The Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and the Environment

In this film scientists, religious leaders, environmental activists, politicians, and the media focus on ecological questions facing the world's third largest water system. Should coastal areas be abandoned or defended? Is global capitalism compatible with a habitable planet? What lessons were learned from Hurricane Katrina? And is there a way that religion can help save the planet? Though the Mississippi River plays a key role in the American economy, the forces of human progress and the forces of Nature have always been in conflict. Humankind's goal is for economic growth and prosperity, and for this we have shackled the river with dams to produce electricity and irrigation, built levees to protect from flooding as well as straighten channels to facilitate navigation. With each new imposition on the river for our benefit, however, Nature has fought back and we've paid the price later: Now we are dealing with wetland loss, hurricane damage, ecosystem collapse, flooding, pollution, dead zones in the Gulf, toxic spills, and human ill-health. How can we sustain the Mississippi and those who depend upon it? This film offers invaluable clues.

Part 1 of the First Plenary of the 8th Religion Science and the Environment Symposium under the auspices of His All Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew. Chair: H.E. Archbishop Gregory Aymond of New Orleans; Mrs Jacqueline Clarkson, New Orleans City Council; Mr John M. Barry, Author What Happened to New Orleans Threatens every Coastal Area in the World; Mr Hylton Murray-Philipson, Director, Wingate Ventures Ltd. UK Turning Points and Tipping Points; Professor Mary Evelyn Tucker, Senior Lecturer and Senior Scholar, Yale University: The Universe Story and An Ecological Future.

While the inhabitants of the Arctic have done nothing to contribute to the global ecological crisis, they are first in line to suffer the consequences. Greenland is the canary in the coal mine of immense environmental change in the world. The most obvious crisis is the rapid melting of the ice cap which portends the demise of numerous Arctic species and has made life dangerous for the local Inuit. In addition, global winds and sea currents have brought massive amounts of toxic pollution from other countries, causing disease and birth anomalies in both humans and animals who inhabit the area.

This film follows the coming together amidst the icebergs of top experts on the Arctic, politicians, environmental scientists and religious leaders from Christian, Muslim, Hebrew, Buddhist, Hindu, Jain and Sikh traditions—along with Saami and Inuit leaders—as they draw attention to the environmental changes in Greenland that are already affecting the rest of the planet. At the same time, they talk about what can be done to turn things around. The Nuclear Power Issue: The symposium featured a debate on nuclear power with both experts and survivors of Hiroshima and Chernobyl. With Hans Blix and Mary Evelyn Tucker.

Because it is almost entirely enclosed, the Baltic Sea is the world's most fragile and most polluted of the planet’s bodies of water. It receives pollution from nine countries that have widely disparate natural resources, economies, social structures and mores. Some states are active in protecting the environment, but others are not.

With these geographical circumstances, the Baltic suffers from pollution, utrification, invasive species, oil spills, and dumped World War II chemical weapons. As a result, it has more than 800 toxic hot spots. In this film theologians, scientists, policy makers, environmentalists and journalists generate practical initiatives to protect the Baltic. It illustrates the ecological damage in the Baltic as well as the considerable efforts underway to heal it. In addition, it explores the participants' continuing quest for a wisdom-based environmental ethos for the world.

The need for a universal ecological consciousness is now essential to the planet’s survival. With this in mind the Religion, Science and the Environment symposium that sailed the Adriatic Sea focused on how humanity can be inspired towards an ecological ethos. The six countries of the Adriatic range from one of the wealthiest to some of the poorest in Europe, their problems ranging from those of an advanced industrial economy to those in transition and recovery from recent wars. The voyage included visits to toxic hotspots and successful projects protecting the environment.  Most memorable was the first Orthodox service held in the Byzantine Basilica of Sant Apollinare in Classe, (Ravenna) and our ships entry into Venice at dawn. The symposium concluded in Venice where the Patriarch and Pope John Paul II came together to sign the Venice Declaration, in which they laid the foundation for developing a joint environmental ethos. “Sailing along the Adriatic coast, it is precisely in an area like this that the question is inevitably raised in our minds - why and how has humankind reached such a deplorable situation? How is it possible that the same human being can create such an admirable culture and destroy their natural environment at the same time?”  Metropolitan John of Pergamon