email Join our email list! divider Register Login cartCart
Icarus Film
Films from independent
producers worldwide.
32 Court Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201divider(718) 488 8900
Post-Carbon Futures
Directed by Yves Billy
 Text Size  Increase Font Size   Decrease Font Size   divider Printable VersionPrintable Version

Could the bluish-green liquid sloshing around in a laboratory beaker save the world from climate change? The liquid is an algae-based bio-fuel, and scientist Steve Mayfield believes it is a sign that a post-carbon future is drawing closer.

If we're going to avoid catastrophic climate change, we will need to move away from fossil fuels as quickly as possible. But which alternatives are the most promising?

POST-CARBON FUTURES, a companion documentary to MR. CO2, examines the options from massive wind and solar projects, to re-engineering the planet itself, to more modest local efforts.

From his office in sunny California, John Woolard of Bright Source Energy sees the future in solar power. The company runs the largest solar plant in the US. Located in Nevada, it produces enough energy to power 15,000 homes. Woolard says we don't have an energy problem; we have a collection and distribution problem. But with 2,000 new cars hitting the road in Beijing every day, and China set to open a new coal-fired plant a week for the next decade, the truth is we will require far more energy than solar and wind energy can produce.

Some believe the solution lies in enormous, continent-altering projects such as a plan to blanket the Sahara in solar panels to produce electricity for Europe. Meanwhile, the developers of the proposed green city of Cao Fei Dian, 150 miles from Beijing, see the future in a city built from scratch on in-filled coastal land.

film still

POST-CARBON FUTURES makes the case that we need a completely different approach to economic growth, and that perusing geo-engineering and huge building projects simply to maintain a consumer society makes no sense.

British environmentalist Tim Jackson, from the University of Surrey, and French writer Paul Aries both argue that our current economic system has trapped us into needing to constantly increase our emissions. Aries, a leading advocate of the "de-growth" movement passionately argues for a re-imagining of our economic system and not just cutting back on emissions but redefining prosperity itself.

53 minutes / Color
English / English subtitles
Release: 2011
Copyright: 2010

For individual consumers (home video)

This title is available online from:

For colleges, universities, government agencies, hospitals and corporations

This DVD is sold with a license for institutional use and Public Performance rights.

Subject areas:
Climate, Energy, Environment, Environmental Film Festivals, Geography, Sustainability

Watch the trailer:
>>

Related Titles:
Home | New | Titles | Subjects | Ordering   
About | Best Sellers | Filmmakers | Screenings   
address
  Follow Us! On...
Facebook Follow Icarus Films on Twitter Instagram Vimeo YouTube
Copyright (c) 2024, Icarus Films
Last Updated January 25, 2024 [Build 3.0.a060-d7]
Privacy Policy