Watch the trailer for "Elemental."

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.

Available in Select Theaters and iTunes May 2013.

The short documentary "Dance of the Honey Bee," is narrated by Bill McKibben, and takes a look at the determined, beautiful, and vital role honey bees play in preserving life, as well as the threats bees face from a rapidly changing landscape.

The Midway media project is a powerful visual journey into the heart of an astonishingly symbolic environmental tragedy. On one of the remotest islands on our planet, tens of thousands of baby albatrosses lie dead on the ground, their bodies filled with plastic from the Pacific Garbage Patch. Returning to the island over several years, the media crew is witnessing the cycles of life and death of these birds as a multi-layered metaphor for our times. With photographer and director Chris Jordan as our guide, we walk through the fire of horror and grief, facing the immensity of this tragedy—and our own complicity—head on. And in this process, we find an unexpected route to a transformational experience of beauty, acceptance, and understanding.

The story is framed in the vividly gorgeous language of state-of-the-art high-definition digital cinematography, surrounded by millions of live birds in one of the world’s most beautiful natural sanctuaries. You will experience stunning juxtapositions of beauty and horror, destruction and renewal, grief and joy, birth and death, coming out the other side with their heart broken open and their worldview shifted. Stepping outside the stylistic templates of traditional environmental or documentary films, Midway will take viewers on a guided tour into the depths of their own spirits, delivering a profound message of reverence and love that is already reaching an audience of tens of millions of people around the world.

“I envision our project not as being a bunch of us tramping around the island with cameras; instead I hope it will be an emotional and spiritual journey by a deeply connected group of artists, to honor the issues that Midway represents. Maybe it is not too ambitious to hope—if we can fully rise to the occasion—that we might be able to co-create a multi-media work of art that tenderly witnesses this middle point that humanity finds itself at right now. And in the eye of the storm —the apex of the Gyre—perhaps our collaborative efforts can create a container for healing that might have some small effect on the collective choice that is to come.”

- Photographer and artist Chris Jordan

Following Chris Jordan’s expeditions to Midway and the lifecycle of the Albatross, “Midway” is more than just a documentary or a film about wildlife at risk. “Midway” brings us an opportunity for us to look at our world in close-up, to see how our lives are impacting the planet, and to find new approaches to moving forward. Production of the feature film “Midway” continues through 2013.

Numerous short videos and back stories are, and will continue to be made available on the Midway Journey YouTube site.

Fractured Land Demo from Fractured Land on Vimeo.

Caleb Behn is a young, indigenous warrior fighting to save his people's land and culture. Deep in the exquisite wilderness of northeastern British Columbia, the ancestral home of Caleb's Dene people, the multi-billion-dollar oil and gas industry emits chemicals linked to cancer, birth defects, the killing of brain and blood cells, and environmental harm. Caleb himself was born with a birth defect and spent long, painful years under the surgeons' knives, face cut, lips sewn. He cannot show that emissions from the industry caused his condition; still, it made him tough, gave him a deep aversion to gambling with children's health, and helped drive him to action.

Though adept with a high-powered rifle and throwing knife for hunting, a vital part of his culture, Caleb needs stronger weapons to battle Big Oil and Gas, so he decided to get his law degree. Now, with his Mohawk, tattoos, and three-piece suit, Caleb is equally comfortable hunting moose on his land as he is fighting the oil and gas industry in corporate boardrooms and the courts.

Filmmakers Fiona Rayher and Damien Gillis have been documenting Caleb's journey, including following him to New Zealand. There he learned from the Maori, shared his experiences dealing with Big Oil and Gas, and explored common strategies. Both Maori and Canadian First Nations are facing the ravages of this industry, and are now raising powerful new Indigenous leaders. They are forging alliances using ancient knowledge and the modern weapon of the law.

All Caleb ever wanted to do was to live off the land and teach his future children the traditional ways of the Dene. But before he can do that, he and his allies must first do battle with the Goliath industry that threatens to destroy everything he holds dear. The industry is powerful; but, like many great leaders, Caleb was born with natural talent, eloquence, and passion, tempered by hard work and hard challenges. And he has arrived at a moment in history when his people and territory need him.

Continue reading »

This is a non-commercial attempt from http://www.sanctuaryasia.com/ and https://www.facebook.com/sanctuaryasiapage, to highlight the fact that world leaders, irresponsible corporates and mindless 'consumers' are combining to destroy life on earth. It is dedicated to all who died fighting for the planet and those whose lives are on the line today. The cut was put together by Vivek Chauhan, a young film maker, together with naturalists working with the Sanctuary Asia network.

Content credit: The principal source for the footage was Yann Arthus-Bertrand's incredible film HOME . The music was by Armand Amar. Thank you, too, Greenpeace and http://timescapes.org/

Chris Tangey of Alice Springs Film and Television was recently scouting locations near Curtin Springs Station in Australia – which apparently is a working cattle station and roadhouse – east of Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park in the Northern Territory of Australia. He spotted a small fire burning in nearby bushland and decided to start filming, when he saw a whirlwind touch down into the fire. He told the Northern Territory News in Australia:

"It sounded like a jet fighter going by, yet there wasn’t a breath of wind where we were."

I wasn't sure the above video was real, as I'd never heard of a "fire tornado," and it just looks so apocalyptic. But after finding a few more videos, I was more than convinced. The second video, below was filmed in 2010 by a firefighter with the Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources. Yes,in Hawaii of all places.

They’re called fire tornadoes. Or fire whirls. Or fire devils. Something akin to the "dust devils" I was used to when I lived in Nevada, only with flames making the rarely-seen on film phenomenon potentially catastrophic.

According to a report in the National Geographic, "These really large-scale fire tornadoes occur at least once every year somewhere in the U.S."

Fire tornadoes occur when intense heat causes air to rise and it comes into contact with the core—the part that is actually on fire—and an invisible pocket of rotating air that feeds fresh oxygen to the core.combine with whirling eddies of air.

Because of the intense heat, the rotating air, mixed with gases from burning vegetation, can increase dramatically in intensity—lifting smoke, debris and embers high into the air.

Fire tornadoes can spew embers thousands of feet in the air—allowing wildfires to spread quickly.

The Hawaii firefighters were battling a 14-hundred acre blaze on the southern slope of Mauna Kea volcano, but the whirl is simply too dangerous to try to fight.

Continue reading »

To The Last Drop, Part One:

Communities prepare to rise up, but they can't do it alone.

For every barrel of bitumen that comes out of the ground in Northern Alberta, Canada, another 1.5 barrels of toxic waste is created and dumped into tailings ponds that are carved out of the once pristine wilderness. That waste may now be leaking into the Athabasca river Delta, poisoning indigenous communities for hundreds of kilometers downstream and causing rare cancers once unheard of. The Alberta government and its industry-funded studies say every thing is okay with the water. Independent observers say otherwise. Watch as Al Jazeera uncovers how industry and government are working to silence dissent and how communities are beginning to fight back.

To The Last Drop, Part Two:

The Arctic ice we all depend on is disappearing. Fast. Soon it could be ice free for the first time since humans walked the Earth. This would be not only devastating for the people, polar bears, narwhals, walruses and other species that live there - but for the rest of us too.

Oil companies are using melting sea ice to drill for more of the oil that is causing global warming in the first place. In fact, Shell’s Arctic fleet will be arriving any day now to begin exploratory drilling off the coast of Alaska this summer. That's just madness. It's time for us to take back sanity from those who have lost the plot.

Our leaders won't listen to her, but they'll listen to you. What do you have to say to those who want to destroy the Arctic?

Greenpeace, Jude Law, Radiohead and hundreds of thousands of people around the world are coming together to demand we save the Arctic from oil drilling, industrial fishing and militarization. Join us at http://www.savethearctic.org

[Photo credit: Erika Blumenfeld/Al Jazeera]

Major commercial fishing ports on the Gulf Coast bring in over 1.2 billion pounds of fresh seafood annually, but this will likely decline as Gulf fisheries continue to be affected by BP's disaster. Louisiana provides 40 per cent of all the seafood caught in the continental US, but the state's seafood industry, valued at about $2.3bn, is now fighting for its life.

Dahr Jamail, a reporter for Al Jazeera, has been covering the BP Gulf oil spill since early on in the days of the disaster. He reported last month on the fishermen whose livelihoods depend on the ocean's bounty as they face severely depleted catches and debate whether or not to join in BP’s $7.8 billion “class settlement” or sue the oil giant individually .

This is an important story for America, with the survival of tens of thousands of Gulf fishing families hanging in the balance. But for some reason, it took a journalist from Qatar to get this story out. Jamail's reporting is excellent, and for this report he goes to the fishermen themselves to get the truth.

Al Jazeera:

"I was at a BP coastal restoration meeting yesterday and they tried to tell us they searched 6,000 square miles of the seafloor and found no oil, thanks to Mother Nature," Tuan Dang, a shrimper, told Al Jazeera while standing on a dock full of shrimp boats that would normally be out shrimping this time of year.

Dang's fishing experience has been bleak.

"Normally I can get 8,000 pounds of brown shrimp in four days," he explained. "But this year, I only get 800 pounds in a week. There are hardly any shrimp out there."

When he tried to catch white shrimp, he said he "caught almost nothing".

He is suing BP for loss of income, but does not have much hope, despite recent news of an initial settlement worth more than $7bn. "We'd love to see them clean this up so we can get our lives back, but I don't see that happening anytime soon."

Song Vu, a shrimp boat captain for 20 years, has not tried to shrimp for weeks, and is simply hoping that there will be shrimp to catch next season.

His experience during his last shrimping attempts left him depressed.

"The shrimp are all dead," he told Al Jazeera. "Everything is dead."

There isn't a glimmer of anything that sounds hopeful about the Gulf situation in any of the personal accounts of the fishermen, and as Jamail notes at the end of the article, "Given that after the Exxon Valdez oil disaster in Alaska in 1989, herring have still not come back enough to be a viable fishing resource, this does not bode well for the Gulf seafood industry, whose fisheries are - according to scientists like Cake and Soniat - still in the initial phase of collapse."

Not to mention that the oil continues to seep into the Gulf near the Macondo well.