Farmlab Public SalonCasey Coates DansonFriday, March 16 @ NoonFree-of-Charge

Who's Got The Power?
Film Screening & Discussion

Join Casey Coates Danson, executive producer of the documentary film, "Who's Got The Power?" for a screening and discussion.

About The Film

"Global warming is the environmental problem of the 21st century."
--Kert Davies, Research Director, Greenpeace May, 2005

"Clean coal is a lie. There’s no such thing as clean coal."
--Harry Sebock, underground coal miner since 1979--

"The nations in the lead of this next energy revolution, the one that takes us beyond fossil fuels, it’s a safe bet to say, they are going to be the power house countries of the 21st century."
--Barbara Freese, Environmental Attorney, Author “COAL – A Human History” May, 2005

From the coal-scarred hills of Appalachia to the sun drenched suburbs of Los Angeles, to three Category 5 hurricanes within three months in 2005 in the Southeast, eight days of non-stop rain in the Northeast, record breaking heat globally, people are becoming increasingly vocal about the hazards of global warming. They are demanding practical and achievable solutions, in particular, championing the development and use of renewable energy resources to safeguard the earth for future generations.

Who’s Got The Power, a forceful, new documentary film, addresses head on the reality of global warming, caused by the burning of fossil fuels, coal, oil and gas, its attendant dangers in the form of carbon dioxide emissions---and presents genuine and workable solutions. The film proposes that the use of renewable energy – solar, wind, biomass and geothermal, are viable alternatives to our dependence on fossil fuels that bring about the dangerous climate changes that result in global warming. From the vantage points of world-renown scientists, environmental activists, physicians, financial advisers, designers, builders, coal miners and others, the global warming debate unfolds. In addition, inner city and suburban consumers in America, Germany and Japan share their personal experiences with solar-powered housing.

According to the New York Times, (August 5, 2005) the worldwide global solar market has grown roughly forty percent a year in the last five years, driven in large part by Germany. Germany consumes thirty-nine percent of the world’s solar panels; Japan, thirty percent; and America only nine percent. Against the backdrop of the American landscape, Who’s Got the Power demonstrates that we do not have to savage our terrain, destroy our water sources or befoul our air in order to enjoy the pleasures and conveniences of modern life. Who’s Got the Power? argues that we are capable of being on a par with the Germans and Japanese in terms of solar energy, and shows how harnessing this limitless resource can make a difference.

This film also recognizes the critical role of our built environment. Since two-thirds to one half of the nation’s electricity is used in buildings, we can have the greatest impact in the shortest amount of time if we begin with the built environment. Buildings are a direct and important resource in insuring our environmental future. Making our buildings more energy efficient can help reduce our use of electricity and fossil fuels. Powering them with the sun can and will quickly reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

These are among the perspectives in Who’s Got The Power?

• On the evolution of global warming: When we use the atmosphere as an un-priced sewer and we dump our waste like carbon dioxide and methane and industrial hazes, then we start to force the atmosphere in different patterns than would be natural.

• On environmental hazards: The twentieth century stands out as the warmest time in history… 90% of the glaciers in the world are melting. Here in Glacier National Park, the Grinnell Glacier has already melted sixty-three percent and only has a few more decades to survive… Six hundred and fifty three billion metric tons of ice, an area larger than Luxembourg, has broken off the Larsen B Ice Shelf, which has existed on Antarctica for twelve thousand years.

• On photovoltaics: In one second, the sun produces enough energy to supply the world for one thousand years. We need to make the transition to renewable energy now – not later. The power is in our hands.

• On preserving our land:

When you go in and you cut down all the trees on a mountain, from the top to the bottom, blow 700 feet off the top of it, take all the coal, boost a rock and gob over the hill into the creek, there’s nothin’ to be there. It destroys the game, it runs the grass out, it destroys the squirrels, the deer don’t have acorns to eat, and they move on.

We can lead the way in renewable energy. We can lead the way to a new future. And we can give our children a beautiful clean earth to live on. But we’re not doing that. We’re addicted to comfort. And we’re selling our children’s feet to buy ourselves fancy shoes.

• On our built environment:

The truth is that good design is no more expensive than bad design… A few pioneers are incorporating photovoltaics and solar design principles. Not only are the structures beautiful, they are in harmony with the environment. Solar technology can be employed anywhere, even on a Manhattan skyscraper.

• Never before
• On our obligation:

Ultimately it’s not going to be the scientists, it’s going to be us, it’s going to be the politicians and the leaders and the people in their own households, everybody in a massive global cooperation in order to solve this grand problem.

Powerful, enduring, reliable and accessible worldwide, the sun is our greatest energy resource. The sun’s renewable energy – solar energy – can supplement or replace the limited and costly fossil fuels we now use, reduce our dependence on the utility grid, and stem the tide of global warming.

In a cogent and incisive hour, filmed across America, in Germany and Japan, Who’s Got The Power? examines these vital issues and in so doing is an essential primer.


About Casey Coates Danson
Casey Coates Danson As the mother of two children and a strong sense of stewardship for the earth, Casey Coates Danson established Global Possibilities in 1996, a non-profit devoted to promoting the use of solar energy in the built environment as a viable and natural alternative to fossil fuels in order to mitigate climate change. Prior to that, Danson co-founded with her former husband, the American Oceans Campaign, now merged with Oceana. Danson served on the Board of Governors of the Parsons School of Design, the Board of Directors of the Southern California Institute of Architecture, and chaired the Board of Directors of the Environmental Media Association. She also served on the Advisory Board of the Jimmy Carter Work Project in Los Angeles and as an honorary board member of the Institute of American Indian Arts Foundation.

For Danson, it started as a simple need for natural light; there never seemed to be enough inside her homes. As an environmental design student at the Parsons School of Design in New York in the 1970s, she learned to appreciate how the Anasazi and the master builders of the Renaissance incorporated natural materials into their designs for self-sufficient cities. As news of the expanding hole in the ozone layer came to light in the 1980’s, her consciousness about the destructive nature of how we heat and power our homes expanded exponentially.

Through Global Possibilities, national conferences, educational initiatives, public outreach, speaking engagements and film, Danson seeks to remind people that the sun is virtually an untapped source of free, constant energy, and pleads for an energy transition – even If it’s with one photovoltaic panel at a time.

Danson has left a living legacy in the form of two solar homes that she designed and built in the nineties – a 1,500-square-foot, Pueblo-style adobe home in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and a grand, 7,000-square-foot contemporary Los Angeles home now occupied by a family of seven. Both demonstrate that the sun’s energy can be used to power houses at any end of the design spectrum.


Farmlab Location
Farmlab / Under Spring, 1745 N. Spring Street #4, LA, CA 90012
Across the street from the site of the Not A Cornfield project, in a warehouse colocated at Baker Street and N. Spring Street

Salons are always free-of-charge, all ages welcome.
Refreshments will be served.