Sweden Building Bridges to Help Reindeer Crossings
4 Inspiring Eco-Films Featured at One of the World's Best Film Festivals
Stefanie Spear
Mar. 18, 2015 10:01AM EST Energy
One of my favorite events of the year is here again—the Cleveland International Film Festival (CIFF), now in its 39th year. The festival will showcase more than 193 feature films and 234 short films representing 60 countries from March 18 - 29.
Being a proud born-and-raised Clevelander, I love sharing my excitement for my hometown having one of the best film festivals in the world. Even USA Today agrees, as CIFF made the list, complied by film excerpts, of the top 20 U.S. Film Festivals, and right now it's listed as the number one best film festival on the readers' choice standings.
Each year EcoWatch sponsors one of the eco-films, and this year it's Racing to Zero, a quick-moving, upbeat documentary that provides new solutions to the global problem of waste. The film creators believe that by "simply substituting the word resource for the word garbage, a culture can be transformed, and a new wealth of industries can emerge."
The film tracks San Francisco's waste stream diversion tactics and presents innovative new solutions to waste, documenting a surprising, engaging and inspiring race to zero, as the city aims to be 100 percent waste free by 2020. For screening times at CIFF, click here.
There are many other eco-films at this year's film fest including, Anthony Baxter's A Dangerous Game, which tracks billionaire Donald Trump's plans to build golf courses—where they typically wouldn't exist and are environmental calamities—for the super rich in Scotland and America.
Residents of Aberdeenshire, Scotland, have been fighting Trumps plans to build a luxury golf resort on rare sand dunes for years. Now, another Trump-style build is planned in the area on an arid hillside overlooking the stunning city of Dubrovnik.
Actor and activist Alec Baldwin and leading American environmentalist Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. are interviewed in the film. "There are lots of Donald Trumps out there, there are people like him in every country and every community," says Kennedy.
The film takes you to Scotland, Croatia, Long Island and Las Vegas, where communities are fighting developers who are willing to risk our fragile natural world for a game of golf. For screening times at CIFF, click here.
Photo credit: BOND/360, distributor of A Dangerous Game
"We all love food. As a society, we devour countless cooking shows, culinary magazines and foodie blogs. So how could we possibly be throwing nearly 50% of it in the trash?," the film Just Eat It asks.
Just Eat It dives into the issue of food waste from farm, through retail, all the way to the back of the fridge of filmmakers and foodies Jen Rustemeyer and Grant Baldwin. The film provides a glimpse of the billions of dollars of good food that is tossed each year in North America, which drives the filmmakers to take a pledge to quit grocery shopping cold turkey and survive only on foods that would otherwise be thrown away.
The 74-minute documentary includes interviews with author and activist Tristram Stuart, journalist and author Jonathan Bloom, and Natural Resources Defense Council food scientist Dana Gunders. For screening times at CIFF, click here.
And, if you're in mood to watch a heartfelt film, Above All Else is what you should see.
CIFF's Eddie Fleisher provides this synopsis of the film:
Former high-wire artist David Daniel never expected to be at the forefront of the Keystone XL pipeline debate. But when he discovered TransCanada planned to route it through his land, he became incredibly concerned. He had moved to rural East Texas with his wife and young daughter for peace, a wish that appeared to now be in jeopardy. Instead, Daniel became somewhat of an expert on the dangers of the pipeline, spreading the word to his neighbors. They were convinced by his knowledge and passion, so they didn't need to be won over. David found himself in a battle with a corporate Goliath, who wasn't going to let anyone interfere with its bottom line. Above All Else documents his tumultuous experience from its infancy to his desperate but bold final act, putting his expertise to use by building an intricate tree-top blockade. Despite whether or not it stopped TransCanada, Daniel's bravery ignited a fire under grassroots climate change activists, who have continued the work he started. You've heard the heated arguments on the subject, but Above All Else gives it a human face.
For screening times at CIFF, click here.
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Reindeers at their winter location in northern Sweden on Feb. 4, 2020, near Ornskoldsvik. JONATHAN NACKSTRAND / AFP via Getty Images
Sweden's reindeer have a problem. In winter, they feed on lichens buried beneath the snow. But the climate crisis is making this difficult. Warmer temperatures mean moisture sometimes falls as rain instead of snow. When the air refreezes, a layer of ice forms between the reindeer and their meal, forcing them to wander further in search of ideal conditions. And sometimes, this means crossing busy roads.
<p>Luckily, Sweden's transport authorities have a solution. They are planning to build a dozen bridges in northern Sweden so that the reindeer can cross in peace, Swedish public science radio <a href="https://sverigesradio.se/artikel/7649066" target="_blank">Vetenskapsradion reported Monday</a>, according to <a href="https://www.thelocal.se/20210119/sweden-to-build-reindeer-bridges-so-they-can-cross-roads-to-find-food" target="_blank">The Local Sweden</a>.</p><p>"In a changing climate with difficult snow conditions, it will be extra important to be able to find and access alternative pastures," Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences landscape ecologist Per Sandström told the radio, as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jan/20/sweden-to-build-bridges-for-reindeer-to-safely-cross-roads-and-railways?CMP=fb_gu&amp;utm_medium=Social&amp;utm_source=Facebook&amp;fbclid=IwAR2nkVyCQKM6c-SKoghZwJbXw0zrgKjcJhjkh9KqZkd1utAWq1LFzaBTveU#Echobox=1611148969" target="_blank">The Guardian translated</a>.</p><p>The new bridges will be called "renoducts," a combination of the Swedish word for reindeer (ren) and viaduct.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/wildlife" target="_self">Wildlife</a> bridges are an effective solution to the problem of helping animals to travel through a world criss-crossed by highways. The <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/san-antonio-wildlife-bridge-2649485994.html" target="_self">first</a> was constructed in France in the 1950s, and they can significantly reduce collisions between animals and vehicles.</p><p>Work will begin this year on the first of the Swedish renoducts over the E4 motorway north of the city of Umeå, Vetenskapsradion reported. This motorway now has to be shut down entirely every time a herd attempts to cross.</p><p>The renoducts aren't only a boon for Sweden's 250,000 reindeer. They are also a help to the 4,500 Indigenous Sami who have special authorization to herd them, The Guardian explained.</p>
<p>The changing climate has driven up costs and extended the time it takes to herd the reindeer, according to an AFP story published in <a href="https://www.thelocal.se/20200529/how-swedens-sami-reindeer-herders-are-being-forced-to-adapt-to-climate-change" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">The Local Sweden in May 2020</a>. Sami couple Margret Fjellstrom and Daniel Viklund told AFP that it took them twice as long to move their reindeer from their summer to winter pastures last year than it would have under regular weather conditions.</p><p>"It can rain in January, it can snow in May, there's no logic to it any more," Fjellstrom told AFP.</p><p>Sami herders hope the new renoducts will help.</p><p>"I'm looking forward to us being able to cross undisturbed," reindeer herder Tobias Jonsson told Vetenskapsradion, as The Guardian translated.</p><p>He said that herders had helped with the design of the renoducts so that the reindeer would be more likely to use them. They recommended two meter (approximately seven foot) barriers so that the reindeer would not fall off but insisted that the bridges be open on top so that the reindeer would not be too frightened to cross.</p><p>Sweden's reindeer aren't the only ones in trouble because of climate change. A <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/reindeer-population-climate-change-2623281571.html" target="_self">2018 report</a> found that reindeer and caribou numbers across the Arctic had fallen by 56 percent in the preceding two decades.</p>
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