We Need Growth Busters!
Hooked on Growth is a feature-length documentary to be released in 2010 It’s a non-profit project, the first in a series of Growthbusters film projects.
Will be shown at film festivals, community screenings, house parties, college campuses. Will be available to order on DVD or download.
We’re amassing a global grass roots support network to arrange house parties and community screenings, and to spread the word about the film. This is similar to the distribution model pioneered by Robert Greenwald. His Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price was seen in one week by 500,000 people at 7,000 community screenings.
I’m spreading the word, speaking to groups, blogging and tweeting, using Facebook to attract supporters who will spring into action when the film is released.
FILM MESSAGING
looking at the beliefs and behavior that are not in our best interest
It’s main message: For the last few hundred years we’ve been worshipping at the Church of Growth Everlasting. Now, the end of growth is here. We can embrace it, or go down fighting.
It’s really all about sustainability – which is not using up stuff we or future generations are going to need later.
We face in this century the perfect storm of overpopulation, resource depletion and climate change. Every day we see signs in the news that humankind has exceeded the Earth’s carrying capacity, and we must change our ways quickly. Yet we resist. We are changing at a snail’s pace. We are in denial. Hooked on Growth delves into the sociology, the psychology, the politics, and the popular culture to explore why we are dancing on the deck, or at best rearranging the deck chairs, while the Titanic sinks.
As former Colorado Governor Dick Lamm says in the film, “We can have a culture of growth or we can have a culture of sustainability. We’re gonna have to choose.”
Ecological Footprint: Today humanity uses the equivalent of 1.3 planets to provide the resources we use and absorb our waste. Moderate UN scenarios suggest that if current population and consumption trends continue, by the mid 2030s we will need the equivalent of two Earths to support us.
The film examines the addictions and superstitions we need to leave behind in order to become a sustainable civilization.
The Earth is finite, and we’ve surpassed its limits.
We aren’t personally or collectively better off to continue exceeding its limits.
Human impact is the product of per-capita consumption and total population. (the more we ignore one, the more pain we’ll have to feel in the other)
We’re seduced to behave against our best interests by growth-boosters’ siren song of prosperity.
Growth no longer provides the prosperity and happiness we seek.
We don’t have to continue on our current short-sighted path until we’ve destroyed our species, our home, or both.
We’ll actually be happier once we end our pursuit of more material wealth and devote our lives to personal growth – learning, loving and laughter.
It challenges society’s fundamental beliefs linking growth with prosperity and fulfillment. Economic, consumption and population growth are all explored in the film.
We’ll look behind the curtain of current beliefs and norms -- exploring the societal roadblocks that prevent rational public dialog and responsible public policies.
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