Take youths to Green Screen

This week will mark the start of this year’s Green Screen, an annual series of screenings of movies on the environment, hosted by the NGO Sustain T&T. Sustain T&T has been doing great work to bring awareness about environmental issues, and has been winning awards for this work—an Environmental Management Authority (EMA) Green Leaf award this year, as well as a grant from the German Embassy—and it has been getting a lot of positive attention.

I hope this translates to many full seats at the Green Screen events, mostly free, over the next few weeks ending November 22.

This year’s Green Screen comes with a call for action. The press release on Green Screen 2012 says, “Sustain T&T has also produced a series of animated shorts, reminding viewers that they can and must take action against climate change and environmental degradation by planting trees, recycling, reducing waste, eating locally-grown foods, etc.”

I hope the public will learn more about these points from the films and through such avenues as the TEDx Salon Event on November 11, in which there will be TED talks shown and an art installation by Marlon Darbeau; and the fund-raising showing of Taking Root: The Vision of Wangari Maathai on November 3.

Despite Pat Bishop’s once ubiquitous Charlie (I didn’t even know she had created that iconic character for SWMCOL’s anti-littering campaign of the 80s; did you?) we are still not as conscious as we could be about how our waste affects the environment.

Garbage bombers notwithstanding, we could be a lot better at putting up public rubbish bins, and about using them. We still have entire communities without a proper rubbish collection system—I live in one of them—and it’s not unusual to have streets absolutely carpeted with garbage spilling from ripped bags piled at the side of the street with hungry stray dogs prowling for their next meal.

It’s not only unsightly, but also hazardous to health and has potential consequences for the environment because those who don’t want to contribute to the mess often burn their rubbish, releasing God knows what toxins into the atmosphere and running the risk of setting bush fires.

I applaud Carver Bacchus, director of Sustain T&T, and his team for the good work they are doing to raise awareness of environmental issues. This goes hand in hand with such social entrepreneurs as Plastikeep, which has set up nearly 40 plastic recycling collection points in West Trinidad.

What is needed is more awareness-building in schools and communities so the impact can be spread across the nation. Perhaps we need to bring back Charlie, the animated grumpy litterbug, so we can chase him away again. Here are the synopses of the Green Screen movies open to the public, along with venues and times. Most are free. I hope you can catch some of them with your children.

November 3, 6.30 pm, 33 Murray Street: Taking Root: The Vision of Wangari Maathai (81 mins)

The dramatic story of Kenyan Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Wangari Maathai, whose simple act of planting trees grew into a nationwide movement to safeguard the environment, protect human rights, and defend democracy.

November 7, 6.30 pm: ttff Head Office, Belmont Circular Road: If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front (85 mins)
A rare behind-the-curtain look at the Earth Liberation Front, a radical environmental group.

November 11, 6.30 pm, Alice Yard, 80 Roberts Street, Woodbrook: (Cost: $100) TEDx Port-of-Spain discussion, party/fund-raiser, art installation, and featured speakers.

November 17, 6.30 pm, Blanchisseuse Community Centre: Food Inc. (94 mins)
An unflattering look inside America's corporate-controlled food industry.

November 20, 6.15 pm, San Fernando Hill: (Presentation by the Green Building Council of T&T) The 4th Revolution: Energy Autonomy (83 mins)
This German documentary shows the vision of a global society in a world where the energy is produced 100% with renewable energies, showing a complete reconstruction of the economy, to reach this goal. You’ve Been Trumped (95 mins) In this David and Goliath story for the 21st century, a group of proud Scottish homeowners take on celebrity tycoon Donald Trump as he buys up one of Scotland's last wilderness areas to build a golf resort.

November 22, 6.30 pm, UWI Institute for Critical Thinking, St Augustine: Carbon Nation (86 mins) An optimistic (and witty) discovery of what people are already doing, and what the world needs to do to prevent (or at least slow down) the impending climate crisis.