單元三:能源出代誌-第一屆「氣候臨界影展」

美國荒野之役(Public Trust: The Fight for America's Public Lands)

David Garrett Byars, Jeremy Hunter Rubingh, Yvon Chouinard & Robert Redford|2020|98 min|美國 US|臺灣首映Taiwan Premiere

放映時間(★ 含映後座談):

  • 3/11(六)16:20 ★ @光點華山A2影廳
  • 3/18(六)11:00 @光點華山2F藝文廳

 

公共土地和水域正受到威脅,隨著滅絕危機迫在眼前,氣候變遷仍然是我們這個星球面臨的最大威脅之一。

「公共托管 」 (Public Trust)指的是屬於美國全體民眾的公共財產,也就是由聯邦政府所管理的公有地,雖然絕大多數美國民眾都支持政府應永久保護公有地,但美國現有廣達6.4億英畝的公有地卻遭遇化石燃料業、礦業和政客前所未有的掠奪和破壞。

《美國荒野之役》一片描述猶他州境內、邊界水域礦山和北極國家野生動物保護區的鑽探、開採,探索,可能造成的破壞與影響,指出財團如何假借「活化 」公有「閒置」土地之名,行掠奪之實,並呼籲保護美國最後的荒野之地。

Our public lands and waters are under threat. As an extinction crisis looms and climate change continues to be one of the greatest threats our planet has ever faced, America’s 640 million acres of public lands support biodiversity and carbon sequestration. It’s essential that we fight for their protection by preventing the slashing of the Bears Ears National Monument in Utah, fighting the potential permanent destruction of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in Minnesota, and stopping the de facto sale of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge—one of the last wild places in America.

石油巨頭淘金記(The Power of Big Oil, Part Three: Delay)

Robin Barnwell|2022|54 min|美國 US|臺灣首映 Taiwan Premiere

放映時間(★ 含映後座談):

  • 3/18(六)17:30 ★ @光點華山2F藝文廳
  • 3/19(日)16:40 @光點華山2F藝文廳

 

《石油巨頭淘金記》為美國公共電視PBS所播出的系列紀錄片第三部。以美國暨全球能源龍頭埃克森美孚(Exxon Mobi)為例,說明化石資本如何影響美國產官學界,大幅擴張化石燃料巨頭的獲利。

相較於小布希卸任時,美國原油日均產量僅僅為500萬桶,在歐巴馬卸任時,美國原油產量幾近倍增,達到940 萬桶。這不僅是自二戰以來,美國總統任內史無前例的石油產量增幅,更使美國成為全球化石燃料龍頭出口國的寶座。此外,歐巴馬政府允許化石資本以水力壓裂法自美國頁岩中開採天然氣,這項政策不僅造成工業災害等級的甲烷洩漏,更加劇全球暖化。石油和天然氣公司不但沒有努力消除甲烷洩漏,而是拒絕安裝甲烷洩漏的測量設備,反對任何監管措施,並開展公關活動來詆毀再生能源並延遲使用,而隨著川普政府上台,美國退出了巴黎氣候協定,使美國的氣候行動進程更雪上加霜。

Part 3 of this series describes how the oil and gas companies delayed the adoption of clean and renewable energy technologies once it became clear to the American public and the U.S. government that climate change is real and was the result of human activities driven by fossil fuels. Oil companies, with the help of environmentalists, presented natural gas as a clean alternative to coal and developed fracking to extract it from the vast shale rock reserves in the U.S. However, widespread leakage of methane in natural gas from these fracking sites turbocharged global warming since methane traps orders of magnitude more heat than CO2. Instead of working to eliminate methane leakages, oil and gas companies didn’t install methane leakage measuring devices, influenced successive U.S. administrations to push natural gas as a clean energy alternative, opposed any regulatory measures and ran a PR campaign to malign renewable energy sources like wind and solar. With the election of Trump, development of renewable energy sources was officially stopped, the U.S. was pulled out off the Paris climate agreement and several climate regulations were repealed including those for methane leakages.