Culture and Coexistence into the Great Unknown
Huge new hydroelectric dam projects now underway call for damming pristine rivers and flooding virgin rainforest, home of the Ngäbe People. The Panamanian government deems it vital for economic growth, with multinational corporations cashing in. Even the UN has awarded carbon credits predicated on “sustainably” produced energy.
A documentary from David Fedele allows Papua New Guinean villagers to tell their own story of broken promises and destruction from Malaysian companies logging of their forests.
REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) purports to combat global warming by saving rainforests, but without reducing greenhouse gas emissions, nor putting the capitalist system and its excesses—the real causes of environmental disaster—on the table.
The COP17 climate meeting in Durban, South Africa, is themed “Saving Tomorrow Today.” The environmental impact of hydroelectric dams in Africa and beyond places tomorrow’s ecosystem sustainability at risk.
Guatemala’s former President Pérez Molina, accused of being an intellectual and material author of torture, disappearances, executions, massacres and indeed genocide. He ended up resigning for corruption charges three years later.
The controversial Belo Monte dam, operational in 2016 and the world’s third biggest, was forced on the people of Altamira, Pará state, and is now believed to have been built largely as payback to Brazil’s construction industry by the nation’s then ruling Workers’ Party for campaign contributions received.
Inuit communities, elders and hunters, speak regarding social and ecological impacts of a warming Arctic and their conception of poles shifting, winds different, stars unrecognized. A Labrador Inuit Aurora Borealis myth illuminates their traditional connection with the stars.