As Debate Over Green New Deal Heats Up, Revisit MEF Videos on Climate Change, Fossil Fuels, and American Consumerism
President Donald Trump, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, and Fox News commentators have been doing their best to mock, ridicule, and belittle Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for arguing that we need a Green New Deal to take bold action on climate change.
But clear signs are emerging that growing numbers of Americans see very little to laugh at.
A range of bipartisan polls now show that large majorities of Americans are more concerned than ever about global warming, want the government to do more to protect the environment, and actually support most of the major provisions of the Green New Deal.
As the debate about the Green New Deal intensifies, and public support for taking bold action to reverse climate change continues to build, we want to remind you that MEF offers a variety of educational videos designed to help people cut through fossil-fuel industry propaganda and think critically about commercial media messages that push consumption and consumerism at all costs.
We especially recommend our new release Advertising at the Edge of the Apocalypse, which argues that we’re not likely to avert the coming climate catastrophe without first confronting the near-religious status of American consumerism and the immense cultural power of the advertising industry.
Browse all of our videos on climate change, energy policy, and consumption below!
ADVERTISING AT THE EDGE OF THE APOCALYPSE
“Why has our society failed to address climate change, which calls into question the very survival of humanity? Advertising at the Edge of the Apocalypse provides a compelling answer that few so far have been willing to contemplate: the nature of our advertising and marketing system, a ‘magic kingdom’ which today has come to dominate human consciousness from cradle to grave.”
– John Bellamy Foster | Professor of Sociology at the University of Oregon
“Do the Math is essential viewing for anyone interested in the points of contact between climate change, politics, and the global economy. It brings home a compelling message from Bill McKibben that the world must reform an economic system tilted heavily towards using several times as much carbon-based fuel as the atmosphere can sustain. Watching this film is a useful starting point for becoming a thoughtful ‘global climate citizen.'”
– Dr. Doug Crawford-Brown | University of Cambridge, England
“A Burning Question picks up where An Inconvenient Truth left off, not just updating the data of climate change, but probing the disinformation and media confusion that obstruct action on civilization’s greatest challenge. The setting is Ireland, but the story is the world’s. See it!”
– William DeBuys | Author of A Great Aridness: Climate Change and the Future of the American Southwest
“If we lived in a rational world, inhabited by rational human beings, viewing Blind Spot would be a mandatory prerequisite to taking any federal oath of office in the coming year. Were that to happen, there might be hope that the USA would resume world leadership and our renewed influence would be used to redirect ourselves and the world away from the unsustainable path upon which we plummeted along throughout the 20th century.”
– William R. Catton | Author of Overshoot
“An astonishing movie that goes behind the scenes of climate activism.”
– Amelia Gregory | Amelia’s Magazine
“A smart, funny, adrenalized portrait of 21st century activism.”
– Danny Leigh | The Guardian
“Every peace activist, every environmental activist, and every concerned citizen should see this film.”
– William Hartung | New America Foundation
“Michael Klare’s analysis of the role of oil in U.S. foreign policy since 1945 is indispensable to an understanding of the critical problems we face. I hope that this lucid and historically accurate film is widely seen.”
– Chalmers Johnson | Author, The Blowback Trilogy
“An excellent primer for educators, students, and indeed all people concerned with the future of the planet. With riveting clarity, Klare outlines how resource use, especially of fossil fuels, is leading us down an increasingly destructive path, and why the turn toward alternative energy and a different kind of future demands immediate, and perhaps radical, action.”
– Dr. Bret Gustafson | Associate Professor of Sociocultural Anthropology at Washington University in St. Louis
CONSUMERISM AND THE LIMITS TO IMAGINATION
“Consumerism & the Limits to Imagination is a trenchant and timely critique of how consumer capitalism undermines the well-being of humans and the planet. [It provides] fascinating and provocative insights into the ways that media and marketing undermine our collective ability to imagine alternatives to this damaging way of living.”
– Tim Kasser | Author, The High Price of Materialism
