A Fierce Green Fire: The Battle for a Living Planet

Based on the same-titled 2003 book by Philip Shabecoff, Mark Kitchell's documentary tells the roughly chronological tale of the environmental activist movement coming to prominence in the late 20th century, with each of the film's five “acts” featuring a different narrator: Robert Redford, Ashley Judd, Van Jones, Isabel Allende, and Meryl Streep. The first segment deals with national parks and the constant threats (and occasional successes) of the business-pandering “wise use” movements to flood them with hydroelectric dams, a situation that sparked the conservation activism of David Brower and the Sierra Club. The second revisits suburban housewife Lois Gibbs and her grassroots protests against the toxic-waste poisoning of her Love Canal neighborhood. The third piece shows Whale Wars star Capt. Paul Watson in his youth protecting baby seals and other marine mammals from hunters, adopting an aggressive style that led to his estrangement from Greenpeace. In the fourth segment, rubber-tapper Chico Mendes fights the deforestation of the Brazilian rainforests, and the finale addresses what may be the biggest eco-issue ever—global warming. Al Gore does not appear, but the famously eco-insensitive Ronald Reagan pops up repeatedly as a villain. One subject addressed here that is seldom touched upon in similar docs is the idea of “environmental racism”—the location of toxic dumps and incinerators in black and disenfranchised American communities. Highly recommended. Aud: C, P. (C. Cassady)