>> today on earth focus excerpts from the 2011 environmental film festival in the nation's capital, texas oilmen on the truth behind the oil industry, the downside of wind turbines, and an irish community torn apart by conflict over a gas pipeline. miles benson speaks with the filmmakers who explore the drama behind our relentless quest for energy. coming up on earth focus >> it was a great festival >> one of the problems is there are too many good films at the same time >> we brought over 200 students, all freshman who are ready to help in public policy and to help our environment & the earth and this is one of the things we're doing for that. >> these are good ideas because they are really informative, educational, well done, entertaining and most of them are free.

>> 2011 is a record year for the annual environment film fest in the nation's capital. over a 12 day period in mid-march, more than 30,000 film-goers participated in the event the largest number ever in the festival's 19 year history >> we really hope to bring the highest quality films out there that are about the environment to the largest audiences possible so we really trying to give people the chance to see these films and to see really different kinds of films to learn about the environment to think about the environment in different ways and to find the connections between the different subjects in the films >> this year, over 150 films were showcased from 40 countries here's a look at some of them.

>> it was time for misava to return and introduce letsatsi to the pride [meowing] [roaring] but here, in the lion's world it would just make him a curiosity to older memebers of the pride and right from the start it would be a struggle for letsatsi to find acceptance. [growling]

[meowing] as the days stretched over, muhluri's fondness for the cub deepened. finally, letsatsi white lion of the lebombo found his place in the pride. right by his father's side >>we are from a part of washington dc that doesn't have a community garden and as a result, the children don't have an opportunity

to really dig in the ground. any green space you see is for cosmetic purposes only. which forestalls the children really having a chance to be in touch with their food source. a lot of them think food comes from the grocery store and i didn't want my son to think that >>what keeps me here is my mom's motivation - my mom keeps telling me: "naasir! you always have to come out to the garden to get some work done" well, what i really like about the youth garden is my hobby collecting insects & bugs my mom has these little pests in these gardens and she always wants me to tell her: "naasir, what kind of beetles are these?" >>i have 2 boys that both come on saturdays with me one's an 8-year-old, the other one's a 4-year old they grow what they like to eat so there's no argument as to what's on the dinner table. >>mostly i like to eat the vegetables a lot because they really taste good.

helping my mom makes the vegetables even better my brother, we divide the work. we kinda switch. so my brother sometimes he's a weed master like, he kills weeds first i take on planting the plant help keep'em healthy. >>this year's festival theme was the link between energy and the environment among the award winning entries was this inside look at america's appetite for oil >>american's are 5 percent of the world's population

american's use 25 percent of the world's known energy supply. 15 years ago, the us had 200 million vehicles and the rest of the world had 200 million vehicles. now the rest of the world has 400 million vehicles >>we never saw it coming, nobody saw china, nobody saw india and all of the sudden, here comes this monster >>politics of oil is such the guy who gets there first with the most troops might control it >>if the arabs just stopped the oil today, how long would we last? >>societies don't last forever - when's the last time you met a roman?

>>rule number one when you find yourself in a deep hole is to stop digging and unfortunately as far as i can determine, we're still throwing shovels into the hole >>houston we have a problem film directory nicole torre went inside the oil industry to hear what texas oilman really have to say about the future of oil >>miles: what is the message you're trying to tell us? what does the film tell us that we don't already know? >>well this film is about the history of america's oil addiction. and i made the film, i kinda looked at the whole problem and i realized my own ignorance about oil i wanted to make a film for the unconverted, for middle-america for lack of a better term: that middle of the aisle that kinda brings people together to talk about this issue

because this issue affects every american it's imperative that we do something about it >>miles: every president since richard nixon has spotlighted the oil issue and warned about these consequences yet here we are and it still faces us. >>in all of the 186 state of the union messages, this is the first in which the 1 priority, the first priority is energy. >>make no mistake, we do have a real energy problem >>now i know that some of you may doubt that we face real energy shortages the 1973 gaslines are gone but our energy problem is worse tonight than it was in 1973 >>americans must never again enter any crisis, economic or military with an excessive dependence on foreign oil and an excessive burden of federal debt

i named the film houston we have a problem because it was a time when the country came together and we really focused on a problem, an issue and we solved it famous quote, people talk about it all the time, about jfk he said we want to put a man on the moon he said we want to put a man on the moon within that decade, not only we were on the moon but we were walking on it so it's miraculous what americans can do when we really pay attention and focus because we saw that in the 60s, we saw that with civil rights i hope we see that with this green movement do i think it's gonna happen? i hope, but there's a lot of times i wake up and people don't care and it's really sad >>in making this film, you went to houston and you penetrated the oil culture got those folks who were the drillers who built the oil industry in this country talk about the mistakes they made

>>the oil industry was really cooperative in making this film and they wanted to talk about this issue and i thought that was the most interesting thing if we have oilmen saying we need alternative energy, i think we better pay attention >>everybody with the exception of a handful of people believed that was no reason to assume the us wouldn't be the largest producer of oil on earth you know, gasoline was so cheap and the demand was going like this we built our federal highway systems all on the concept that we would be the mightiest oil producer forever and have so much left we could export it >>we know as good as anybody that oil is not going to be around forever it's just not - we need wildcatters to come out today but we need the wildcatters in biofuels, in renewable energy

in all the various sources of energy available. >>all of us are originally from the oil business and what we found in using technologies on the oil field side we found we were able to carry these over to the renewable oils and its the future >>this is what makes america great our innovation, our ability to tackle a problem our hutzpah, our willingness to gamble and i think these people in alternative energy to a certain degree they're gambling and they're seeing whether or not this stuff is going to make a difference we're going to fail a lot but we are going to make great breakthroughs we're making great strides but the most important thing and the biggest oil well in america is conservation that's how we save our nation we rebuild our industries, we fast-track clean energy

and we stop being dependent on foreign oil and we incentivize american companies, not foreign companies american companies to build and innovate here. >>nicole torre, thank you very much >> today on earth focus

>>wind energy may be a way to reduce our reliance on oil and what could be wrong with that? in the film "windfall" people who install wind turbines soon find out >>frank baxler, who's the town supervisor said "you know, we're planning on putting wind turbines we're planning on putting wind turbines in meredith and i said, wind turbines sounds good to me >>we all need to do something for the environment >>any alternative energy is something we have to consider we need to pursue >>a couple of guys from "airtricity," a wind developer knocked on the door >>i saw some turbines as i was driving on backroads and i thought they were so beautiful i just couldn't believe it >>we signed a lease to have a turbine up on our hill, at least one turbine >>we've lived with the wind this whole time i've been farming

we've had to fight with it at times i look at the wind as why aren't we using it? why aren't we generating power with it? >>windfall director, laura israel looked at the downside of wind energy in a community she knows well, the small town of meredith, new york. i have a little log cabin in meredith and i heard about the wind industry coming to meredith they were going to build a facility there and i got really excited i thought, i want a wind turbine on my property and i was thinking of a windmill much like you see in the dutch countryside or even in the desert when you see them far away they look so elegant, but when i started to find out more about them and realized how industrial they are, how large they are and some of the health problems people were having living so close to them the complexities of the issue are what attracted me, too

the fact that something could seem so good but have this other side to it >>miles: how big are these things? >>400 feet and up, now they're building them 500 and up and i remember taking with him on the phone he said, "how tall are they?" and i said "400 feet" and he said "400 feet? that's not human scale?!" >>and the first proposal had them 1,000 feet from people's homes >>the film makes clear that the people who lived near these turbines are going to have to live with the constant sound of them and the constant blinking of the shadows over their homes it changes their whole way of life, doesn't it? >>it's when the sun gets behind the blades of the wind turbine and there's a very deep shadow that goes on people's houses and in their yards and if you live in an area where the outdoors is everything you can't go in your yard, people say they can't garden

and they have to close their shades and some people leave their homes when the shadow flicker gets too bad people are having health problems from the low frequency sound when turbines are sited improperly, too close to people's homes there's a low frequency sound that people hear people describe it as "sneakers in the dryer" all night you hear this kind of thumping kids seem to be very affected with inner ear problems and kids with a.d.d. have a lot of problems with wind tubines too close to home >>i just started to get dizzy spells and my ears always felt off i felt sick to my stomach from the time i got up in the morning to the time i went to bed the only thing that really changed, i've lived here for 8 years now, was the windmills the people are saying they're having problems are sometimes called nimbys "not in my backyard"

or that they're imagining it or that it's just an annoyance, not really a health problem i've heard of people just moving away and leaving their house and not getting any money for it they just have to get out of it >>as your film makes clear, this has divided the community some folks are happy to lease their land and make money others have to live nearby and live with the consequences >>wind companies come in and they sign people up but they also make them sign confidentiality agreements so neighbors can't talk to each other about what's happening so nobody really knows where the wind turbines are gonna go or who's gonna have them or if they're going to be near their house so it creates this air of paranoia and mystery and it feeds into itself and people become so divided >>we want renewable energy, we are not opposed to a small-scale project here where its not towering over our property line and not interferring with our sleep and its not affecting our property values and so on

>>in meredith, people that were friends for 30, 40 years stopped speaking to each other >>bottom line, we're going to have to make a shift from oil, but alternative energy sources also come with some problems >>there's a whole other layer of concerns and it has to do with habitat fragmentation the affect on bird migration patterns the amount of wind turbines we're talking about on ridgelines is going to have an effect on bird migration for me, i was very surprised to find out the amounts of bats being killed around wind facilities >>biologists aaron and her colleague spent 9 weeks collecting freshly killed bats around wind turbines more than 90 percent had lung hemmorages consistance with the bends bat autopsies reveal that air pressure drops around turbines blades are fatal to small animals like bats

>>the other thing is how affectual are they? how much power are they really giving us for the amount of resources we are expending? >>it's patriotic to argue that we are really trying to develop alternative energy sources. >>well, we do have to find renewable energy sources but also need to make them sustainable for the communities they're in we have to give something back and we have to involve them in the process >>miles: laura israel, thank you very much >>laura: thank you. >>an irish community is divide over a natural gas pipe that could bring economic prosperity or destroy a long held way of life the story is captured in the film, the pipe

that's what they did in the beginning they, came telling us they never asked us at any stage for our permissiong the more you see wrong being done, the more angrier you get >>we wouldn't be doing this if we thought it was just a noble cause and a heroic failure >>it's pretty much forcing everybody's hand >>i have a right to be here - i've been here all my life >>if we don't act now, we're going to regret it forever i have a lot at stake here, there's no sense to this and you know that >>it will never be the same, it will never, never i'm going nowhere! the rule of law has to be implemented >>you could only see danger >>this is the law they'll make criminals out of us

this is my area! it's the sadness of it that gets to you this is your last chance to show we are reasonable people do you feel you're being watched? every move you make. never! never! >>nobody [bleep] sends me out! >>this could go on forever >>irish film director o'domhnaill spent more than 3 years in rossport, ireland documenting a the struggle of a community pitted against a corporation, the state and itself he shares his insights >>risteard o'domhnaill, you've made a film about a small group of farmers and fishermen who stood in the way of a huge oil/gas development company. how did you get involved in this?

>>about 5 years ago, i was working as a news cameraman and i was living with my uncle who's a farmer in the west of ireland at the shore of this beautiful bay and shell oil had found gas about 50 miles off the coast and they wanted to bring it in through this bay through farmland into an inland refinery, 9 kilometers inland and the government signed off all permission to shell without consulting with the local people the farmers stood their ground and they went to jail for 3 months there were huge protests over this so i came on the scene a year after they had been released from jail when the government sent in a huge force of police, 200 police over time i realized that the media wasn't portraying the story properly people were being criminalized through the media and castigated as bullies and thugs and even terrorist which is blantantly untrue

>>we're not supposed to come down here in a tractor to take sand or crab from the shores because it's protected from europe that's what i can't understand, why isn't that law there for shell? >>the story became more and more incredible and the characters are so interesting and away from the glare of the media this incredible story of the disintegration of the community, and this david and goliath story a very small community vs a big oil company >>what were they afraid of? what was the scenario they thought would unfold? should a pipeline rupture, even though the chances small, the consequences would be incredible and the potential for accident within the refinery would mean these people would be susceptible to toxins their drinking water reservoir which is a lake is in the catchment area of the refinery >>the flashpoint of the conflict was when they sat down in the roads and blocked the traffic of the construction

and when they took fishing boats out into the water and got in the way of the pipeline ships >>the local people were never against gas, just the way it was being done they've always maintained it should be done at sea or on the coast when the oil companies backed by the government refused to recognize that fact and when they manipulated the planning process and the laws of the country people had no other choice but to physically put themselves in front of the workers or in front of the world's largest pipeline ship so they felt that was the last resort, but they always left the door open for dialog and they always tried to use the law, cleverly, on their side despite being knocked back so many times the highpoint of the scene was the world's largest pipeline vessel

escorted by our own navy coming into the bay and this small crab boat going out to face down this ship, it's incredible the courage and sheer determination of these people is an inspiration >>they're about to commit a criminal offense! comeon, do your duty! who you taking advice from? shell or the government? go back there! my livelihood! i'm not leaving no area! >>at a time in ireland, we've a political and economic crisis when the leaders of our country have put the resources of the state at the behest of big powerful private interests these people serve as an inspiration to both the people of ireland and in communities all around the world who are suffering because of this >>these people were offered payments, was the money not enough or was no amount of money going to be enough?

>>it's not about money, it never was it's about people living in health and safety where they want to live and there carring on their way of live as they have for generations to be in tune with their own environment >>the company has nearly completed the project, but the people haven't given up? >>no, the people of rossport are very true to what they believe in they've had a huge vindication at times from the planning board of experts they will continue to believe that even if the project is finished you have to sit down at the start of this and look at solutions, get everybody on board and then it will benefit everybody, including the developer >>mr o'domhnaill, thank you very much

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