The Public Commons: Access to Water/ Clean Air
Wednesday, April 8th at 11 a.m. & 1 p.m.
This week’s two films and speaker deal with the “public commons”: what do humans/ citizens have a right to in the world? Are clean air and clean water rights? (Don’t humans need both to survive?) Should everything be “commodified” – made into a “good” for the profit of corporations to be sold only to those who can pay for these natural resources?
11:00a.m. Film: “Flow” (For the Love of Water 2008 – 84 min.)
This feature deals with the World Water Crisis in what experts label the most important political and environmental issue of the 21st Century. The film takes us to Bolivia, South Africa, India, and Michigan and presents the the essential issues in the” water wars” - privatization, pollution and profit. The filmshows people around the world who are being harmed by corporations which claim rights over their water. This is an Award-Wining Film and discloses what Michael Klare termed, “resource wars”.
1:00p.m. “Fighting Goliath: The Texas Coal Wars”
Film: Fighting Goliath (2007, 30 min.)
Narrated by Robert Redford, this film follows the story of Texans fighting a high-stakes battle for clean air. The story centers around unlikely partners-mayors, ranchers, lawyers, cities, citizens, green groups, and CEO’s-who came together to oppose the construction of 18 coal-fired power plants in Texas.
Speaker: Ryan Rittenhouse
Following the short film, Mr. Ryan Rittenhouse of Texas Public Citizen, a public advocacy group that was part of the coalition that successfully prevented the construction of one coal-fired plant in Texas, will bring us up-to-date with the issues presented – clean air and water resources in our state.
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