We had a great January candidates forum at Blue Water Bay – thanks to Shawn Sheppard and Jason Fults, as well to all of you who joined us! And now it’s time for some more fun next week…

Jan. 30 Sponsor Reception: Don Davis will host a reception to thank past and potential Cinema Verde sponsors at Capital City Bank, 1417 N. Main St., 5:30 – 7 p.m., please RSVP (Trish@CinemaVerde.org) if you’d like to join our circle of winners! Thank you, Don!

Green Drinks (www.gogreennation.org/category/green-drinks/) will be held 6 – 8 p.m. Feb. 1 at Cafe C, 424 Northwest 8th Avenue – opening this night just for us, so please come hungry and thirsty!

The UF Office of Sustainability is sponsoring Green Drinks this month as a kick-off event of their month-long Food For Thought series highlighting sustainable and local foods. The evening will be co-hosted by Cafe C, a sustainable restaurant owned by Celebrations Catering, in celebration of our partnership with Celebrations to use their lovely Villa East (301 N. Main) as our venue for Cinema Verde (Feb. 24 – March 2).

Cinema Verde NEWS

ATTEND AND ADVERTISE: Our plans for Cinema Verde are evolving rapidly. We’ll have fairs to “Celebrate Nature” and provide “Sustainable Solutions” Feb. 24 and 25, and we invite environmental organizations and sustainable businesses to participate. We’re also creating our program and Sustainable Business Directory, which we would to be as comprehensive a resource as possible – please let us know if you’d like to be included. Details on our schedule and program opportunities are here: http://www.verdefest.org/2012-cinema-verde-schedule/

CHECK OUT OUR FILMS: While we won’t be releasing our full film schedule until the end of January, we have posted links to a few films we plan to include. Directors and principals of many of these films would like to attend – please help bring them in by making a donation to cover their expenses! View the trailers for these films and donate here: http://www.verdefest.org/2012-cinema-verde-schedule/

FREE TICKETS!! Wear your Cinema Verde t-shirt around town, and if we see you we’ll give you a free ticket to one of our films! We’re selling tickets online and at the Wednesday Farmer’s Market, where you can get a shirt, too!

We welcome support of our 2012 festival, which is just around the corner, Feb. 24 – March 2, 2012. There will be tabling and booth opportunities for environmental organizations and businesses during our opening weekend and also during the week at individual films.

Please let us know if you’d like to let us help showcase your sustainable initiatives! Call Trish Riley: 352-327-3560… thank you!

Best,
Trish*–
Trish Riley, Director: Cinema Verde Environmental Film & Arts Festival
www.CinemaVerde.org, PO Box 358711, Gainesville, FL 32635, 352.327.3560
Cinema Verde is a Florida not-for-profit corporation designated as a 501(c)(3) public charity by the IRS: Contributions are tax deductible.Thank you for your support!
Publisher: www.GoGreenNation.org

The applause was raucous, growing louder and faster as the beat accelerated.

A dozen dancers, arms stretched, torsos bare, pounded the stage in an increasing frenzy. They turned, swooped, slapped their thighs, swooped and turned again– birds hovering in the air, looking for something below – and shouting, “koburake!” or “rise up!” The audience exploded after each verse, thinking the performance over.

But the dance started up again, faster still.

The dancers had traveled more than 7,000 miles to perform for the crowd at Harvard University’s Sanders Theater. They were singing of the frigate bird – an agile flier with a seven-foot wingspan that forages across the open ocean, returning to land only to roost or breed.

The performers on stage were part of a troupe of three dozen islanders from Kiribati and two other Pacific atolls, Tokelau and Tuvalu, touring the East and West coasts this fall.

via Facing rising seas, islanders call on their music — The Daily Climate.

Montana’s Big Sky was a broad, clear blue as I said my goodbyes and boarded a small plane at the refreshingly tiny Kalispell airport just as dawn was breaking. The majestic northern Rocky Mountains stood tall against the mauve and pink horizon. I’d spent just a few days here, exploring Glacier National Park via the Going-to-the-Sun Road, and was sorry to be leaving so soon.

via Subaru Drive : win12 Road Trips: Glaciers: Going, Going, Gone.

Sowing the Seeds of Ecotourism in Haiti’s Rugged Terrain

By Aleks Bacewicz

After last year’s notorious earthquake, Haiti’s recovery has been slow and riddled with setbacks, worsened by an allegedly preventable cholera epidemic. Fortunately, Gainesville hosts a variety of organizations that actively support Haiti, whether by raising money or sending medical volunteers. Jeff Depree, a doctoral candidate in Computer Science at UF, thought he could help in his own way.

Depree traveled to Haiti this year with nothing more than a backpack and some bare essentials. His goal, without the aid of an organized group, was to explore the landscape and interact with locals. He kept a detailed log of logistical issues that could be encountered by travelers and mapped out hiking trails in hopes of encouraging other ecotourists to follow his lead and visit the country’s rugged terrain.

The International Ecotourism Society defines ecotourism as a way to travel responsibly to natural areas while respecting the environment and local culture. It’s not a novel idea, but in Haiti, it’s uncharted territory. Haiti’s tourism industry consists of isolated resorts, providing foreigners with private beaches and bars but no glimpses into the rest of Haiti.

Despite the obstacles presented by deforestation and widespread poverty, DePree hopes ecotourism will eventually become a viable option for travelers, as well as a source of income for locals and an incentive to protect Haiti’s resources.

Depree’s journey began in Port-au-Prince, where he saw the reality of the earthquake’s devastation: a tent city had replaced the main square and most of the buildings were in ruins.

He continued, focused on reaching Haiti’s untamed landscape, and hopped onto a tap-tap, a brightly colored bus or pick-up truck used as a common form of transport.

After spending his first night in a church rectory in the southern town of Furcy, DePree awoke early to begin hiking. Markets and vendors lined segments of the ridgeline to the southern coastline. He picked out a lady with pots in the dirt alongside the trail and bought a cheap and filling meal: a hodgepodge of fried spaghetti, onions, tomatoes, ketchup, and mayonnaise. For the rest of the trip, DePree mapped out up to 50 miles of hiking trails.

“Haiti is one of the last places I would imagine as a destination for ecotourists,” said Dr. Gerald Murray, professor emeritus of anthropology at UF. Murray designed and directed an agroforestry project in Haiti over a 20-year period and conducted research on the country’s culture and religion. Murray attributes his lack of optimism to Haiti’s high population density and rapid deforestation.

[...]

Continued via The Fine Print: Uncharted Territory

Show Your Community Connections with the Chamber Video Challenge

The Gainesville Area Chamber of Commerce wants to know what Gainesville means to you or your business. At the 2011 Business of the Year Awards, Chamber President and CEO Brent Christensen announced a video challenge to learn how a connected community not only supports Gainesville, but promotes individual success and economic prosperity.

The Chamber wants you to create a video, five minutes or less, that depicts the value of our community circle, the connections among businesses and the importance of being connected. Consider one or more of the following questions or ideas:

What is cool about Gainesville?
How does the community act together to encourage innovation and growth?
Why is it cool to work, live and play in Gainesville?
A look at the Gainesville Business Community.

Use words, images and/or interviews within the community to demonstrate how these crucial circles are created and help the community prosper. Videos will be judged based on:

via Community Video Challenge.

Gorillas Pet Tourist In Uganda VIDEO.

Green Drinks invites the community to attend a candidate forum for the upcoming Gainesville City Commission election. The forum will take place at Blue Water Bay (http://www.thebluewaterbay.com/), at its new Gainesville location (12 SE 2nd Ave.) on Wednesday, January 4, 2012 from 6-8pm.

Numerous candidates from both the At-Large and the District 1 races have already confirmed attendance, and each will be given several minutes to speak, in addition to a question & answer session. There will also be opportunities for one-on-one discussion with candidates both before and after the forum.

Green Drinks is a non-profit international organization that meets informally each month in more than 700 cities worldwide to bring together sustainable businesses, organizations and government leaders who are working to create an environmentally healthy and sustainable future. We meet in Gainesville the first Wednesday each month at different locations to provide the opportunity to showcase sustainable businesses and to connect those who are engaged in creating a healthy future for our community and the planet.

Green Drinks Gainesville is presented by www.GoGreenNation.org, an environmental news and resource website. Green Drinks has been a wonderful forum for discussion and dissemination of ideas, and was the incubator for the annual Cinema Verde Environmental Film & Arts Festival. Our meetings average 30-60 attendees each month; we recently celebrated our third anniversary with more than 150 attendees. Anyone interested in sustainability issues is welcome to attend Green Drinks; it’s a great networking opportunity.

For more information about Green Drinks, or to learn how we can help you showcase your sustainable business or organization at our community events, please contact Trish Riley (352-327-3560
Trish@GoGreenNation.org).

Please share our events with friends and in your newsletters: Green Drinks meets the first Wednesday of each month at varying sustainable businesses. For location information visit www.GoGreenNation.org.

Greetings Green Drinkers and Environmental Film Fans!

I hope you’ve enjoyed the autumn and had a lovely Thanksgiving holiday. Although I missed seeing my kids (Portland and Denver are too far away!), I relished the quiet chance to catch up on some work and enjoyed a delicious dinner with friends. I’ve made so many lovely friends since moving to Gainesville nearly five years ago – mostly through our Green Drinks. Thank you for welcoming me into your lovely community!

Thanks so much to those of you who came out to Prairie Creek Lodge for our November Green Drinks, and a special thanks to Hutch Hutchinson, Executive Director of Alachua Conservation Trust, for organizing the party and providing pizzas and libations, and to the Weeds of Eden for filling the night with music! The Genesis Group shared some very interesting information about landscaping while protecting the environment and Jason Fults brought us up to speed on mountain top removal – it’s still a big problem for those in coal country. Thank you all!

Join us on Wednesday, December 7th as we celebrate our 3rd anniversary!!

David Pais of Pais Realty is sponsoring the anniversary party on Dec. 7 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. It will be held at Randy Batista’s Gallery 21 downtown. Harry’s Seafood Bar & Grille and the new downtown Blue Water Bay will provide hors d’ouevres. David has sponsored all of our Anniversary parties, which fall near his own birthday ~ Thank You, David!

Gallery 21 is located just off of Main Street at 21 SE 2nd Place in downtown Gainesville.

I’d like to invite all of you to plan to share your stories about connections made through Green Drinks so we can reflect on the progress we’ve made toward creating a more sustainable community by getting together now and then. Cinema Verde is a good case in point: our environmental film and arts festival was born at our Green Drinks meeting in August, 2009, and we are working on our third festival now. We have so many of you to thank for helping to create this fun way to learn more about environmental issues. Please come join us so we can thank all of you who have helped make Cinema Verde a success!

I also have some exciting news to share: I’ll announce the location of Cinema Verde 2012 – I call it Chez Verde – and we’ll also show trailers of some of the films we’re considering as we narrow down our selection. Come and let us know which ones look most interesting to you.

Green Drinks Gainesville is presented by www.GoGreenNation.org, an environmental news and resource site to help build green communities, and www.CinemaVerde.org, Gainesville’s Environmental Film and Arts Festival, both of which are dedicated to educating the public about environmental issues and fostering sustainable solutions. Anyone interested in sustainability issues is welcome to attend Green Drinks; it’s a great opportunity to network with those interested in evolving a sustainable future. Please share our events with friends and in your newsletters: Green Drinks meets the first Wednesday of each month at varying sustainable businesses. For location information visit www.GoGreenNation.org.

Let us help you showcase your sustainable business or organization at our community events!
Contact Trish Riley, Director: 352-327-3560; Trish@GoGreenNation.org.

As always, bring your business cards, name tags, re-usable cups and news for sharing.

Thank you all so much for your support and interest in Cinema Verde and environmental issues!
Best,
Trish*–
Trish Riley
Director: Cinema Verde Environmental Film & Arts Festival
352.327.3560
www.CinemaVerde.org
Cinema Verde is a Florida not-for-profit corporation designated as a 501(c)(3) public charity by the IRS: Contributions are tax deductible.Thank you for your support!
Publisher: www.GoGreenNation.org

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We visited the Turtle Hospital and participated in the release as part of the Society of Environmental Journalists post-conference tour. One of the reporters filed this account of the turtle’s release. He was found with two fishhooks embedded, one in her mouth and one in her esophagus. Veterinarian Doug Mader was able to remove the fishhooks, but the turtle then had lockjaw and was unable to eat.  Hospital staff members fed her squid for five months, prying open his mouth, until he recovered and was able to eat on his own. The evidence of success was when he was presented with a live lobster and stalked and caught it.

NOAA’s report on the Keys:

NOAA scientists have found that pressure from increasing coastal populations, ship and boat groundings, marine debris, poaching, and climate change are critically threatening the health of the Florida Keys ecosystem. Many historically abundant marine resources such as green sea turtles and coral habitat continue to be at risk with low rates of recovery.