder of the Earth Policy Institute; David Suzuki, Co-Founder of The David Suzuki Foundation; James Woolsey, former CIA Director and founding member of Set America Free Coalition; Michael Pollan, author of Omnivore’s Dilemma; and Amory Lovins, Co-founder, Chairman and Chief Scientist of the Rocky Mountain Institute.
The documentary was well done and beautifully produced and did an excellent job on intertwining commentary, with interviews, with animated shorts, and solutions. And Brigg’s solutions are not presented as once and done, a strategy often undertook. He continues to lay out solutions over, and over so that you walk away with some solid personal actions you can take to mitigate your own personal carbon footprint.
So what are some of these strategies?
- 1. Reforesting the world.
- 2. Supporting sustainable agriculture that does not depend on fossil fuels.
- 3. Lifestyle changes like unplugging vampire electronics.
- 4. Telecommuting.
- 5. Working without motors.
- 6. Eating less meat.
- 7. Purchasing maximum energy efficient appliances and electronics.
- 8. Integrate green building technologies.
- 9. Live locally.
- 10. Use renewable transportation.
- 11. Convert to 100 percent renewable or truly clean energy in the next few years.
- 12. Empower politicians to make the best equitable laws for long-term environmental and economic health.
While these are all worthwhile goals, I believe some of them are a bit lofty and unrealistic. But if what many of the experts say is true, especially Amory Lovins who has been preaching for more than a decade that going green will make you money, just adopting some of the solutions or part of the solutions, should help you save money and along the way, you’ll be helping the environment also. That can’t be a bad thing even if global warming turns out to be a bit overblown.
However, at the end of the day, if you don’t buy into the theory that global warming is going to wreck havoc on our lives, the movie will not convince you – nothing probably will. But if you are personally willing to make a commitment to reduce your carbon footprint, than this movie will definitely help get you on your way.