I’ve long admired Robert Redford for the active role he plays in making this a better world. I’m sharing this commentary from Redford today because he lauds President Obama for “standing up” to “Big Oil.” “Big Oil” is a major growth booster. And the $12 million Redford mentions in congressional campaign contributions over the last 2 years is one of the most powerful forces keeping us addicted to growth.

GrowthBusters is a non-partisan public education project, but I believe we should thank elected representatives who have the courage to embrace the end of growth and stop wasting precious resources trying to get another hit of that destructive drug. We should thank the President for not making yet another huge environmental sacrifice in the interest of fueling growth. But I remind you it is painfully apparent Obama either doesn’t understand the era of growth is over, or doesn’t feel he can be honest with the electorate about that and keep his job. The latest evidence of this is his remarks about why he rejected the pipeline, and his remarks just a few days ago to a crowd of employees at headquarters of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the President had this to say: . . .

Film festival season is upon us. Sundance begins this week, followed by dozens of festivals over the next 4 months. I feel festivals should be a key part of the distribution strategy for GrowthBusters. The film easily attracts enlightened audiences who already understand the scale of the human enterprise has outgrown the planet. We’ve reached a deadly level of combined population size and economic throughput. The challenge is to raise awareness among those who haven’t yet gotten the message. Festivals are a great opportunity to reach audiences who otherwise might not hear about the film or be inspired to attend a community screening.

So I spent the last of our film budget on festival entry fees as 2011 came to a close. This month the notices of rejection or acceptance have begun to come in. . . .

I just finished a great conversation via Skype with an audience in Salem, Oregon who viewed GrowthBusters tonight. Thanks to the Salem Progressive Film Series, I was able to answer questions and participate in the event without jumping on a jet airplane, increasing my footprint, and decreasing my bank account. The questions and comments indicated this audience understands it is time for some great change!

That’s obviously not me in this picture. This is what it would have looked like if I had been there. This photo is from a previous event with another filmmaker, much too tiny to identify.

I promised the crowd I’d share a couple things via my blog. The first of which is a link to great commentary written by former Salem Mayor Mike Swaim. I’m grateful to Mike for doing a great interview for the film, and for joining the screening tonight in person. I was drawn to Mike because I hadn’t run across  many elected officials who understood growth is frequently not in our best interest, and were willing to speak candidly about it. Check out Anti-Growth or Pro-Community? Salem’s Mayor Makes His Case. . . .

People have asked what I’m reading, so I thought I’d spend a few blog posts sharing the titles on my desk, on my kitchen counter, on my coffee table, on the nightstand, and on the floor next to that night stand. Today I will list some novels that explore these issues.

Because of the overwhelming workload of producing GrowthBusters, I have not read any non-fiction for the past several years, so at present I can only recommend these as works exploring the human predicament. I do encourage you to check them out and let me know what you think. I’m sure I’m leaving out some important titles. Please add to this list via the comments below. And look forward in the coming weeks to some lists of incredible non-fiction works. . . .

Even if we could, it wouldn’t be in our best interest to consume our way out of recession.

Today is the biggest shopping day of the year, known as Black Friday. Is that something to celebrate? Or is it something we should try to change? In the U.S., the National Retail Federation is expecting a record number of people to shop today – nearly half the entire population. Shopping will be the number one news story today and throughout the weekend. That will be followed by a flurry of news reports about Cyber Monday.

Yet my advice is, “Please don’t shop.” Resist the urge to do your patriotic duty and buy things you and your loved ones don’t really need. Why? It’s rather simple, even though it’s something we rarely think or talk about: The scale of the human enterprise has outgrown the planet. The ecosystems that support our civilization are buckling under the pressure. We are in a global emergency. We need to, as quickly as possible, leave behind us the era of consumption and economic growth. Repeat after me, “I am not a consumer, I am a human being.” . . .