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So this post is long overdue but is exciting nonetheless. Productions and units can now be Greener Sets Certified! Check out the link on the right panel (pretty brilliant design by Faunt, methinks), and email or call for more info. Thrilling!

I will be in the U.S. for the next year completing a Masters' in Public Administration in Environmental Science and Policy at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs and the Earth Institute. Dynamized by last week's Climate Project North America Summit (see picture with Vice President Al Gore!), I am excited to continue to build on my understanding of the environmental problems facing us and look forward to bringing all this back to Montreal with me next May.

Cheers!

Marie-Marguerite

Right-click to download full mp3 (43 MB) here.

I realise there was trouble viewing the video footage of my talk on the Students for Sustainability site. Below is the text of the speech I gave at Dawson College in Montreal.

Hi Everyone,

Thanks for having me speak here at Dawson. After almost 2 weeks of traveling on a bus it’s good to be home. So I guess I’ll tell you a bit about how I started to do what I am doing, set the stage a little bit on the film industry and the environment, see what other industries are doing, and then talk a little bit about what we can do, filmmakers and film lovers alike, to reduce the footprint of the industry.

And something to keep in mind throughout this presentation: the greater point I’m making here is that we can each, in our own way, set out to make concrete change in our little niches.

It was certainly a great way to round off the tour. While enthusiasm for major environmental action waned and we were met with some resistance in the Prairie provinces, those that did come out in support were all the more charged to make demands and commit change in their communities.

Severn Cullis-Suzuki joined us for the last few dates, and shared the video of her 1992 Rio Summit Speech with audiences. It gave me chills. It is hard to fathom that in 20 years, the problems that we were so devoted to addressing have only gotten worse. And to hear a 13 year old child speak so passionately was more than compelling. 

I also had the opportunity to speak with film students at the University of Regina who understand the need to fundamentally change the way our industry functions. Here's to a new generation of sustainable filmmaking. 

I’m sitting in Thunder Bay, Ontario, watching David Suzuki simulcast from Toronto. It’s one of my last stops on this tour and I’m already feeling nostalgic. The three events in Toronto last week were a huge success. George Strouboloupoulos came to Ryerson on Tuesday to plug his One Million Acts of Green campaign, and to urge Canadians to make their voices heard by speaking directly to their MPs in Parliament. We collected over one thousand petition signatures at U of T Mississauga alone. Following last week’s election results the tour has taken on a new energy. It’s been a politically charged time.

David Suzuki delivered a new speech yesterday, clearly with a mandate to criticise the current political climate. “Is our government saying laws don’t matter internationally and locally?!”, he asked when talking about Harper’s complete disregard to our international Kyoto Protocol commitments and his own election regulation. He referred to the Stern Report, pointing out that we are facing no smaller a choice than between investing 1% of our national GDP to real economic expansion through green industry, or the total destruction of our economy.