Summary: Stretching over 4,000 miles across South America, the Amazon River has long defied human efforts to tame it. Not a single bridge crosses it, and not one dam halts its flow. This program visits urban centers on the banks of the Amazon and examines new attempts to harness-or exploit-the river's energy and natural abundance. The journey begins at Iquitos-a Peruvian city blighted by poverty and...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
View online at AVOD
Summary: Among the most utilized waterways in the world, the Yangtze River is also one of the most volatile. This program sheds light on humanity's battle to tame and profit from the river-specifically, a project initiated by Chiang Kai-shek in the 1930s. The program also studies corresponding ecological problems. Viewers are introduced to the Three Gorges Dam, a concrete mega-structure visible from...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
View online at AVOD
Summary: Rich in history, the Rhine feeds Europe's collective identity-as well as its divisions. Flowing from Switzerland through Austria, Germany, France, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands, the river intersects a multitude of towns and cities in the process. This program follows the Rhine on its multifaceted journey and examines economic, political, environmental, and historical issues surrounding it....
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
View online at AVOD
Summary: Will biofuels reduce greenhouse gas emissions or actually increase them? Does the biofuel industry threaten the world's rainforests? Is corn, palm, rapeseed, or sugar cane the best plant source? What about recycled cooking oil? This program explores the ongoing controversy over biofuel technology, raising disturbing questions about sustainability and environmental impact while evaluating...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
View online at AVOD
Summary: Its name conjures images of America's mythical past, encoded in the stories and novels of Mark Twain. But today's Mississippi River is rife with challenges no 19th-century storyteller could have imagined. From issues of basic survival to triumphs of creativity and profit, this program follows the day-to-day lives of those who dwell on the Mississippi. Starting in the town of Cairo,...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
View online at AVOD
Summary: As fresh water sources dwindle in the arid American Southwest, California faces growing difficulty in managing and sustaining its irrigation infrastructure. This program analyzes the multifaceted problem, sifting through environmental and political factors and assessing a number of potential solutions. Beginning its fact-finding tour at the Water Education Foundation in Sacramento, the film...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
View online at AVOD
Summary: Rising from a Himalayan ice cave and emptying into the bay of Bengal, the Ganges River is sacred to Hindus as a purifying spirit-yet it currently suffers from pollution and neglect. This program follows the Ganges through various Indian cities, studying their relationship with the river and assessing its uncertain future. Beginning in Gangotri, the program profiles a photographer who has...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
View online at AVOD
Summary: Were it not for the elemental forces of the Nile River, the great architecture of ancient Egypt and Ethiopia might never have been built. But in today's water-starved world, the river could lead both countries down a destructive path. This program examines lives and livelihoods that depend on the Nile, from the humble to the hugely ambitious. In Egypt, viewers encounter a struggling Cairo...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
View online at AVOD
Summary: For decades, local food producers in the West have faced a shrinking market share. But if well-intentioned Americans and Europeans stop eating vegetables from Africa, will Africans have more to eat? Or will we simply deprive African farmers of a living? This program delves into that issue and other food-related problems, some of which have solutions while others urgently await answers. Viewers...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
View online at AVOD
Summary: Exploring the aisles of a Dutch grocery store, this program clearly demonstrates that globalization has made almost any food item, no matter how exotic or remote, available to the Western consumer. But the film also shows the downside of that new global access, tracing specific foods to their countries of origin and revealing the impact on indigenous communities and ecosystems. Viewers witness...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
View online at AVOD
Summary: Peak oil: the point at which oil-producing countries, faced with diminishing crude reserves, can no longer keep pace with growing demand. Has the world already reached it, or is the point of irrevocable decline still decades away? That is the slippery question that frames the narrative of this program as experts from around the world give their views on factors associated with escalating oil...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
View online at AVOD
Summary: The game takes place on a ring of tropical isles, including the mysterious Soopky Island, home of the Ghost Captain. Each island generates a specific resource: wood, goats, molasses, gold or cutlasses. Players use resources to build and expand their network of pirate lairs. The first player to control seven pirate lairs wins the game.
Format: three dimensional object
Publisher / Publication Date: Mayfair Games 2012
Copies Available at Woodmere
1 available in Games, Call number: GAME CATSummary: Due to its rapidly growing economy and a new demand for consumer goods, China is challenged to create a model for long-term sustainable development. In this program Hazel Henderson talks with Professor Zhouying Jin, author of Global Technological Change, about efforts in China to cultivate a green economy. The country has made great strides in clean energy, and is the world's largest exporter...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
View online at AVOD
Summary: From serving as the 45th U.S. Vice President to winning the Nobel Peace Prize, Al Gore has always been committed to environmental stewardship. But in his 2006 film An Inconvenient Truth, Gore found a way to focus attention on climate change in a way no one had before. Following up two years later with this cautionary TEDTalk, Al Gore presents evidence that the pace of climate change may be even...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
View online at AVOD
Summary: Many old-line portfolio managers claim that dealing with green companies is too risky, and yet they do not hesitate to buy up dangerously volatile hedge funds. In this program Hazel Henderson and philanthropic entrepreneur Karl Kleissner suggest that the traditional financial community broaden their strategies to include eco-friendly ventures. Kleissner is co-founder of the K. L. Felicitas...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
View online at AVOD
Summary: To save the world one bird at a time - that's what Brazilian-born biologist and TED Senior Fellow Juliana Machado Ferreira wants to do. She focuses on illegally trafficked specimens headed for a miserable fate in pet stores - but for Ferreira, rescue is just the beginning of the discussion. Once exotic animals are seized from smugglers, she asks, what's next? In this TEDTalk, Ferreira describes...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
View online at AVOD
Summary: In a dramatic reversal of policy since apartheid, South Africa has become a model of water fulfillment. Despite being one of the driest regions on Earth, India's Rajasthan is an oasis due to the revival of a system of ancient rain basins. This program looks at these encouraging examples to show how sustainable solutions to long-term water management can be achieved, while a visit to Sertao in...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
View online at AVOD
Summary: While high-tech agriculture is one of the hallmarks of Western society, a growing number of Americans and Europeans believe that our farming methods are harmful on a number of levels. This program looks at the evolving debate over industrialized food production versus organic farming. Showing how and why farming techniques and policies have changed in the U.K. and similar countries over the...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
View online at AVOD
Summary: Taking viewers deep inside a devastated landscape, this program examines physical forces directly tied to flooding in Bangladesh as well as the broader causes of such disasters, including climate change. It also explores the social, economic, and environmental impact of intense flooding through the personal accounts of people living by major rivers and on Bangladesh's char lands, areas built up...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2011
View online at AVOD
Summary: Have Earth's vibrant waterways-its streams, rivers, lakes, and oceans-become delivery systems for pollutants and poison? This program points to signs that toxic substances are overwhelming our planet's aquatic ecosystems. Viewers encounter many of the causes for this concern, including a radical decrease in frog populations, distressed marine mammals in estuary habitats, and disturbing changes...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
View online at AVOD
Summary: What's wrong with enjoying the rich variety of foods that importers make available? Do the reported drawbacks of globalization mean that we should eat only locally grown food? How are Western food choices related to environmental problems and to developing-world farmers? This program explores those questions by studying agricultural practices in the United Kingdom and worldwide. Comparing...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2008
View online at AVOD
Summary: What are the prospect in the U.S. for growing the green economy? In this program Hazel Henderson interviews Stuart Valentine, president of Iowa Progressive Asset Management, about public interest in eco-friendly, community-based commercial models-which both see as an upward trend, especially after the 2010 BP oil spill. Valentine explains how "behind the meter" systems such as locally-operated...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
View online at AVOD
Summary: Artist Dianna Cohen co-founded the Plastic Pollution Coalition, which describes itself as "a global alliance of individuals, organizations, and businesses working together to stop plastic pollution and its toxic impacts on humans, animals and the environment." In this TEDTalk, Cohen shares some tough truths about plastic detritus in the oceans and in our lives, as well as some thoughts on how...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
View online at AVOD
Summary: The crash of 1929 left a country—once reeling with optimism—with 25% of its citizens unemployed and at a near complete loss of hope. But in March, 1933, within weeks of his election, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt stepped in with a solution: the Civilian Conservation Corps. As told by four veterans of this unique organization, The Civilian Conservation Corps, from the PBS American...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009