William Kamkwamba

                                                                                          

Can films change the world? No, films can’t change the world. But the people who watch them can. 


What is Pangea Day?
Pangea Day was the world’s largest global film event that took place on May 10, 2008. The cities of Cairo, Kigali, London, Los Angeles, Mumbai, and Rio de Janeiro were all linked to produce a live 4-hour program of powerful films, visionary speakers, and uplifting music.

Pangea Day was created as a worldwide cinema event with programming that highlighted the themes of unity, the common ties that bind us into a global culture. In a world where people are often divided, it's easy to lose sight of what we all have in common. Pangea Day seeks to overcome that - to help people see themselves in others - through the power of film. Pangea Day taps the power of film to strengthen tolerance and compassion, uniting millions of people to build a better future. The goal is to invite the viewers of these films to join a global conversation about the issues that affect us all.

Pangea refers to the supercontinent from which all current continents eventually separated. It serves as a reminder of the "connectedness" or unitary nature of all people on Planet Earth.


I only got to watch a little over an hour of Pangea Day live on May 10th, and I have been watching the rest of the films and speakers a little each day. If you want to treat yourself to something special then take the time to watch this inspiring event on the internet.

If you only have time to watch one film, then watch the award winning and very inspiring film Moving Windmills. This is a very short film about a 14 year old boy, William Kamkwamba who lives in a remote rural village in Malawi where they have no electricity. William saw a picture of a windmill in a textbook and decided to build one to power his family's home. Using found materials and scrap yard parts such as a broken bicycle, tractor fan, melted plastic pipes, bamboo and used copper wires, he built a series of windmills which would change his and his family's life.

You can watch the full Pagean Day program HERE, or just watch the films HERE.

ABC News takes a look inside the Panea Day Festival.

Enjoy!  Be Inspired!  Be Enlightened!

Bank of America supports the Brighter Planet Visa Card. very $1,000 spent in purchases with the card earns 1,000 points♦ that will fund an estimated 1 ton of carbon offsets—that’s roughly equivalent to taking a car off the road for 2,000 miles or powering and heating/cooling your home for a month!

READ MORE

 

If you liked the 11th hour, or agreed with it's points of discussion anyway.. Watch these features too!

 

- An inconvenient truth

- The future of food

- What the bleep do we know?

- What the bleep, down the rabbit hole...

- Into the wild   (incl. Motion Picture Soundtrack!)

I also see lots of interesting stuff on Discovery, Animal Planet and National Geographic.

F.E...

- Life after man (discovery docufilm)

(Read this article http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/life-after-man-a-vision-of-the-future-459573.html)

I'm not sure about you other 11th Hour Actioners, but I get a lot of credit card offers in the mail. Not only do the pose risks of identity theft if not shredded before thrown out, but they waste a lot of paper!

Let's face it. If you need a credit card, you can go looking for one. There's no reason to be recieving offers in the mail weekly just to be thrown out.

The good news is you can opt-out of receiving credit card offers for 5 years at www.optoutprescreen.com. After completing the form, your name will be removed from the lists that Equifax, Experian, Innovis and TransUnion provide to businesses for making you credit card offers.

Despite them asking for your SSN and date of birth, the website is completely safe and your information is protected. Here's how to do it:

visit www.optoutprescreen.com

click on the bottom button that reads "Click here to Opt-In or Opt-Out".

They will give you three options: Opt-In if you want to start receiving credit card offers, electronic opt-out for 5 years, or permanent opt out by mail. If you want to permanently opt-out, please do! I don't have any stamps on hand so I just did the 5 year electronic option.

Fill out the form with your information. It will be processed in 5 days and you will start to see less and less credit card offers in your mailbox, and save more and more paper! I just completed the form, so I'll let you know if I notice a difference!

Do it now. It takes two seconds and makes a positive difference in our paper consumption!

Waste Less.

Emily O.

11th Hour Action Intern 

 

I would like to make make a group of taken action for my country. Im from Uruguay and I think that as far as there's no one there we could join and take action with a group. If someone knows how to do it please contact me!

ARE YOU AN ECODAREDEVIL? 11th Hour Expert, J. Nichols awards the most courageous Eco-warrior at Duke this Earth Day. Read his keynote speech here:

"In the 1970’s, I idolized Evel Knievel. He was rock star, sports hero, and folk legend in one. His death-defying jumps inspired me to launch my bicycle over puddles and many a hapless friend.

Now, I find new inspiration in my childhood hero. In 1961, before he became “Evel,” Robert Craig Knievel hitchhiked with the rack of a bull elk from Montana to our nation’s capital to protest the culling of elk in Yellowstone. The Kennedy administration responded and countless elk were saved.

READ MORE

Earth Day is an excellent time to reevaluate what you can do to further reduce your human footprint on Planet Earth. This year I noticed all the unsolicited things that enter my home that I do not want or need, and are just a big nuisance and a drain of resources. I realized the three biggest culprits are phone directories, magazines, and credit card offers.  

Today, I called and opted out of all the phone directory delivery lists. I receive at least six different phone books a year. When they are delivered we just throw them in our front closet and never use them since we go online if we need a phone number. Unfortunately, for me, it was "out of sight, out of mind.’" Well, no more.

Next, I called and opted out of all unsolicited magazine deliveries. I had our name taken off free community magazines that I never read and just throw in the magazine rack in a bedroom we use for out of town guests. Then I got our names off of real estate related magazines and publications we receive because my husband and I are in real estate. All these publications once again can be read online, so we don’t need a print copy to get the information. The double whammy is that we both receive copies, since we both hold active real estate licenses.

Lastly, I opted out of credit card propositions. It is insane all the credit-card offers we receive in the mail. Well, thank goodness, the credit card bureaus have set up a service to stop these offers called “opting out.” You call 1-888-5-opt-out or visit www.optoutprescreen.com and provide some information. Once you opt out, your name is removed from credit offer lists and the bureaus hide your file from companies that offer pre-approved credit for five years. This is unnecessary junk mail you can have stopped immediately.

The one thing I opted in to do for Earth Day was attend yesterday a talk given by Diane MacEachern, the author of the Big Green Purse. The talk was hosted by the Arizona League of Conservation Voters and was held at the beautiful Desert Botanical Gardens in Phoenix. Diane talked about the importance of shifting money we already spend to environmentally-safe, socially responsible products and services that would help protect the environment. She has started a Be One In a Million campaign. With this campaign if a million women intentionally shift at least $1000 of their existing budget to environmentally-friendly products, we can have a noticeable ONE BILLION DOLLAR IMPACT in the marketplace. I signed up this morning.

Art Changing Attitudes Towards the Environment


The Field Museum in Chicago is the first American venue to host Melting Ice / A Hot Topic, after stops in Oslo, Brussels, and Monaco. The Field Museum is pleased to bring this traveling exhibition to Chicago, marking its involvement in the joint efforts focused on the role of art in changing behavior in order to help safeguard the environment. The exhibit launches on April 18th in honor of Earth Day 2008 and will remain at the Field Museum through September 1st.


About the Exhibit
For UN World Environment Day 2007, the Natural World Museum in partnership with the United Nations Environment Programme produced an exhibition that addresses the theme of Climate Change from a global perspective - the melting and thawing of ice, snow and permafrost are environment-altering changes taking place around the world- from the Andes to the Himalayas to the melting ice caps of the Poles. "Change" the transition that occurs from same to different, the moment of transformation, a change of position or action. Change used in reference to our environment can describe the transformation of material substance -- from ice to water, liquid to gas - the changing conditions of our rivers, our rapidly melting glaciers,, and the overall changes in the earth's climate. Change requires organisms and organizations alike to adapt to new environmental conditions. Metaphorically, change can also refer to the transformation of society's mindset to act in a positive way individually and collectively to work toward a more sustainable future.

Read more about this art exhibit and view select images of the artists’ work HERE

 

Activist star warns of a Titanic ending if the world doesn't act.

Leonardo DiCaprio might be best known to his Hong Kong fans for his role in Titanic, but yesterday, on a whirlwind tour of the city to promote his award-winning environmental documentary The 11th Hour, he was thinking about a different kind of sinking ship.

Leonardo talks about The 11th Hour, and explains why urgent action is needed to put the world on a green footing. Watch video HERE

Source: South China Morning Post

Wow! Busy Man. I think it is great that Leonardo took time out of his busy schedule to make a personal appearance in China to promote The 11th Hour and deliver this very important message.

I visited Hong Kong about 15 years ago, and I have to admit that I thought the Hong Kong skyline was spectacular. Now, I just see a lot of light pollution.

                 Leo and Knut Just Chillin’ 

I was reading a Leonardo DiCaprio interview that was featured today on The Daily Green website, which reminded me that last week I had entered a Photo Caption Contest on Ecorazzi. The contest involved writing a caption to go along with the above photo of Leo and Knut. For those of you who may not know, this picture appeared on the cover of the May 2007 Green issue of Vanity Fair magazine. This Green issue featured Global Citizens, and Leo was named The Man of the Hour for all his environmental activism.

I admit there are days that I have WAY TOO MUCH time on my hands, LOL, but I always find interesting ways of filling up my free time instead of spending that time shopping for things I don’t need. So I spent some of my free time racking my brain coming up with captions for the photo. I came up with a several different captions, and tried to tie in what was said in the The 11th Hour to the picture. I decided to submit the shortest caption that I wrote instead of my favorite one.

The winner receives a copy of The Green Book, The Everyday Guide to Saving the Planet One Simple Step at a Time, which includes a forward by Cameron Diaz and 11th Hour film expert, William McDonough. I did not enter the contest to win the book, because I already own a copy.

I just checked over at Ecorazzi and they have not yet picked a winner, so there is still time to submit an entry if you wish.

Here is the caption I submitted. I was trying to use the two different definitions for the word ‘brink.’ (1) verge of something crucial: the crucial point in a situation, (2) edge of something: the very edge of something such as a steep drop or riverbank.

KNUT: So, we find ourselves on the brink. YES! The brink of melting ice.

Here are the OTHER captions I thought of submitting.

KNUT: The first thing you can do to ‘Turn Mankind’s Darkest Hour into Its Finest’ is
HELP get me designated as a threatened species.

KNUT: Hey Leo, it looks like you face a convergence of crises. The crises being that you are standing on a piece of melting Artic sea ice, and your boat has gone and left you here.

KNUT: The evidence is now clear…The water is freezing and you look a little temperature sensitive.

KNUT: Some may still deny that we are at an environmental age, but no one can deny that I am at a CUTE age.

KNUT: Leo, it must be NICE being named Vanity Fair’s “Man of the Hour” for all your environmental activism. How do you think I feel being named the unfortunate Poster Child for global warming?

KNUT: I hear that The 11th Hour is a story about how humans face an extinction crisis if you continue on the path of business as usual. On second thought, maybe one of you humans should be the poster child for the potential ravages of future global warming.
.
KNUT: Look at me, I’m adorable. How can the Bush administration not have the heart to list me as a threatened species?

KNUT: Maybe the Bush administration is confused. Polar bears are a threatened species, not a threatening species

KNUT: You humans should Consume Less, Live More. But for us polar bears, if we CONSUME any LESS food, we will not be LIVING much MORE.

KNUT: Nice Jacket you have on Leo. I love that it’s an environmentally friendly blend of organic hemp and recycled polyester.

KNUT: Leo, will your pivotal generation create a sustainable world in time for me to celebrate my 1st Birthday? I sure hope so, there’s going to be cake!

KNUT: I may be a registered trademark and the center of a mass media phenomenon, but the HOPE is YOU.

LEO: It’s not just the 11th hour, but it is 11:59 and 59 seconds.
KNUT: Hopefully the alarm clock will go off soon and wake up all the sleeping humans.

LEO: It’s an exciting time to be alive because this generation gets to completely change this world.
KNUT: Yes, change the world, but keep the chocolate.


Here are a few I thought of just for laughs that are really silly.

KNUT: Can you get Scorsese to give me a part in his next movie?

KNUT: What is it with you and icebergs?

KNUT: There’s something about you that gives me a ‘Sinking’ feeling in my stomach.

KNUT: Heck, you thought Leo-mania was big, that’s nothing compared to the huge phenomenon that is Knut-mania. 

 See, I wasn’t lying when I said I have way too much free time.