Satoyama: Japan's Secret Watergarden documentary

Each home has a built in pool or water tank that lies partly inside, partly outside its’ walls… A continuous stream of spring water is piped right into a basin, so freshwater is always available. People rinse out pots in the tank and clean their freshly picked vegetables. If they simply pour the food scraps back in the water, they risk polluting the whole village supply. However, carp can scour out even the greasy or burnt pans. They do the washing up in Satoyama villages. This traditional arrangement is called the riverside method. It’s used all over Japan. Cleaned up by the carp, the tank water eventually rejoins the channel.
Imagine a realm where the season's rhythms rule, where centuries of agriculture and fishing have reshaped the land, yet where people and nature remain in harmony. Sangoro Tanaka lives in just such a paradise. At 83, he's the guardian of one of Japan's secret watergardens.
Over a thousand years, towns and villages have developed a unique system to make springs and water part of their homes. From inside their houses, the stream pours into Japan’s largest fresh water lake, near the ancient capital of Kyoto. This is a habitat so precious, the Japanese have a special word for it, satoyama, villages where mountains give way to plains. They are exceptional environments essential to both the people who maintain them and to the wildlife that now share them.

Watch the full documentary now (playlist - 104 min)

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Environment,

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Prophets of Doom Documentary

Today's world has troubles         
unique to its time in history,
from the global financial
crisis to technological
meltdowns to full scale,
 computerized global war.
Observing the convergence
of such events, contemporary
 prophets have begun to emerge    
from obscurity to suggest that
these conditions might be signs
of the demise of the modern world.
These men are historians as well,
using all manner of information and
 patterns from the past to provide
context for where we are going.
Their predictions interpret the
 current state of affairs in our
 world as evidence that the        
America we know may come
 to an end.
The men proposing these
ideas are not crackpots living
on the streets of New York; they
are intelligent, learned men who
come armed with the evidence
to back up their claims.

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Environment,

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Acid Test: The Global Challenge of Ocean Acidification Documentary

This documentary explores the startling phenomenon of ocean acidification, which may soon challenge marine life on a scale not seen for tens of millions of years.

The film was made to raise awareness about the largely unknown problem of ocean acidification, which poses a fundamental challenge to life in the seas and the health of the entire planet.

Like global warming, ocean acidification stems from the increase of carbon dioxide in the earth's atmosphere since the start of the Industrial Revolution.
Leading scientific experts on the problem, many of whom appear in the film, believe that it's possible to cut back on global warming pollution, improve the overall health and durability of our oceans, and prevent serious harm to our world, but only if action is taken quickly and decisively.

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Environment,

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