Wild & Scenic

Columbia College hosted the Wild & Scenic Environmental Film Festival, a traveling festival that included 6 hours of films from the annual festival in Nevada City. We went last night but didn't make it through all the movies which lasted until after 11pm. However, we did see 6 incredible films--revealing and thought provoking, sometimes amusing and very often including spectacular photography.

I was looking forward to one called "Pollen Nation" which talks about the beekeepers and their importance to the agricultural industry. The folks who cart bees around the country to keep our food growing are an interesting lot.

Probably the best segment was "The Story of Stuff," an eye-opening film about the real costs of our consumer driven culture. Juxtaposed as it was to an email message Culley sent with a link to an article by Pat Buchanan, I was slinking down in my chair feeling like a real sleaze. Buchanan and Annie Leonard, the producer of the film, each point a firm finger at my generation--"the baby boomers, oblivious and self-indulgent to the end"--as being particularly responsible for the mess.

Between the economic crisis and the environmental crisis, it's hard to not feel depressed and a tad bit hopeless.

Thank goodness on the way home Cindy was able to point out a few minor ways we have personally changed our ways, e.g. no more credit card use, recycling everything possible and participating in free-cycle, and shopping for work clothes at the consignment shop.

Just to feel like the festival motivated another change, when I got home I dug out our cloth bags for grocery shopping. I also think I might volunteer to do some writing for the Citizens for Responsible Growth. The only way I can see to effect change is to start locally!!