Good Old Days
Sustainable Pacific Grove
Pacific Grove Museum of Natural History

Film Schedule and Information

Saturday April 21st

11:30 End of Suburbia

Suburbia, and all it promises, has become the American Dream.
But as we enter the 21st century, serious questions are beginning to emerge about the sustainability of this way of life. With brutal honesty and a touch of irony, The End of Suburbia explores the American Way of Life and its prospects as global demand for fossil fuels begins to outstrip supply.

1:00 Power of Community

The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil, documents Cuba’s emergency transition to local organic agriculture, renewable energy, and large-scale mass transit. The transition occurred following the Soviet collapse in 1990, when their massive subsidies of imported oil and food to Cuba were halted. In this documentary, ordinary Cubans talk about the immediate hardships they faced. Their GDP dropped by more than one third, transportation nearly stopped and food became scarce - the average Cuban lost 20 pounds during the first years of this economic crisis.
The film visits urban gardens and organic farms, explains the relationship between food and fossil fuels, and shows how a society can change from an industrialized, global focus to a local, community-based one.

2:30 Power Shift

America’s addiction to oil continues to threaten our national security, environment and economy. Come find out what you can do about it. Power Shift, narrated by Cameron Diaz, offers an inspiring and thought-provoking look at the future of our planet and what ordinary citizens can do now to preserve it. Power Shift offers easy, practical steps that each of us can take to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels. The results will be greater security, a prosperous economy, and a vibrant natural world. The program radiates optimism. Power Shift has received numerous awards.

Sunday April 22nd
11:30 Kilowatt Ours
Follow filmmaker Jeff Barrie from the coal mines of West Virginia to the solar panel fields of Florida as he discovers solutions to American’s energy related problems. Along the way you’ll meet everyday Americans finding ways to harness power from the wind and sun. Find out how Jeff and his wife Heather cut their energy bills in half and use a portion of their savings to buy green power.
1:00 Strange Days on Planet Earth: The One Degree Factor
National Geographic's Strange Days on Planet Earth is a detective story exploring the fate of our planet. As unsettling transformations sweep across the globe, scientists are assembling a new picture of Earth and discovering how seemingly disparate events are connected. In this episode, entitled “The One Degree Factor” scientists are documenting a series of perplexing phenomena many believe is linked to climate change. As heat accumulates in the global climate system, places such as Alaska and the northwest corner of Canada are getting more than their share. The average temperature has increased in some places here by as much as 11 degrees Fahrenheit. Across the world, other events that some scientists link to climate change are unfolding. These are but a few of the puzzling events that lead some scientists to believe life on Earth may be pushed to extremes by rising global temperatures.
2:30 The Great Turning
In this illustrated lecture, David Korten presents the central messages of his new book ”The Great Turning”. Will future generations know ours as the time of the Great Unraveling, when profligate consumption exceeded the Earth’s capacity, leading to an accelerated wave of collapsing environmental systems, violent competition for resources, and dramatic human dieback? Or will it be a time of the Great Turning, when the higher-order potential of human nature turned crisis into opportunity and learned to live in creative partnership with one another and Earth? In the mounting perfect economic storm born of peak oil, climate change and imbalanced U.S. economy, we can choose terminal crisis or epic opportunity.