What Grows On in Rhode Island News

Barrington Conservation Workshop & Film Series

Presentations on Sustainable Turf Management; Natives, Invasives, Biodiversity; Gardening to Attract Birds; and Home Composting; plus the films King Corn, HOME, two in the National Geographic's Planet Earth Series, and two for kids and families ~ WALL-E and Microcosmos ~ will be held each week at the Barrington Library from June 29 through the end of August. The Barrington Conservation Commission, Barrington Land Conservation Trust, and the Barrington Public Library organized these events.

These events are also in What Grows On in Rhode Island. Find the films and presentations in keyword search: Barrington Conservation Series. The Calendar has lots to do ~ check it often!

Kudos to the Barrington Conservation Commission, Barrington Land Conservation Trust, and the Barrington Public Library for organizing these 7 p.m. events. Barrington is fortunate in having a particularly active municipal conservation commission, and the Providential Gardener hopes other conservation commissions will arrange similar series in the future for their communities. (You can go even if you don't live in Barrington, though!)

You can also download a pdf of the Summer Edutainment Series through this link: Download Summer Edutainment Series 2011

Upcoming Environmental Films in RI ~ February 2011

See The What Grows On in RI Books/Films/Plays/Readings SubCalendar for the details of these and other movies. These are only SOME of the films being shown in or near Rhode Island this month. Too many to list!

See the Film Waste Land in Providence ~ December 2-9, 2010

The Cable Car in Providence is showing the film, WASTE LAND, for the coming week, and you should waste no time getting to the theater to see it!

I saw it tonight and I'd like to see it again. You can read reviews that describe this film -- about people who hand-pick recycleables out of the largest landfill in the world -- as "uplifting" ~ an unlikely adjective, you may think, until you see Waste Land for yourself.

I hope other Rhode Island theaters will show this film in the coming year. You will be glad you saw it.

 

Synopsis from the film's website:

"Filmed over nearly three years, WASTE LAND follows renowned artist Vik Muniz as he journeys from his home base in Brooklyn to his native Brazil and the world's largest garbage dump, Jardim Gramacho, located on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro. There he photographs an eclectic band of “catadores”—self-designated pickers of recyclable materials. Muniz’s initial objective was to “paint” the catadores with garbage. However, his collaboration with these inspiring characters as they recreate photographic images of themselves out of garbage reveals both the dignity and despair of the catadores as they begin to re-imagine their lives. Director Lucy Walker (DEVIL’S PLAYGROUND, BLINDSIGHT, COUNTDOWN TO ZERO) has great access to the entire process and, in the end, offers stirring evidence of the transformative power of art and the alchemy of the human spirit."

Where Do the Children Play?

 KINGSTON, RI  - A provocative documentary film, “Where Do the Children Play?,” will be shown at a free public screening on Tuesday, October 12 from 7:00 - 9:00 PM at the University of Rhode Island’s new Center for Biotechnology and Life Sciences (Flagg Road, Kingston, RI 02881).  The film examines an issue of growing concern among pediatricians, mental health experts, educators and environmentalists: more and more children are growing up today with few opportunities for unstructured play, especially outdoors. 

An audience discussion about the ideas explored in the film will follow, led by Providence Children’s Museum director Janice O’Donnell; Meadowbrook Waldorf School faculty chair Su Rubinoff; RI Families in Nature founder and director Jeanine Silversmith; and URI Child Development Center director Sue Warford.

Film about Climate Solutions ~ Carbon Nation ~ October 25, 2010

Worried about Carbon Pollution? How about a Climate Solution?
 

Come see Carbon Nation, a film about climate solutions
Monday, October 25 at 6:00 PM
Metcalf Auditorium in the Chace Center at RISD
20 North Main Street
Providence, RI
Buy your tickets online and save! Seats are limited!
 
Attend the Providence premiere of the film Carbon Nation, a documentary about climate solutions. Filmmaker Peter Byck has taken a complex and polarizing topic and made it apolitical, accessible and yes, entertaining. Entertaining because he chose to focus on solutions – and the real, very engaging and hopeful people already putting them in place around this country.

Gulf Oil Spill Telethon ~ June 21, 2010

We at NWF are pleased to alert our affiliate leaders to an important television event this coming Monday, June 21. Monday night, Larry King Live will host a special two-hour telethon to help victims of the oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. National Wildlife Federation has been selected as one of three charities to receive donations raised during show, which will air between 8:00-10:00 pm ET. You can also read about the Monday night program at the NWF online Media Center.

Film ~ A Sense of Wonder (about Rachel Carson) ~ November 20, 2009

The Women's Sustainability Series Committee invites you to experience
 
~   a sense of wonder   ~
 
a film about Rachel Carson's love for the natural world and her inspirational journey to protect it.
 
Date:    Friday, November 20th, 2009
Time:  5:30-8:00 p.m.
Place:  Metcalf Auditorium
RISD's Chace Center
20 North Main Street, Providence, RI
Ticket Price:  $35* per person, cash bar
R.S.V.P. Required:  Sharon Paul (401) 331-7110 ext.10
*Ticket Price is not tax deductible
 
Cocktails and hors d'oeuvres will be served during the discussion following the film.  Please bring a friend.
 
The Women's Sustainability Series offers inspirational presentations on global and
local sustainability issues that affect our daily lives.
 
Women's Sustainability Committee
 
Dominique Browning, Linda Doberstein, Linda Green, Elizabeth Grumbach, Gail Ballard Hall,
Ann-Marie Ignasher, Marnie Lacouture, Sharon Linder, Janis Nepshinsky, Joanne Riccitelli,
Maura Sayre, Julie Sharpe, Linda Wood

Film Showing on Chinese Environment ~ November 12, 2009

Road Ahead: The First Green Long March
A film screening with award-winning documentary producer  
Michael Raisler, Creative Director, CINEREACH
In collaboration with the Golden Jasmine Chinese Film Festival and the Department of Science and Technology of Bryant University
November 12, 5-6:30 p.m.

Room 2AB, Bryant Center

A film screening and discussion will take place Thursday, November 12th at Bryant University. The Road Ahead: The First Green Long March, an official selection of the Hamptons and Cleveland International film festivals and winner of Best International Documentary at the Queens International Film Festival, is the hopeful story of a group of Chinese college students who mobilize to spark their own environmental movement in rural China in the months leading up to the nation's 2008 "green" Olympic games.

Free Screening of Film "Tapped" at Brown University ~ November 10, 2009

Free Screening of "Tapped" at Brown University


"Tapped" is a 2009 documentary about the effects of the bottled water industry on America's economy, environment, and public health.  A coalition of Brown University student groups and the Environment Council of Rhode Island are sponsoring a free, public screening of "Tapped" on Tuesday, November 10, at 8:00 pm in the Salomon Center on the Main Green (91 Waterman Street).

Americans spent $15 billion on bottled water in 2007, a 30-fold increase in consumption per capita since 1976.  Producing these bottles used the equivalent of 17 million barrels of oil, excluding the cost of transportation.  Whereas bottled water costs $7.50 to $11.00 per gallon, tap water costs $0.01 per gallon.  24% of bottled water sold in the US, including Dasani and Aquafina, is not spring water but simply purified, repackaged tap water.

Compared to bottled water, tap water is regulated more rigorously and tested more frequently by the EPA.  Bisphenol-A, the chemical from which 5-gallon water cooler jugs are made, has been linked in 200 independent studies to illnesses including obesity, prostate cancer, breast cancer, diabetes, and brain disorders.