Carbon Hunters

Carbon Hunters
Thursday November 26, 2009 at 8 pm on CBC-TV

Repeating: Friday November 27, 2009 at 10 pm ET/PT on CBC News Network

Carbon Hunters
Watch the promo online.

2:01 minutes



Is it possible, considering the many obstacles, to stop global warming, or at least reduce its harm? Anticipating the important United Nations Climate Change Conference starting December 7 in Copenhagen, Doc Zone presents the World Premiere of a timely and intriguing new documentary by Vancouver filmmaker/journalist Miro Cernetig, Carbon Hunters.

Carbon Hunters delves into the controversial, little-understood, yet booming industry of carbon credit trading as a potentially workable mechanism towards solving what most people now acknowledge as the greatest crisis facing the planet: global warming.

This is a crisis with no easy solutions. Voters so far seem reluctant to accept carbon taxes so, while we wait for industry and governments to sign on to binding international agreements that will fix limits on air pollution, one possible solution is good to go right now: carbon trading.

Sometimes called emissions trading, carbon offset, or cap-and-trade, carbon trading is attractive to many because it is a market-driven solution that puts a fixed price on pollution, allowing those who pollute to pay and those do not pollute to profit from their position.

Enter Vancouver entrepreneur Shawn Burns. They say every cloud has a silver lining. In Burns' case, he thinks that cloud is global warming and that there may be a way to stop it and make money along the way. The CEO of Carbon Credit Corp. is a 'carbon hunter' - a whole new breed of entrepreneur in a booming new industry: global traders who scour the planet looking for carbon credits. Burns and his partners package those credits and sell them to polluters, taking a cut from the sale.

The plan for trading carbon as a global commodity was hatched at the UN Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. Today, that carbon trading market is a 'green rush' that's already worth $100 billion and climbing. But how does it actually work, and what does a carbon credit actually buy?

Filmmaker Miro Cernetig travels from BC to the Canadian prairie, and on to India, Philippines, Hollywood, Chicago, London and New York to find answers, linking seemingly disparate elements like the dung of sacred cows in India, the band Coldplay, Alberta wheat farmers, movie star Cameron Diaz, Filipino garbage scavengers, U.S. President Barack Obama, sea algae, the Assembly of First Nations in Canada, an English funeral director, the Amazon rain forest, and the Alberta Tar Sands.

Cernetig hears from supporters of this profit motive-driven solution, like influential Canadian Maurice Strong, who feels that carbon trading is "an essential element in the solution...and the most effective one that's actually working at this moment," and detractors, like Kevin Smith of the group Carbon Trade Watch and author of the book Carbon Neutral Myth - Offset Indulgences for your Climate Sins, who argues that the carbon trading business is all smoke and mirrors. As for Shawn Burns, he concludes, "Rather than just exploiting resources now we can make money protecting resources. I think you can make money and save the planet at the same time. And I think you should."

And where does the average Canadian come into this? Cernetig talks to a Vancouver man who learned whether the tree he bought as a carbon credit to offset an airplane trip really made a difference. "This is the first film that takes a global look at how you buy a carbon credit and what you get - or don't get - when you do," says Cernetig. "In our travels we've discovered the difficulties and ethical quandaries behind creating a new commodity - carbon credits - to deal with climate change."

Carbon Hunters is produced by Force Four Entertainment in association with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporatio

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Tom

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Dear friends across Canada,




Our call to save the CBC from drastic budget cuts will be delivered to
Parliament tomorrow - let's urgently tell friends and blow past our 100,000
signature goal!


Sign the petition!





In just 6 days, almost 100,000 of us have come together and signed the petition
to Save the CBC and Radio Canada from deeply damaging budget cuts - one of the
largest online petitions in Canadian history!



Tomorrow, MPs from each opposition party have agreed to jointly receive our
petition and deliver it in Parliament to the government. While they do, planes
will fly over Parliament Hill trailing giant banners
that deliver our message and the number of signatures on the petition.
We're already getting media calls, and on Saturday we'll be
distributing thousands of Save the CBC buttons at the high profile
Genie Awards.



Our message is getting out, but it's only as powerful as the number of people
that sign it -- click below to sign if you haven't and let's forward this email
to as many friends as possible - let's blow past our 100,000 goal by tomorrow!



http://www.avaaz.org/en/save_the_cbc/



The CBC is vital for Canadian art, culture and identity. These
cuts have been forced on it for no good reason - the CBC has asked the
government for sensible bridge financing - borrowing against their
funding next year to spread the cuts out and make sure vital assets
aren't damaged this year. The government has refused because, as we
know from numerous past statements from Prime Minister Harper, they
have an ideological agenda of opposition to a public broadcaster.
They'd like to see the CBC privatized and sold off. With the CBC
already forced to get half of its revenue from advertizing (compelling
it to carry expensive American TV shows) that process is well underway.
Even while the CBC survives in name, it's public character and mission are under
attack.



With enough of a public outcry, we can reverse the government's decision. But
even if we don't, a powerful statement is being made, to this government and
future ones, that Canadians want the CBC and Radio Canada to survive
as public service broadcasters. If enough of us act together now,
they'll think twice the next time they look to undermine the CBC, and
together we'll form a voice that can empower our national broadcasters
to fully return to their precious public service mission.



http://www.avaaz.org/en/save_the_cbc/



With hope and determination,


Ricken, Lisa-Marie, Laryn and the Avaaz Canada team


PS - the best group providing information and opportunities to get more
deeply involved in this issue is Friends of Canadian Broadcasting - you
can see their website here:

http://www.friends.ca