We can fix this. Action on global warming starts with us.

Portland filmmaker Matt Briggs has posted a blog here about his new documentary "Deep Green." You can see the film at the Bagdad Theater in Portland on June 24 at a $5 benefit showing for OLCV. Read Matt's blog below:

It’s easy to be overwhelmed by just the thought of global warming.

It seems too daunting, too abstract—and even, many think, just too far in the future. Now we know it’s not. And the fact is that we have the solutions at our fingertips. We can fix this. That’s what our new documentary is about. It’s called “Deep Green.”

It’s a film I’ve put my passion into. When powerful interests ignore or downplay or even sabotage the truth of what we know about the natural world for their own advancement, against the interests of the common good, then it is time to push back. To me, politics means acting on what you believe to be true to influence the laws we choose to live under. Selfish interests never rest, and manipulation of power and information for personal or corporate gain is ever busy. Inaction guarantees that you will not have a place at the table when decisions are made.

I chose to act by making a film. But it wasn’t as simple as that. In fact, we did not set out to make “Deep Green” as a full-length documentary.  It started as a weekend shoot about what one person could do in their house to live lighter on the planet.  But when we started looking around, we saw lots of green builders who needed their stories told.

We followed them to China and the story expanded. It expanded into six years of research, three years of filming, and travel in nine countries talking to more than 100 experts, entrepreneurs and green-tech pioneers. The story led us.

In an interview with The New York Times’ Deborah Solomon a few years ago, Princeton philosopher Harry Frankfurt said this about recognizing the truth: “You have to leave yourself out of it so you can find out the way things are in themselves, not the way they look to you or how you feel about them or how you would like them to be.”  

The truth is that we high-carbon-emitters really have to reduce our carbon footprints by 80 to 90 percent in 10 to 20 years to stop global warming before the momentum cannot be stopped. That means we have to act as forcefully as the crisis demands or we will fail. This urgency is what overwhelms people. It is overwhelming.

But in my film, I show you that WE CAN FIX THIS. This isn’t gloom and doom. This isn’t talking heads and technical experts. It’s beautiful cinematography and poetry, animation and music. It’s solutions. It’s practical. It’s positive.

Deep Green will be showing at the Bagdad Theater from June 22 to June 25, but I strongly encourage you to attend the 6 p.m. showing on Thursday, June 24 to benefit the Oregon League of Conservation Voters. I’ll be there to talk about the film, too.

OLCV works to defend the natural world for future generations. I hope that our donation of one night’s ticket sales to OLCV can help their bottom line, but better yet, will spur personal political involvement to help protect this life support system we call Earth.

Purchase your tickets here. I’ll see you there.

You can find out more about the film at www.deepgreenmovie.com.