An educational and sometimes eye-opening movie event was enjoyed by around 100 attendees last Wednesday at Salem's Southern New Hampshire University. NextGen Climate – NH and Regional Field Director McKenzie St. Germain hosted a full evening that included refreshments, a showing of the independent movie REVOLUTION, an entertaining, interactive talk by New England Aquarium Education Director John Anderson, followed by informal discussions by the audience. The evening's topic centered on the worsening problem of climate change/global warming, and steps we all can take to become more aware of what we, our families and friends can do to mitigate it. The ridiculing and goofy bumper sticker days are over, as anyone who has the slightest inkling of what is happening right in front of us already knows. This fact was pointed out in both visually beautiful as well as unnerving ways by REVOLUTION,the 85-minute documentary directed by Rob Stewart that opened the evening. Stewart also directed an earlier doc, SHARKWATER, and it was while he was filming that movie that he received one of those epiphanies that we all get sometimes that there was an even bigger situation occurring than what he was then concentrating on.One of the problems with climate change is the fact that until the last couple decades its deleterious effects weren't obvious to most people in their day-to-day lives. Those of us who peruse cutting-edge books, online informational studies, etc. were onto the problem long before warming became routinely accepted. But there are still many people whose only knowledge of this universal concern is the well-known plight of the polar bears up in the Arctic, mainly because this piece of information went viral years ago in TV and print.REVOLUTION's excellence rests on the incredible job that Stewart and his team did in shooting hours and hours of the underbelly of the ongoing predicament, including close-up shots of the world's rapidly dying coral reefs, various fish/crustacean species in their natural habitat (many on the endangered list), amusing and poignant views of monkey-like lemurs living, loving and playing together, the director and team swimming underwater intermingling with schools of sharks….all fascinating.Stewart's narration complements the visuals perfectly, as instead of the typical professional and analytical tone taken by most scientists in nature documentaries we get to listen to a younger voice (32 years old at time of filming) whose awe and fear of what he was discovering as the cinematic process commenced comes through loud and clear. His friendly and personal style seems to be saying that he's "one of us" despite his superior knowledge about his subject, and we get more of a kinship with what he is imparting than we would from someone dryly talking over our heads.Stewart cites a wealth of statistics: the Great Barrier Reef's 38% reduction of coral over the past 25 years; 44% of America's electricity still coming from coal despite all the knowledge we've gleaned over the past half-century about the unquestionable warming effects of CO2 emissions; ocean acidification that is happening faster and faster, destroying our seas' ecosystem; Canada, China and many other nations being willful partners with the United States in mostly ignoring the ongoing threat, and man's continuing deforestation around the world (his sidebar animal species/forest scenes filmed in Madagascar are simultaneously comical and tragic).Much of this data is already available and has been for some time to the interested. What Stewart's movie is attempting to do is to make this knowledge more mainstream to the thankfully slowly-dwindling number of people and governments around the world still denying the obvious. The director attended a number of world conferences on the subject, and in REVOLUTION he shares some of the speeches by leaders, politicians and scientists at these affairs, as well as encouraging shots of young activists before and after the events, all of them galvanized about making other nations aware of our responsibility to lower our burning of fossil fuels and lessen our reliance on automobiles.What we all have to realize is that only 10% of the ongoing warming the earth is experiencing is happening in our air – 90% is occurring in our oceans. Our upper atmosphere has become a heat-trapping blanket over the near-two centuries since the Industrial Revolution, a simple fact that anyone with an aquarium and a little fuel and tinder can experimentally recreate at home. And despite being cyclical, the (literally) countless tons of pollutants and hot emissions that have been spewed into our air over those years have made warming increase exponentially, with thousands of instances including the 4-year drought in California, many Arctic ice caps becoming mostly lakes, numerous animal species dying off : all making the necessity of human intervention crystal-clear.Please GOOGLE NextGen Climate for more information on what you can do to both learn more about something we ALL should be aware of, and to hopefully start changing the mindsets of our acquaintances who may still be stuck in the past. We're all in this together, and for anyone who cares about the world we're going to leave to our children's children's children, as well as the health and continuance of our animal species, forests and natural wonders, this is all necessary knowledge.

Greetings again from the darkness. If you have seen Sharktown (2007), then you are already sold on the earnest commitment to conservation of documentarian Rob Stewart. In his earlier effort, the focus was on saving the shark population. This time out, he is imploring the human race "save ourselves".Rather than blindly preach the evils of global warming and pollution, Mr. Stewart travels to 15 countries over 4 years putting together case studies of overall effects. It is a bit odd to see the first few minutes of this film focus on sharks and Stewart's first movie. It feels as if he is trying to convince us of his worthiness, rather than letting his research speak for itself. Despite this minor complaint, the underwater photography alone makes this film worth watching. Stewart's remarkable eye combined with top notch equipment and real knowledge of ocean life, elevate his photograph work to the highest level.Of particular interest are Stewart's segments on Coral Eden in New Guinea, the diminishing coral reefs worldwide, the excessive carbon dioxide being absorbed by oceans due to the preponderance of Coal usage for energy (China opens a new coal plant each week), deforestation and its effect on Lemurs in Madagascar, the Canadian Tar Sands (Stewart is from Canada), and the increased banning of Shark Finning (now banned in more than 100 countries). Stewart drives home the point that most of the issues arise from the deep connection between governments and corporations.Stewart's mission is to convince individuals – especially young people – that they can make a difference; and in fact they MUST make a difference, or things will be much different and worse within their lifetimes. If we believe corporations will make changes for the sake of humanity and the saving of species, then we are dead wrong.

All I can say is you guys should check this out because it's an amazing look at the environmental crisis that is among us, it's alarming and potentially devastating. The way it's captured on film is pretty much a great insight to what could happen next if we continue to ignore important issues. The thing that stuck to me was the sequential order of the doc. From this issue to another, every one has an important message to send out. I believe this can change people's lives. I can say that this is the best documentary i have seen in recent memory. We humans can do a lot to help the missions for environmental awareness. I personally feel for the victims of the natural disasters because it's caused by ignorance. I hope everyone sees this. It's a real wake up call to the environment.

Before the film began, the audience was told that Rob Stewart was on his way over to do a post-screening Q&A with us. The film screened: Revolution. Expertly photographed, with Rob Stewart himself at the helm of the cinematography. This is an important documentary that gives unfiltered voice and expedient agency to the voice of youth all around the world. Felix Finkbeiner and a young Lebanese woman (I'm unable to remember her name) were two among many who brought me to such wellsprings of emotion as I have never felt. The grandchildren of the world are fighting for the survival of their grandchildren. As Rob Stewart told me in my February interview with him: "In the past the people affected by a destructive culture were the ones who moved to resolve it, for slavery it was the blacks, for women's suffrage it was women. Now, youth are facing the greatest social challenge. Youth have not drunk the Kool-Aid so to speak, they don't rationalize they just do what needs to be done. We are eating their future."The striking beauty of the cinematography featured in this film is a testament to the way in which Rob Stewart and many others featured in this film might view the ocean: with such vivid and lucid beauty. The ocean is the lifeblood of all life on Earth.Revolution brings into a very clear focus, as clear as possible, the incredible efficacy of the multi-tiered project of global awareness, whether from the leading environmental scientists, or public demonstrations, everyone has an integral role to play in the fight for human survival on this gorgeous planet. We can change, because we are changing. The question is not whether or not we should change, the question is, what direction to we want to go in?Canada, and more specifically Alberta, is home to the most destructive industrial resource project on Earth, the Tar Sands. It is no wonder Rob Stewart chose Alberta as a focus-group to preview his film, as Alberta is exactly where the change in direction needs to occur. As the "godfather" of coral and former chief scientist at the Australian Institute of Marine Science, Charlie Veron, said in the film: the only way to that we can avoid increased ocean acidification, which is the cause of most major extinctions in the history of life on planet Earth, is to stop burning fossil fuels. Canada, home to Greenpeace and other environmentally-savvy networks, has been the recipient of the Fossil Award, given to the nation which has most hindered global efforts to reduce carbon emissions, 5 years in a row.Through an insightful look at sharks, flamboyant cuttlefish, and the Canadian lynx, Rob Stewart takes us on a narrative journey into the depths and heights of evolutionary progress, and how the will to live is our greatest asset as inheritors of the great and mysterious onus called life in this universe. We must realize that our responsibility as living beings is to reciprocate, or we will get exactly what is coming, without exception, regardless of our being a singular species of unrivaled capacity, we are not invincible to extinction.Soon there will be 7 billion people on Earth, yet non-renewable resources are consumed exponentially. Canada has no energy policy. During a conversation before the screening with George Melnyk, professor of literature, film and Western Canadian identity at University of Calgary, he said: "I'm in my sixties, and I've spent most of my life in Canada under Liberal federal governments. Since 2006, under the minority Harper government and now the majority Harper government, so we're talking like seven years, we have moved much more clearly towards a partisan position, meaning that we support a group of nations, a group of people that want to act a certain way in the world, we don't want to stand away from that a little bit, right? So that balance being partisan and trying to be non-partisan, that has now disappeared. We're very military-oriented. The experience in Afghanistan has been completely wasted."An increasing number of people bear the brunt of starvation, while trillions are spent to wage what is fast becoming the longest war in modern history (Afghanistan) and bail out indebted banks. "The scientists have done their job, now it's time for the politicians to do theirs," says an interviewee in Revolution.At the end of the film, Rob Stewart told us about the many awards the film has already received, he was glowing with optimism. Revolution is due to appear on more screens than any other documentary in Canadian history. One hand raised came down to a more pessimistic tune. To that, Stewart simply responded that it is usually the people who are not doing anything who are pessimistic, the people who are actually involved in helping to make positive change are optimistic.For the last question, my hand went up like lightning. He took my question; what I had been waiting to ask for months since our private phone conversation would see the light of day in front of a full crowd at the university theater: "What is the biggest thing that makes you optimistic every day?" I asked. I remembered the way I felt after I first spoke to Stewart; crushing powerlessness. He responded something to the tune of: What makes me optimistic everyday is observing life itself, and how life has survived. I think that especially now when we are bombarded by over-consumptive habits in the use of technology, finding meaning in helping to save ourselves and the Earth is the greatest source of fulfillment that we need right now.Revolution opens in theaters everywhere April 12. See my full film review/reflection story on Media Co-op