 | Today is the day Donald Trump will be inaugurated as America’s 45th president. I planned to wake this morning and tweet, “I'm embarrassed to be an American for the first time in my life”. I even contemplated changing my blog from 'Verdant Yank' to 'Verdant Paddy' or even 'Verdant Viking', in keeping with my Scandinavian roots! However, yesterday I previewed the French film “Demain” (Tomorrow) in preparation for Friends of the Earth’s Dublin screening event tonight and all my Yankee troubles seemed to fade away. |
I once said to a colleague that if I had the budget to create a split screen movie of what your day to day life would be in a world of climate action versus a world of climate chaos 20-30 years from now, the move toward climate action would be instantaneous. -All the co-benefits of what it takes to tackle climate change are so great we would all want that life if we could see it. I tried to paint that vision in words during my TEDxUCD talk last year, but nothing can compete with the power of film to capture the imagination.
| Directors Cyril Dion and Melanie Laurent must have been thinking along similar lines when they created Demain. It’s a snapshot of what a world of climate action would look like. From food to energy, education, economics, and politics, Demain shows us that if we take an ecosystem approach to all those systems we create happier, healthier communities while also decarbonizing society and tackling climate change. | |
Demain takes my own split-screen concept one step further by showing such initiatives are already steaming ahead with great success and creating much more liveable communities.
Demain’s producers are distributing the mostly English film to communities all over the world, encouraging you to host your own screening and providing great background materials to make it a truly impactful event. This is documentary distribution at its finest – not just designed to entertain but to make a long-lasting difference across the globe. More of this please!
Demain’s producers are distributing the mostly English film to communities all over the world, encouraging you to host your own screening and providing great background materials to make it a truly impactful event. This is documentary distribution at its finest – not just designed to entertain but to make a long-lasting difference across the globe. More of this please!
Friends of the Earth Ireland timed our screening to coincide with U.S. Inauguration Day. This is a dark day for colleagues in the USA, marking the start of a steep uphill battle for protection of environment and public health. My heart goes out to all of them as signs so far indicate life and work in the USA will be extremely difficult under the Trump regime, but the rest of the world is still moving forward. U.N. climate negotiations still progress and China is chomping at the bit to take the leadership role in the world’s low-carbon transition.
| What I should have tweeted this morning was “I’ve never been happier to be Irish”, not just because I have the option of living outside the USA far away from that political mess, but also because some amazing things are starting to take place here politically and environmentally that are so counter to what’s happening with the “clowns to the left of us” and “jokers to the right”. |  |
Here in Ireland, we have a political system moving left of centre while others speed to the far right, and we’re disrupting the power base of the old guard with a mix of independent elected representatives and small political parties. As a result, a majority of our parliamentarians recently committed to ban fracking across Ireland and drop fossil fuel investments from the Irish Strategic Investment Fund.
 | These are huge victories in a country whose Prime Minister has opposed any kind of climate action over his six years of “leadership”. In a hodge-podge government we were told would result in chaos and inaction, we’re achieving more action on climate than we have in over a decade (if not longer). Funny how that works… |
We’re privileged to exist at an incredible moment in time on the cusp of an evolution from our fossil fuel driven past to a world powered by clean energy. The last time humans witnessed such a technological transformation was more than one hundred years ago at the dawn of the Industrial Revolution. Fossil fuels deserve some credit for making humans the most dominant species on Earth. However, in the same way cave men came out of their caves and ditched their clubs for more efficient hunting tools, it’s time we moved on to something better. This time, it’s infinitely abundant, clean energy sources to drive the next phase in our evolution.
| Those who can’t see the change that’s coming are the last remaining dinosaurs – The Donald Trumps, Rex Tillersons, Scott Pruits, and Jim Inhofes of the world. They’re the dinosaurs who haven’t moved on from their 1980s ‘Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous’ ambitions, and their obsession with burning carbon will eventually cause their extinction. -The last men standing with stranded fossil fuel assets will most certainly be the biggest losers. |  |
The rest of us have already started to evolve. That’s clear when you watch Demain or witness what’s happening politically in places like Ireland, Iceland, Holland and even “oil country” Texas -which now produces more wind power than any other U.S. state!
What I learned from ‘Tomorrow’ is we have no need to despair over one man today.
What I learned from ‘Tomorrow’ is we have no need to despair over one man today.
 | Keep fighting the good fight! -Cara |
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