Icheon has a 1,000-year history of producing celadon porcelain. The city, which was named South Korea’s first Special Ceramics Industry Zone in 2005 and a UNESCO City of Crafts and Folk Arts in 2010, boasts a large number of industrial-academic-research infrastructures, including the Korea Ceramics Art High School, the Korea Ceramics Foundation, the Korea Institute of Ceramics Engineering and Technology, and SK hynix.
The exhibit “Icheon: Reviving the Korean Ceramic Tradition” was on display at the American Museum of Ceramic Art, AMOCA from October 12th- December 29th, 2013.
More info: http://www.amoca.org
52 min Documentary (long version).
Covering an area that is the size of France, the Loess Plateau is home to more than 50 million very poor farmers who have suffered centuries of severe soil erosion, leading to massive environmental degradation and poverty. The film documents a remarkable paradigm shift: the rebirth of a self-sustaining ecosystem in the dry and remote Loess Plateau region of China, and identifies why and how a World Bank/government joint project has completely changed the landscape of the region.
“Global agriculture has changed more in the past 50 years than in the previous 10,000. Nowhere is this conflict more poignant than in the story of seed.”
A landmark film narrated by Jeremy Irons.
Produced by The Gaia Foundation and the African Biodiversity Network, in collaboration with MELCA Ethiopia, Navdanya International and GRAIN.
Produced & Directed by Jess Phillimore
Camera – Jess Phillimore, Jason Taylor, Damian Prestidge.
The film is also available in French, Portuguese, Romanian and Spanish.
Find out more at: http://www.seedsoffreedom.info
There’s No Tomorrow is a half-hour animated film by Dermot O’Connor dealing with resource depletion, energy, growth and collapse. It is a primer on the energy dilemmas facing the world of the 21st century. —
“The issues of energy shortages, resource depletion, topsoil loss, and pollution are all symptoms of a single, larger problem: Growth. As long as our financial system demands endless growth, reform is unlikely to succeed.
What then, will the future look like? Optimists believe that growth will continue forever, without limits. Pessimists think that we’re heading towards a new Stone Age, or extinction. The truth may lie between these extremes. It is possible that society might fall back to a simpler state, one in which energy use is a lot less. This would mean a harder life for most. More manual labour, more farm work, and local production of goods, food and services.
What should a person do to prepare for such a possible future? Expect a decrease in supplies of food and goods from far away places. Start walking or cycling. Get used to using less electricity. Get out of debt. Try to avoid banks. Instead of shopping at big box stores, support local businesses. Buy food grown locally, at Farmers’ Markets. Instead of a lawn, consider gardening to grow your own food. Learn how to preserve it. Consider the use of local currencies should the larger economy cease to function,and develop greater self sufficiency.
None of these steps will prevent Collapse, but they might improve your chances in a low energy future, one in which we will have to be more self reliant, as our ancestors once were.”
