movies

Avatar director James Cameron played a part in halting an industrial development project that threatens indigenous people of the Amazon.

Palm oil plantation. Inset: deforestation by a logging company around a Penan village in the Middle Baram region in Sarawak.

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The Avatar director and one of its stars have played a part in halting an industrial development project that threatens indigenous people of the Amazon. Earlier this week, we brought you the story of James Cameron and Sigourney Weaver's trip to Brazil to raise awareness of the indigenous communities’ battles to stop the massive Belo Monte Dam on the Xingu River in the Amazon rainforest. We are now happy to report that the Dam Project Auctions have been canceled, and both stars are now in Washington DC for meetings with US Government officials.

Judge Antonio Carlos de Almeida Campelo granted a preliminary injunction (urgent) seeing “danger of irreparable harm” considering the imminence of the auction. The decision is the result of the assessment of one of two public civil actions filed by federal prosecutors dealing with irregularities of the enterprise. It focuses specifically on the lack of regulation of Article 176 of the Federal Constitution of Brazil, which requires the issuing of an ordinary law for the use of hydraulic potential on Indian lands.  read more »

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The floating mass of plastic junk - almost the size of the Northern Territory - in the Pacific is an environmental catastrophe: "...the nature of the problem is so immense and the fact it doesn't fall under the jurisdiction of any particular country means as a cause it's kind of like the runt of the litter, something that no particular country wants to take responsibility for." According to the United Nations Environment Program, it causes the deaths of more than a million seabirds every year, as well as more than 100,000 mammals including whales, dolphins, turtles and seals.
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"Whale Wars: Season 2" is coming soon, in the week of Dec. 29. 2009 - "This time they've gone too far".

Don't you think that there must be someone with great courage to stand between 750-ton whale-killing machines & their prey to end Japanese whaling once & for all? Ocean depletion is faster & faster...

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"This came as a big shock" – that Dubai is in debt by 59 billion and might not be able to pay its bills sent a wave of uncertainty rippling through markets just as investors thought the worst of the global financial instability was over. Once, Dubai was "like the new beacon for all the world's money" [HOME, the 2009 documentary]... "Dubai has endless sun, but no solar panels. It is the totem of total modernity that never fails to amaze the world. Nothing seems further removed from nature than Dubai, although nothing depends on nature more than Dubai. Dubai is a sort of culmination of the western model - we haven't understood that we're depleting what nature provides."

2009 Docu- mentary Film: HOME  read more »

Faster & faster. In the last 50 years, massive depletion of Earth has been destroying a fragile balance in Nature, essential to life, putting all human beings in check: shall we act before too late to save Earth, home for all? ... Ice is melting, poles diminishing, sea level rising, Greenland fresh water pouring into the ocean & becoming salt water, severe draughts lingering, 1 out of 10 major rivers incapable of reaching the sea, 20% of Amazon deforested due to demand on soy manufacturing to feed livestock... What is the real terror threatening our home, depriving our children’s chance to survive? It is the destructive depletion of Earth that has been destroying our planet, faster & faster. Driven by Greed. Shall we act before too late to save Earth, home of all?

(click on image to see the documentary on Youtube)

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Fox News: "Filmmaker Michael Moore’s brilliant and uplifting new documentary, “Sicko,” deals with the failings of the U.S. health care system, both real and perceived. But this time around, the controversial documentarian seems to be letting the subject matter do the talking, and in the process shows a new maturity."
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People in Iowa have a different, genuine quality and a self-sufficient humility

What do you miss about growing up and living in the Midwest?
The biggest thing I miss in Iowa is my mom. She still lives there, and I don't get to see her as often as I'd like. I miss the certain smell in Iowa when it's about to rain. I miss how quiet it is. I miss having neighbors that I know and that I like. The thing I probably miss most of all is that people in Iowa have a different, genuine quality and a self-sufficient humility, a desire to do things for themselves and not complain. I miss being around people that don't complain. I'm in the drama business, and there are a lot of dramatic people that seem to be not very happy with where they are.
Does it bother you to be called Mr. Demi Moore?
No. Why would it? People have called me much worse.
Do you still have all those trucker hats?
Yeah. I've got a giant box of them in storage. I probably have like 500 or 600 hats that people have sent me.

one man can have a voice as loud as a media network  read more »

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For nearly 10 years, Ric O'Barry trained dolphins playing "Flipper" on the popular '60s TV show, and, in the process, popularized dolphins as entertainment. For the last 35 years, he's tried to undo all of that. Wherever dolphins are held captive, O'Barry is there -- protesting, cutting nets and getting arrested. He's a longtime critic of Florida attractions that feature captive dolphins, including Key Biscayne's Seaquarium, "like these dolphins volunteered to be in this concrete box."

His biggest splash may be the new documentary The Cove, a nail-biting film about dolphin slaughter in Japan. The movie, opening Friday in South Florida, has snagged a slew of festival awards, including the Sundance Audience Award, and has created Oscar buzz in its wake.

O'Barry, 69, of Coconut Grove, leads an unusual cast of daredevils to a secluded cove in Taiji on Japan's coast. Here, capturing and killing dolphins is legal. But trespassing isn't.  read more »