We founded 350.org on the idea that all of our individual struggles to protect our planet, acheive environmental justice, and stop climate change were connected. Whether you’re working to stop the tar sands in Canada, protect the Amazon in Brazil, block a coal export facility in Australia, or promote distributed solar power in China, you’re part of a global movement. Climate change is the ultimate global issue, no matter where carbon dioxide goes in to the air it has the same warming effect on our atmosphere. And to solve it, we’re going to need the ultimate global movement.
That’s why it’s so exciting to see new films like Elemental connect the dots between different struggles around the globe.
Click here to watch a preview of the film.
Here’s a description of the film from its website:
Elemental tells the story of three individuals united by their deep connection with nature and driven to confront some of the most pressing ecological challenges of our time. The film follows Rajendra Singh, an Indian government official gone rogue, on a 40-day pilgrimage down India’s once pristine Ganges river, now polluted and dying. Facing community opposition and personal doubts, Singh works to shut down factories, halt construction of dams, and rouse the Indian public to treat their sacred “Mother Ganga” with respect. Across the globe in northern Canada, Eriel Deranger mounts her own “David and Goliath” struggle against the world’s largest industrial development, the Tar Sands, an oil deposit larger than the state of Florida. A young mother and native Denè, Deranger struggles with family challenges while campaigning tirelessly against the Tar Sands and its proposed 2,000-mile Keystone XL Pipeline, which are destroying Indigenous communities and threatening an entire continent.
And in Australia, inventor and entrepreneur Jay Harman searches for investors willing to risk millions on his conviction that nature’s own systems hold the key to our world’s ecological problems. Harman finds his inspiration in the natural world’s profound architecture and creates a revolutionary device that he believes can slow down global warming, but will it work?
Separated by continents yet sharing an unwavering commitment to protecting nature, the characters in this story are complex, flawed, postmodern heroes for whom stemming the tide of environmental destruction fades in and out of view – part mirage, part miracle.
You can purchase Elemental on iTunes or learn more about the film on its website.