Coming Tuesday, February 15, 2011, KXLU Los Angeles proudly presents Center Stage with Mark Gordon featuring filmmaker Peter Byck. Byck will be talking about his film “Carbon Nation.”
Center Stage with Mark Gordon airs Tuesdays at 7PM (PST) on KXLU Los Angeles, 88.9 FM and streaming “live” at www.kxlu.com
Usually when a director sets out to make an environmental documentary its appeal automatically is geared toward the more “liberal” audience, however director Peter Byck set out to make a film for his Uncle Phil—a conservative who finds Peter’s liberal ways amusing. Peter wanted to make an environmental film where the real story isn’t all doom and gloom. There are plenty of people working towards solutions – and not all of them even believe in climate science. Many of them just want clean air and water or more robust national defense.
Peter’s goal was to make a big-tent film where folks of all political stripes could find common ground, which is what makes it so different from the typical “green doc.” Carbon Nation features Bernie Karl, a wild Alaskan geothermal pioneer who doesn’t think humans are the cause of climate change, but does want cheap, reliable energy. It also features “the Green Hawks” in the Department of Defense, Bay Area radicals, utility CEOs, airlines execs and wonky economists – all of whom agree that using as little energy as possible and making clean energy are important goals; whether for solutions to climate change, national or energy security or public health. And finally, Peter and his Uncle Phil have something they
can agree on!
Carbon Nation is an optimistic, solutions-based, non-partisan documentary that illustrates why it’s incredibly smart to be a part of the new, low-carbon economy: it’s good business, it emboldens national and energy security, and it improves health and the environment.
Through a cast of engaging and endearing characters from across the country, in towns big and small, Carbon Nation introduces us to the new wave of American ingenuity. From one-armed Texas cotton farmer Cliff Etheridge, who is banding together small farmers’ land to create one enormous wind farm, to green jobs innovator Van Jones, who is bringing
clean technology and jobs to inner cities, it’s clear that the creative solutions needed to combat climate change are already being created by entrepreneurs, visionaries, scientists, and the everyday man. By bringing their innovations to light, Carbon Nation is a film that celebrates solutions and inspires action.
CARBON NATION is directed by Peter Byck and written by Byck, Eric Driscoll, Matt Weinhold, and Karen Weigert. Producers are Peter Byck, Craig Sieben, Karen Weigert, Artemis Joukowsky, and Chrisna van Zyl. Executive Producers are Paula Crown, Gigi Pritzker Nick Pritzker, Peggy and Henry Sharpe, and The Lemelson Foundation.
Narrated by Bill Kurtis, the cast includes: Richard Branson (CEO, Virgin Group), Thomas L. Friedman (The New York Times), Former CIA Director James Woolsey, Van Jones (Founder, Green For All), Col. Dan Nolan, U.S. Army (Ret), Bernie Karl (Geothermal pioneer from Alaska), Denis Hayes (Founder of Earth Day), Cliff Etheredge (West Texas wind pioneer), and more climate change pioneers.
