Positive TV

Jeremy Irons talks trash for his new environmental documentary

admin — Sun, 16 Jun 2013 18:44:40 +0000

Oscar-winning actor explains why he travelled around the world to highlight the environmental problems caused by our waste

Jeremy Irons, the Oscar-winning actor, has teamed up with the British filmmaker Candida Brady to produce a new feature-length documentary called Trashed. It sets out to “discover the extent and effects of the global waste problem, as he travels around the world to beautiful destinations tainted by pollution”.

Ahead of its first theatrical screenings in the US later this month, Irons answered my questions about the film via email…

We are used to actors/singers/celebrities, etc, highlighting a particular environmental cause, or narrating a documentary. But it is unusual to see someone such as yourself getting quite so involved in a project liked Trashed. [Irons was also executive producer.] How did you come to be involved so intimately in this film?

I wanted to help create a film on a subject of real social importance. Candida Brady and I talked over various possible subjects, but none, we felt, compared with the problem of waste, which affects us all, and which, despite all the evidence and research available, is not being seriously faced. I felt such a film should be made for theatrical release, rather than TV and such documentaries seem to need a personality on which to hang them. As an actor I’ve always seen myself as a sort of storyteller and my involvement in Trashed seemed a logical progression of that role. Apart from being the face on the screen, I was also able to help with raising the finance, and in persuading my friend Vangelis [who scored the film] to come on board with us.

Read the full story on The Guardian’s website here, and see the trailer

5 Easy Ways to Start Conserving at Home

admin — Sun, 16 Jun 2013 18:39:57 +0000

You can help your state avoid an energy crisis like California experienced simply by implementing a few common sense changes in your home. Get your family involved and other energy efficient changes will follow naturally. You will be amazed how much your utility costs will come down.

Self-Watering Plants

Just because you like having houseplants doesn’t necessarily mean you are an avid green thumb. It just means you like plants and you know they help to purify the air in your home in addition to looking nice.

The trouble is, unless you are conscience of their needs, they easily die. To help avoid forgetting to water them there are a lot of self-watering options available including some you can make yourself. Not only will this save your plants and your sanity, it will also save you money. No water is lost due to spillage, leakage, or evaporation. In addition, you won’t have to be constantly replacing plants or switching to fake alternatives because you forgot to water them.

Water Saving Toilets and Faucets

Did you know that on average it takes 1 – 7 gallons of water every time you flush a toilet depending on the toilet you have? Items like water saving toilets can save your family of four up to 16,500 gallons of water annually. That’s a lot of water worth saving!

Equally, water saving faucets will help cut down on tens of thousands of wasted gallons when you wash dishes or run the disposal. Washing only full loads of dishes or laundry can save an additional 50 gallons every week. Saving water also saves electricity so you get two perks for the effort of one.

read the full article on Crispgreen.com here

Seattle’s Urban Food Forest Is Open For Foraging

admin — Sun, 16 Jun 2013 18:32:40 +0000

If you’re in Seattle, you can soon skip the farmer’s market. The Beacon Food Forest will grow plums, apples, walnuts, berries, vegetables, and herbs–all free for the taking.

There’s free food everywhere, if you know where to look. Falling Fruit, which maps publicly available produce in several countries, lists 554 edible varieties (mostly plants) in 570,000 locations. It’s mostly stuff that currently goes to waste, like fruit that drops into streets, only to get mashed into concrete.

Most of the locations on Falling Fruit’s map are single trees (including some on private property, where asking the owner is advised) or small community spaces. But foraging is gaining scale all the time. Several places are planting dedicated forests for public use.

read the full story on Co-Exist.com here

Germany sets new solar power record, institute says

admin — Sun, 16 Jun 2013 18:18:07 +0000

(Reuters) – German solar power plants produced a world record 22 gigawatts of electricity per hour – equal to 20 nuclear power stations at full capacity – through the midday hours on Friday and Saturday, the head of a renewable energy think tank said.

The German government decided to abandon nuclear power after the Fukushima nuclear disaster last year, closing eight plants immediately and shutting down the remaining nine by 2022.

They will be replaced by renewable energy sources such as wind, solar and bio-mass.

Norbert Allnoch, director of the Institute of the Renewable Energy Industry (IWR) in Muenster, said the 22 gigawatts of solar power per hour fed into the national grid on Saturday met nearly 50 percent of the nation’s midday electricity needs.

“Never before anywhere has a country produced as much photovoltaic electricity,” Allnoch told Reuters. “Germany came close to the 20 gigawatt (GW) mark a few times in recent weeks. But this was the first time we made it over.”

The record-breaking amount of solar power shows one of the world’s leading industrial nations was able to meet a third of its electricity needs on a work day, Friday, and nearly half on Saturday when factories and offices were closed.

Read the full story on Reuters website here

Landfill Harmonic

admin — Sun, 16 Jun 2013 17:36:37 +0000

Landfill Harmonic- The world sends us garbage… We send back music!

A heartfelt & moving story of how instruments made from recycled trash bring hope to children whose future is otherwise spiritless.

This is a lovely and inspiring trailer.

They used crowdfunding for this documentary through Kickstarter.com hoping for $175,000 to make a film about the orchestra.

They eventually raised $215,000! which will allow them to make a longer better film, and follow the orchestra on a tour!

Watch this sweet trailer, and look out for their new film!

Sean Lennon, Yoko Ono, and Artists Against Fracking Present: “Don’t Frack My Mother!”

admin — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 12:18:45 +0000

Hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking”, is the process of drilling and injecting fluid into the ground at a high pressure in order to fracture shale rocks to release natural gas inside.

Each gas well requires an average of 400 tanker trucks to carry water and supplies to and from the site.

It takes 1-8 million gallons of water to complete each fracturing job.

The water brought in is mixed with sand and chemicals to create fracking fluid. Approximately 40,000 gallons of chemicals are used per fracturing.

Up to 600 chemicals are used in fracking fluid, including known carcinogens and toxins such as…

500,000
Active gas wells in the US

X

8 million
Gallons of water per fracking

X

18
Times a well can be fracked

72 trillion gallons of water
and
360 billion gallons of chemicals
needed to run our current gas wells.

During this process, methane gas and toxic chemicals leach out from the system and contaminate nearby groundwater.

Methane concentrations are 17x higher in drinking-water wells near fracturing sites than in normal wells.

Contaminated well water is used for drinking water for nearby cities and towns.

There have been over 1,000 documented cases of water contamination next to areas of gas drilling as well as cases of sensory, respiratory, and neurological damage due to ingested contaminated water.

Don’t think it’s worth it?

Help support the FRAC Act (Fracturing Responsibility and Awareness of Chemicals Act) which would require the energy industry to disclose all chemicals used in fracturing fluid as well as repeal fracking’s exemption from the Safe Drinking Water Act.

http://www.dangersoffracking.com/

Mr Happy Man – Johnny Barnes

admin — Sun, 09 Jun 2013 12:09:25 +0000

If your day needed a lift, then this is it!

PositiveTV is proud to feature Matt Morris’ amazing film about Johnny Barnes or Mr Happy Man!

Come rain or shine, 88-year-old Bermudian Johnny Barnes devotes six hours every day to an endearing traffic ritual that has made him one of the island’s most cherished citizens.

Thank You Bristol

admin — Sun, 09 Jun 2013 11:41:52 +0000

Bristol is the UK’s most sustainable city – and thats down to its people – so thank you Bristolians…..

Thank you for supporting us to become the European Green Capital for 2015.

http://bristolgreencapital.org/europe…

We are a free membership organisation whose aim is to help make Bristol a low-carbon city with a high quality of life for all.

@bgreencapital
@plasticbuddhatv

PTV Supportinb Bristol, Natalie Fee and PlasticbuddhaTV!

Obama Puts Spotlight on Immigration Reform

admin — Sun, 09 Jun 2013 11:30:26 +0000

U.S. President Barack Obama is calling on lawmakers to support legislation that he believes will fix the nation’s “broken” immigration system.

In his weekly address Saturday, Obama said “nobody will get everything they want” from the immigration bill being debated in the Senate. But he said the bill will strengthen border security, increase penalties against traffickers and create a pathway for earned citizenship.

The bipartisan authors of the bill say the legislation would require those in the country illegally to pay a fine, pay taxes and wait for years for a chance at citizenship. Opponents of the bill say it will amount to a de facto amnesty.

Even if the reform bill passes in the Senate, it will likely face tougher scrutiny in the House of Representatives, where leaders are vowing to bring their own immigration bill to the floor for debate.

Focusing on the country’s student loan program, Republican Congressman Luke Messer of Indiana said in his party’s address Saturday that legislators and the president need to work out a compromise to keep federally subsidized student loan rates low. He accused Obama of “campaign-style” tactics to attack a Republican plan that Messer says somewhat “mirrors the White House’s own proposal.

Read this story on VOANews.com here

Canada adds a whopping 95,000 jobs in May

admin — Sun, 09 Jun 2013 11:25:36 +0000

TORONTO (AP) – Canada’s economy pumped out a whopping 95,000 new jobs in May in the biggest month of employment growth in more than a decade, Statistics Canada said Friday.

The massive gain was the first major improvement of 2013 and many times greater than economists had expected, dropping the unemployment rate one-tenth of a point to 7.1 percent.

The impact on the unemployment rate would have been greater but for an almost as large increase in the number of Canadians looking for work.

All the new jobs came in the private sector and in the employee class, and 76,700 of them were full-time.

The Canadian dollar gained ground after the report, trading at 97.89 U.S. cents, up about four-tenths of a cent from Thursday’s close and up more than a cent over two days.

Finance Minister Jim Flaherty issued a statement calling the employment gains ‘the types of jobs that will help support a sustained recovery.’

He pointed out that Canada has now produced more than one million jobs since the 2008-09 recovery.

Bank of Montreal chief economist Doug Porter noted the increase was the second largest in 35 years—only a pick-up of 95,100 in August 2002 was bigger in nominal terms.

‘There’s no question this report is absolutely spectacular …,’ he said.

‘But I would add a couple of notes of caution. I would sincerely doubt we are going to see anything close to this repeated in the months ahead, and the other thing, it did follow a real period of weakness,’ Porter said.

Canada’s labor market had been seen as struggling in 2013, with the first four months producing a net loss of 13,000 jobs, attributed to the poor economic performance during the second half of last year.

But with May’s numbers added in, the year now appears more in line with an economy that is growing at a moderate if not spectacular pace. Over the past 12 months, Canada has produced job gains of about 250,000 and seen hours worked rise by 1.1 percent.

Even students and other young people had an easier time finding employment in May, with about 54,000 of the new workers in the 15-to-24 age group joining the labor force. That pushed the youth unemployment rate to 13.6 percent, almost a full point lower than the previous month.

By industry, there was a big surge in construction jobs in May, rising by about 43,000, and retail and wholesale trade added about 27,000 workers. Employment in other services, such as repair and maintenance, increased by 22,000, and there was a 21,000 gain in people working in business, building and other support services.

However, the battered manufacturing sector did not join in the bounty. The agency said there were 14,200 fewer factory workers in May than there had been in April, bringing the total losses in the sector in the past year to almost 100,000.

Read the full story here on GlobalGoodnews.com