March 18 2010, 12:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.

Event Details

Every year there is a burning season in Indonesia. Areas of rainforest the size of Denmark are cut down and set alight by farmers and corporations to develop palm oil plantations. Not only is the habitat of critically endangered orangutans destroyed, but new scientific evidence also shows that deforestation comprises 20 percent of global carbon emissions, contributing significantly to climate change. The Burning Season is the story of a remarkable achievement by one young man not afraid to single-handedly confront the biggest challenge of our time. Dorjee Sun, a young entrepreneur, believes there’s money to be made from protecting rainforests in Indonesia, saving the orangutan from extinction and making a real impact on climate change. Armed with a laptop and a backpack, he sets out across the globe to find investors in his carbon-trading scheme. It is a battle against time, but Dorjee’s determination to succeed will uplift and entertain audiences and inspire hope in our future.

Narrated by Hugh Jackman. Directed by Cathy Henkel. Produced by Hatchling Productions in association with Films of Record.

Introduced by Geoffrey D. Dabelko, Director, Environmental Change and Security Program, Woodrow Wilson Center. Discussion with filmmaker Cathy Henkel follows screening.

Learn more

View the source: http://www.wmnf.org/program_specials/486

My guest on “Talking Animals” March 10 will be PATTI RAGAN, founder of the Center For Great Apes, a sprawling 100-+ acre sanctuary in Wauchula, FL, which not only houses a number of chimpanzees (including Michael Jackson’s old pal, Bubbles), but also offers refuge to the country’s largest gathering of orangutans.

A former teacher and business woman, Ragan founded the Center in 1997 and is considered a top expert on chimpanzees and other great apes in entertainment.

One Center resident, a chimp named Roger, was at the center of the recent book “The Wauchula Woods Accord,” by Charles Siebert, who periodically writes New York Times Magazine cover stories about animals & animal issues (and is a past “Talking Animals” guest).

Patti Ragan will speak with us live on March 10, and listeners are invited to participate in the conversation by calling (813-239-9663) or e-mailing (DJ@wmnf.org).

http://www.centerforgreatapes.org/

http://www.talkinganimals.net/

View the video at the source: Al Jazeera’s 101 East

Featuring two Orangutan Outreach friends: Rezal Kusumaatmadja and Dorjee Sun (of The Burning Season)

Imagine a way to save tropical rainforests without having to reduce greenhouse gases. Imagine a way to make environmental conservation profitable.

Some claim carbon trading is the best option for major corporations to pay for emitting pollution.

They can do this by buying a forest, or funding a conservation program in a developing country. But critics say this billion dollar business will only benefit banks and investors and allow polluters to keep on polluting.

The global carbon market is expanding, particularly in Asia. But is it reducing emissions or impeding real solutions to climate change?

On this edition of 101 East, we ask if carbon trading can slow down global warming.

BBC One ~ Mon 22 Feb 2010 ~ 20:30

If consumers knew that buying their favourite chocolate bar contributed to the extinction of the orangutan and fuelled global warming, would they still treat themselves?

The UK consumes huge amounts of palm oil, an ingredient found in scores of products including biscuits, fish fingers, cosmetics and toiletries. Reporter Raphael Rowe journeys into the rainforest of Borneo, where he uncovers evidence of palm oil companies cutting down trees illegally and developing plantations on protected land, the deforestation releasing huge amounts of greenhouse gases into the global environment.

As the forest disappears, at a rate of two football pitches every minute, so too does the habitat of man’s closest cousins, the critically endangered orangutan.

Credits

Presenter: Jeremy Vine
Reporter: Raphael Rowe
Producer: Steven Grandison

Learn more on the Panorama website.

Environmental Film Festival: http://www.dcenvironmentalfilmfest.org/films/

Welcome to the 18th Annual Environmental Film Festival in the Nation’s Capital

As we enter a new decade of the 21st century, the Environmental Film Festival comes of age, marking 18 eventful years in Washington, D.C. with our biggest and most ambitious Festival yet. This year the Festival is proud to present 155 diverse and thought-provoking films, including 66 Washington, D.C., United States and World premieres, that celebrate the wonder of the natural world and illuminate the growing challenges to life on earth.

The 2010 Festival explores the vital connections between food and the environment. What we eat is essential to our health and wellbeing; how food is produced and transported to our tables affects the condition of our planet. Starting from the ground up, Dirt! The Movie and Soil in Good Heart focus on earth’s most underrated source of fertility and its key role in creating nourishing food. Our pre-Festival screening for D.C. public and charter school students, What’s On Your Plate? investigates the sources of our food while Lunch looks specifically at school food programs. Food Fight traces the birth of the country’s sustainable organic food movement in California during the 1960s, led by Alice Waters. Fresh and Ingredients celebrate today’s farmers, chefs and business people who are creating a new food culture in America. Terra Madre highlights the contributions of Italy’s Slow Food movement and HomeGrown spotlights an urban family farm in Pasadena, California. Nora! profiles Washington restaurateur, Nora Pouillon, founder of the nation’s first certified organic restaurant.

Challenges to our food supply are illustrated in films that investigate the decline of oysters in the Chesapeake Bay, the damage caused by salmon farms and the search for seeds that can withstand the impact of global warming. “E2-Transport”: Food Miles makes the case for local food production and consumption. Seeds of Hunger warns of an impending global food crisis while the searing documentary Garapa gives hunger a human face. Enhancing the Festival’s screenings are discussions with more than 150 filmmakers and special guests whose knowledge and expertise add immeasurably to our understanding of our world. Renowned writer, naturalist and explorer Peter Matthiessen (appearing in person and on film) examines the impact of climate change on Arctic cultures. Distinguished art historian John Walsh traces the evolution of the sculpture garden. Emerging Brazilian filmmaker Otavio Juliano’s film The Music Tree receives the Festival’s first annual Polly Krakora Award for artistry in film.

Additional films address the environmental implications of such diverse subjects as the current natural gas drilling boom, mountaintop removal and the mysterious disappearance of frogs, while others point to the success of businesses that are adopting green practices and stimulating the growth of clean, renewable energy.

At the beginning of a new decade in a young century, the escalating threats to our environment are tempered by the emergence of creative solutions. We hope that you will join us this March at the Environmental Film Festival to gain fresh insights, through the power of film, into the problems and the progress being made to protect life on our planet.

In our last episode of Radiolab, Animal Minds, we asked whether it was possible for one animal to know what is going on in another animal’s mind. For us, it was a really about whether we, as humans, can really share a meaningful moment with an animal. In this podcast, we take that question a step further. Can an animal know what’s in our heads so well that they can manipulate and deceive us? To answer that question, reporter Ben Calhoun took us back to the 1960s to tell the story of a showdown between zookeeper Jerry Stones and a wily orangutan named Fu Manchu (not pictured). Then, to help us get a grip on the science behind animals and deception, Ben talks to primatologist and orangutan expert Rob Shumaker of the Great Ape Trust.

Listen at radiolab

Friday, 29 January 2010 – Indonesia has the highest number of endangered species in the world. Wild orangutans, in particular, face extinction within the decade as their habitat continues to be destroyed by deforestation.

BBC Fast:track’s Amandeep Bhangu travelled to Kalimantan where the national parks are hoping to raise awareness, and vital financial support, through tourism.

Check out the amazing video on the BBC website: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8487982.stm