The Carbon Rush

Narrated by Daryl Hannah, this muckraking eco-political exposé by filmmaker Amy Miller looks at the hidden financial bonanza in the shadow of the climate-change scare. Thanks to loopholes in the Kyoto Treaty, wealthy industrial transnational corporations such as British Petroleum and Tata (an Indian automotive giant) can manipulate "carbon credits"—which are effectively a license to pollute—connected to extraneous projects (typically in the underdeveloped Southern Hemisphere) that claim to offset carbon emissions with "green" development. The Carbon Rush examines some of the fall-out from these schemes, including indigenous natives in Brazil who can no longer farm or even gather brush on their land; garbage-recycling and wind-power scenarios in India that create credits but do not actually work (and take away the livelihoods of waste pickers at landfills); and the country of Honduras being dotted with dead lakes and stagnant canals. Sometimes links between corrupt tycoons, slain activists, and the carbon credit system are tenuous (and a late statement that carbon-offset encouragement has actually fostered some worthwhile projects is made without further elaboration). Still, this is a thought-provoking documentary about the little remarked upon (but certainly believable) negative consequences and manipulation of the carbon credit system. Featuring both the full-length film and a 52-minute abridgement, this is recommended. Aud: C, P. (C. Cassady)