Global overshoot occurs when humanity’s annual demand for the goods and services that our land and seas can provide—fruits and vegetables, meat, fish, wood, cotton for clothing, and carbon dioxide absorption—exceeds what Earth’s ecosystems can renew in a year. Overshoot means we are drawing down the planet’s principal rather than living off its annual interest. This overshoot leads to a depletion of Earth’s life-supporting natural capital and a buildup of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Learn more
The College Conspiracy Full Documentary – College Conspiracy is the most comprehensive documentary ever produced about higher education in the U.S. The film .
IVORY TOWER is the documentary about college costs and exploding tuition rates in the United States, and we look at the trailer and footage direct from the movie’s premiere at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival. Filmmaker Andrew Rossi discusses how the United States has gone from a nation that emphasized accessible higher education, to a country where the big business of education has made economic and social mobility less fluid than ever. We also discuss the potential for alternative models of affordable education and the sacrifices that people are having to make to go to college in this BYOD–the world’s only talk show all about documentary films.
FILM INFO:
IVORY TOWER questions the purpose of higher education in an era when the price of college has increased more than for any other service in the U.S. economy since 1978. While many college graduates struggle to find menial employment waiting tables and cleaning toilets, new student loans over the next 10 years will total $184 billion. Filmmaker Andrew Rossi reveals the moment in history when the United States, long regarded as the epicenter of higher education, embraced a business model promoting property expansion over quality learning. Through interviews with Andrew Delbanco, Anya Kamenetz, and Internet education pioneer Daphne Koller, cofounder of the revolutionary online platform Coursera, Ivory Tower exposes the instability of traditional college education as it searches the country for alternative forms of cost-effective learning, ranging from concepts of self-governance taught at Deep Springs College in Big Pine, California, to the unofficial hacker houses of northern California.
Filmmaker Bio: Andrew Rossi returns to the Sundance Film Festival following his last film, Page One: Inside the New York Times, about the crisis in the newspaper industry. Distributed by Participant Media and Magnolia Pictures,Page One was nominated for two news and documentary Emmy Awards as well as receiving various critics’ awards. Rossi is also the director of Le Cirque: A Table in Heaven, which screened on HBO, and was an associate producer on Jehane Noujaim’s Control Room.
The rise in U.S. college tuition is unsustainable. That’s the argument of a new television documentary, “Ivory Tower,” which tackles growing worries and critique over college costs and student debt. Jeffrey Brown talks to filmmaker Andrew Rossi about the origins of rising costs and financial competition among institutions, plus ideas about how to turn around the trend.
From the Majority Report, live M-F 12 noon EST and via daily podcast at http://Majority.FM:
Billionaire Nick Hanauer recently spoke at TED Talk about income inequality. After the speech, TED decided it was not going to release it to the public…
The Arctic is warming faster than any other place on Earth. This affects weather and increases coastal erosion threatening many Alaskan communities. But with melting sea ice come new opportunities for shipping and development. Will the oil, gas and mineral rich Arctic lead to a rush for development? Might this lead to conflict and to serious consequences for the environment? Earth Focus looks at the changing face of the Arctic today.
With income inequality reaching dangerous levels, the Securities and Exchange Commission finally decided that corrupt CEOs need to reveal how much they’re making compared to their workers. The information that is coming in shows that the problem is much worse than we thought.
Americas’s Lawyer, Mike Papantonio, and attorney Howard Nations discuss this.
Nearly a hundred elephants are slaughtered each day in the wild, most for their ivory tusks. This killing of elephants by humans could wipe out the animals in the wild within a generation.
National Geographic initiated an eight-month survey, conducted by GlobeScan, in five countries: China, the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, and the United States. The survey shows that the ivory market is driven by a perceived suitability for gift giving and the social status ivory ownership conveys.
In February 2008 I gave a talk at TED in Monterey CA. It was a TED-U talk for about 20 minutes. That talk was recorded but never posted online. The idea was to take best case or nominal case climate change off the table, and just for the sake of it…discuss worst case scenarios. No one was giving a talk like this…it was a bit too scary. Many people left the session in tears.
When I returned from TED we recorded the same talk in a studio even though I was sick (in this video). That was never seen or posted until now (May 2014), more than 6 years later. I remember being sick that day but doing it anyway.
What is most interesting is to look forward from 2008 when this was taped and see what predictions have come closer to reality (arctic ice melt and antarctic as well) and which have not. Regardless of one’s beliefs or political convictions, the ideas and science here make for great conversation. Hopefully none come true.
Welcome to Transition Studies. To prosper for very much longer on the changing Earth humankind will need to move beyond its current fossil-fueled civilization toward one that is sustained on recycled materials and renewable energy. This is not a trivial shift. It will require a major transition in all aspects of our lives.
This weblog explores the transition to a sustainable future on our finite planet. It provides links to current news, key documents from government sources and non-governmental organizations, as well as video documentaries about climate change, environmental ethics and environmental justice concerns.
The links are listed here to be used in whatever manner they may be helpful in public information campaigns, course preparation, teaching, letter-writing, lectures, class presentations, policy discussions, article writing, civic or Congressional hearings and citizen action campaigns, etc. For further information on this blog see: About this weblog. and How to use this weblog.
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