Movies in Green: SHATIL Initiates new Joint Venture in Jerusalem

November 3, 2007

Dozens more people were exposed to Al Gore's ideas on global warming and a stimulating lecture by Avner de Shalit, an expert in environmental politics at Hebrew University, at last week's launching of Movies in Green.  The new monthly event is co-sponsored by SHATIL and the Jerusalem branch of the Society for the Protection of Nature (SPNI).

The Oscar winning film, "An Inconvenient Truth," documents the Nobel Laureate's campaign to raise global consciousness about global warming.

Former Vice President Al Gore used the winning of the Nobel Prize last month (along with the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate change) as a chance to repeat to the world that global warming is "a planetary emergency" and "the greatest challenge we've ever faced."

"This is yet another way of reaching people and ensuring they understand the issues," said Avi Dabush, SHATIL's Environmental Justice Project coordinator. "It also strengthens the local branch of SPNI by bringing new people to it."

De Shalit told the audience that the solution to global warming is political and not "just what you and I can do". The topic will get on the political agenda when people understand it's a political issue.

"This," he added, "is Al Gore's success."

In the film, Gore says, "Good people in both parties hold this at arm's length, because if they don't, the moral imperative to make big changes is inescapable." SHATIL and SPNI's effort brought the issue that much closer to the audience of adults and high school students.

After the event, one audience member said : “I want to buy the movie and make sure everyone sees it.”