An activist film about the fight to preserve our natural lands, 49 Megawatts reveals how the province of British Columbia is leasing its rivers to private power companies in order to meet the growing demand for energy. Filmmaker Bryan Smith gives a sombre view of the development of Canadian lands, and a community’s resistance to save it.

A team of adventurous scientists and filmmakers, aboard the Canadian sailing ship SEDNA IV document the impact of climate change in Antarctica. On the remote, windswept islands of South Georgia they encounter a spectacular gatherings of penguins, albatross and fur seals who depend on huge swarms of shrimp-like zooplankton called krill, which are the driving force of the vast Southern Ocean food web. On, Bird Island, only four hectares, researchers discover that climate changes, starting half a world away, are having a devastating impact on the krill-eating predators. Fur seals and gentoo penguins are telling us that changes to ice formation and temperatures in Antarctica are at the heart of the problem. Islands at the Edge bears witness to a changing world.

À l’extrême Sud de notre planète, la vie semble déconnectée du reste du monde. Sur les îles sub-antarctiques ou encore sur les rives du grand continent de glace, les humains ne sont que des prédateurs de passage. Là-bas, manchots, phoques, baleines et albatros sont rois. Leur adaptation au climat extrême leur permet de profiter de ces zones d’abondance, où l’Homme n’a pas encore trouvé le moyen de tout exploiter. Dernier continent vierge de la planète, l’Antarctique ne s’offre qu’à ceux et celles qui le méritent. Pendant une année, l’équipage du SEDNA IV naviguera sur les mers les plus hostiles de la planète, pour témoigner des nouvelles menaces qui guettent ce secteur méconnu de notre planète. Au rythme des saisons, nous assisterons aux grands cycles de cette vie australe, riche et spectaculaire. En se questionnant sur le fonctionnement de cet écosystème unique, nous découvrirons toute sa fragilité.

With the US at war in Iraq, rushing to secure the flow of oil from the Middle East, a concurrent race is happening right now closer to home on American soil.

Home to some of the most pristine landscapes in the United States, the American Rockies are under threat. Shortly after the Bush administration came to power in 2001, they granted the leasing of all American public lands to oil and gas industries. With rich pools of oil and natural gas spanning from Montana to New Mexico, a war has broken out between citizens who’ve lived on the land for generations, and the US government willing to destroy it for just a few days supply of energy. A sobering story about the current administration’s exploitation of its land and its people.

"It don't grow back."

Here is something to ponder. If a tree falls in the forest with no one there to hear it does it make a sound?… Likewise if a mountain is chopped away will it grow back? Mountain Top Removal examines the controversial coal mining practice that occurs throughout Southern Appalachia in the US. Slow removal of coal from this mountainous region is resulting in leveled forests, destruction of communities and threatened water supplies Though, coal might be the cheapest domestic fuel source, it releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and its runoffs poison the groundwater.

Ed Wiley, a grandfather, brought his concerns about mountain top coal removal to the Governor of Virginia’s office and then marched from Charleston to Washington, DC bringing awareness to the threatened school that his grandchild attends near a mining site.

Passions run high for those most affected by mountain top removal at a time when 50% of the nation’s electricity supply depends on coal.

With the onset of peak oil looming over the world as a spectre, a crucial conversation has begun, to seek solutions for coping with depleting levels of oil. We can learn lessons from the only country to have survived such a peak oil crisis: Cuba.

The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1990 drew Cuba into an economic catastrophe. Overnight, the country lost more than half of its oil imports and 80 percent of its food capacity. Against all odds, the country coped remarkably well by creating a sustainable local economy focusing largely on organic agricultural methods while preserving Cuba’s socialist ideals.

The Inuit call ice Saattuq and its melting. In the High Arctic, climate change is not a debate. It’s a visceral fact of life transforming the lives of its people, its landscape and wildlife. Thin Ice provides a comprehensive overview of the impact of climate change on our Polar region. The film also presents the broader discussion over sovereignty and control of the arctic waters while melting ice presents new challenges and new perspectives on our vision of the north.

Climate change is an interconnected relationship between society and the ecosystem. A stylistic colourful animation on the impact of our actions on the environment.