Three documentaries to gladden the anti-war environmentalist’s heart…

1.  The Gatekeepers.  The retired leaders of Shin Bet (the Israeli FBI/CIA) agree–it’s time to craft peace with the Palestinians.  Old men who have made war tend to have regrets.  Too late, of course.  But this film could affect the present situation, if the Israelis would only take it in.  Their major spooks believe the current course is ruinous–for Israel!

2.  A Fierce Green Fire: The Battle for a Living Planet.  Robert Redford, Van Jones, Ashley Judd, Isabel Allende and Meryl Street all narrate this film on the course of the environmental movement, from conservation through toxic pollution and into the grandaddy social justice/environmental crisis of them all.  You guessed it–climate change!  This movie is guaranteed to uplift and inspire!  Maybe even move you to action?

3.  Greedy Lying Bastards.  Good title, no?   Could refer to a lot of people, but we’re lookin’ at those who funded and took money to deny climate change, based on deliberate falsehood instead of science.  This concerted campaign set the movement to mitigate climate damage back by oh–maybe ten years?  And that was a decade that we definitely could not afford!  But maybe we are finally getting through to the American public and its leaders.  (See comment by Andy Gunther, Union of Concerned Scientists board member, on this blog).  Here the film-maker gets visibly more pissed off as he makes the movie, which adds to its power.

Am I becoming simplistic in my old age?  Everything is  connected.  Our planet is wearing out from the burdens we, the human species, impose on it.  War chews up the earth and every living thing upon it.  Corporate greed and obscene “profits” threaten to do us all in.  Seven and a half billion people, and counting.  We need to turn swords into shared ploughs, for a more sustainable way of life.

All three of these excellent films point in this direction, along a rocky, but still fertile road.

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