Carbon Nation - "Green for all"

A documentary about solutions to global warming by Peter Byck was screened at Jacobs University. Students and external visitors alike enjoyed the film ‘Carbon Nation’. Producer and director Peter Byck attended the screening and answered questions. The event was supported by the US consulate and hosted by Michael Bau, Professor of Geoscience at Jacobs University.

March 29, 2012

The movie starts with the negative effects of carbon dioxide overproduction on the world’s climate and is based in the United States. The problem: US emissions that make up 25 per cent of all global greenhouse gases need to be reduced. 13 US-Americans– among them a Texan wind farmer, a green-minded former CIA agent, an eco-sensitive civil rights campaigner and an eco-conscious airline boss have come up with ideas to contribute to climate protection with unusual ideas that save the planet and are economical at the same time. The tenor of the film was “green for all.” Peter Byck is hopeful that solutions to global warming are in our hands and that the technology for wind, solar and geothermal energy are far enough along.

The screening was followed by a lively question and answer session with Peter Byck. Questions raised covered topics of disproportionate emissions by industrial and emerging nations, the need for energy efficiency, and the fact that green energy will help to reduce energy costs. “This film does have an impact, it has changed careers in an environmentally friendly direction and has changed people’s minds,” Byck reported. A great hope of Byck would be to win over George W. Bush for his campaign. “We need people who are not aboard, yet,” he concluded.

Peter Byck and his project ‘Carbon Nation’
Peter Byck (from Louisville, Kentucky) has more than 20 years’ experience as a director and editor. He has edited documentaries for Peter Jackson’s two films, ‘Lord of the Rings’ and ‘King Kong.’ He has also worked as an editor or director for documentaries and promotional shorts for Warner Bros., Universal Pictures, 20th Century Fox, MTV, Vh1, BBC, Disney and MGM, for shows and movies including ‘The West Wing’, ‘The Matrix’, ‘Scrubs’, ‘er’ and many more.

‘Carbon Nation’ is Peter Byck’s second documentary about topics outside the film industry. Since finishing it in fall 2010, he has been on a large-scale international tour promoting his film at cinemas, schools and universities as well as global companies, governmental and non-governmental organizations. He showed ‘Carbon Nation’ at Boeing, Nike, Google, Microsoft, Walmart, Shell, White House CEQ, Yale University and as part of the Prince of Wales' Business and the Environment Programme (BEP) at Cambridge University.

His first independent documentary ‘Garbage’ from 1996 dealt with the sustainability and environmental protection. It won the ‘South by Southwest Film Festival’, was screened at many festivals in the U.S. and Europe and played at the Museum of Modern Art and Lincoln Center.

We talked to the director of 'Carbon Nation' and Prof. Michael Bau who hosted the event at Jacobs: