About The Catalog

There are over 200 conservation-related videos available. There are 34 new titles in DVD format and 1 Interactive CD-Rom starting at title #194. No rental fees are assessed to those wishing to borrow the videos from the library. Borrowing privileges are for a length of two weeks and must be returned upon date specified by the librarian. Videos can be ordered through your local soil and water conservation district or by contacting the Public Information/Education department of the TSSWCB.

How Shipping Works

The Association of Texas Soil and Water Conservation Districts' Public Information/Education Committee will pay first transit postage costs to mail the video(s) to the requester. Postage for returning will be the responsibility of the borrower. All videos must be insured upon return.

Ordering A DVD/Video

1. Select a video from the 2009 Video Library Catalog (PDF, 1.10 MB)
2. To request a video, send an e-mail to infoed [at] tsswcb [dot] state [dot] tx [dot] us.

16 New DVDs and 1 Interavtice CD-Rom Available for Use!

• GARBAGE! The Revolution Starts at Home

With his first son just born, filmmaker Andrew Nisker is very concerned with the state of our planet. As the average household level of consumption rises, so does the astronomical amount of waste we collectively create. Are we turning the earth into one giant garbage can? Determined to understand the damage we are doing, Nisker enlists the average urban family, the McDonalds, to keep every scrap of garbage that they produce for three months in their increasingly smelly garage. From organic waste to dirty diapers, from plastic bottles to Christmas wrapping, the McDonald's discover that for every action there is a reaction that affects them and the entire planet.

Topics covered: recycling, composting, landfills, home energy usage, coal mining, stormwater runoff, water quality, packaging, household cleaning products.
Run time: 76 min.

• A CONVENIENT TRUTH: Urban Solutions from Curitiba, Brazil

An informative, inspirational documentary aimed at sharing ideas to provoke environment-friendly and cost-effective changes in cities worldwide. The documentary focuses on innovations in transportation, recycling, social benefits including affordable housing, seasonal parks, and the processes that transformed Curitiba into one of the most livable cities in the world.

This documentary includes exclusive interviews from world renowned Curitiba's mayors Jaime Lerner and Cassio Tanigushi, as well as other brilliant minds who made Curitiba a world class model.

In a time of so many inconveniences, it's good to know of places where things are done conveniently right.

Run Time: 52 minutes

•  All About Garbage and Recycling - 2 films on one DVD!

Did you know that one person throws away about five pounds of garbage a day? That's nearly 1,800 pounds a year! So, what happens to all that garbage? Join Backpack Jack and his friends as they dive into the big, stinky and amazing story of garbage. You'll laugh, you'll learn and you'll hold your nose as you discover what happens to garbage after it leaves your home and all the cool ways we can recycle and keep trash out of the landfills. You'll see the monster machines that transform old stuff into new stuff. You'll even see an ultimate car crusher that can flatten a truck into a pancake!
Approx 25 min

TRUCKS
Featuring Hard Hat Harry
You're in the driver's seat with big rigs, small trucks., and everything in between! Take a road trip with a big old 18-wheeler and see what its like to sleep in the cab, hook up the trailer and even talk to other truckers on the CB radio!
Approx 30 mins

•  Building With Awareness: the construction of a hybrid home

The most comprehensive video ever made on the design and construction of a green home. This how-to DVD will show you how to use straw bale walls for insulation, interior adobe walls for thermal mass (which greatly improves the performance of a straw bale home), earth plasters for a beautiful finish, 100% electrical generationby sunlight, and passive solar heating and cooling. This video could save you thousands of dollars in design and construction costs.

• Energy Conservation

Renewable energy offers a long term solution to the problems caused by our use of fossil fuels, but if we want to make an immediate impact, the best place to start is energy conservation. Developed countries like Australia have relied on cheap energy to maintain high living standards, but this has produced a culture of wastefulness and inefficiency. This program takes the audience on a tour of an energy efficient house to show how the average home can cut energy use. To make sure the audience identifies with the subject, we also visit an average household and an average high school, to see what they've done to conserve energy. Once people are educated about the way we use energy, they realize how easy it is to make the small changes that are needed to cut our energy use. This program shows that this results in big savings on our energy bills and makes a significant contribution to the health of our planet.

Duration: 28 min.
Subjects: Social Studies
Grade Level: 9, 10

• Gimme Green

Is a humorous look at the American obsession with the residential lawn and the effects it has on our environment, our wallets, and our outlook on life. Lawns are undeniably an American symbol. But what do they really symbolize? Pride and prosperity? Or waste and conformity?

It's estimated that Americans use approximately 50 percent of their household water on their yards. By examining the social, commercial, and environmental pressures surrounding the green grass aesthetic, we begin to understand how a non-edible, resource-intensive plant could become our nation's largest irrigated crop.

From the limitless subdivisions of Florida to sod farms in the arid southwest, Gimme Green peers behind the curtain of the $40-billion industry. Spanning a wide range of perspectives and locales, and employing an engaging blend of gravity and levity, this documentary short examines Americans' true motives for maintaining a lush green lawn in their yards.

Run Time: 27 minutes

• Oil On Ice

Oil on Ice is a vivid, compelling and comprehensive documentary connecting the fate of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to decisions America makes about energy policy, transportation choices, and other seemingly unrelated matters. Caught in the balance are the culture and livelihood of the Gwich"in people and the migratory wildlife in this fragile ecosystem.  

Film Length: 90 

• Power Shift: Energy + Sustainability 

Hosted and narrated by Cameron Diaz, this exciting four-part program circles the globe, exploring the remarkable ways that energy touches our daily lives. Cleverly weaving together the lives of astronauts in the Space Station, villagers in the Amazon, and an actress in Hollywood, the film examines vital energy issues and suggests ways that students can create a sustainable future.

In Connections, viewers discover how energy links us as a global community. Cradle to Cradle profiles architect William McDonough, a TIME magazine "Hero of the Planet," and his innovative green building designs. Energy Path answers the question 'When I turn on the light in my room, where does the electricity come from and how does it reach me?' Be the Difference encourages personal action steps such as requesting renewable energy from utilities, driving hybrid cars, and buying energy-efficient appliances.

Length: 30 Minutes

• Ten Days to Paint the Forest

An international group from the Artists for Nature Foundation are invited to Peru to sketch and paint the unusual dry forest of Tumbesia. It teems with unique species but is being cut down at an alarming rate.

A local community have got together to put life back into their forest and restore their land to what it was. Chaparri Reserve is the first self-run project of its kind and the artists agreed to give of their time and talent to support the farmers' success in turning around the fortunes of their forests. Proceeds from the book of their artwork, the pictures themselves, and this video too, will promote their cause.

See how the artists do it: from the moment they spot a bird to the last stroke of the brush. As they paint, they explain what they do, what motivates them, and what their feelings are for the forest and its creatures.

But its not just about painting: see extraordinary film of Spectacled Bear and White-winged Guan in their breeding season; endemic hummingbirds dance above a waterfall as they bathe; the rare Marvellous Spatetails fight over their mupa mupa trees; traditional fishermen surf the waves in their flimsy reed canoes.

This DVD gives deep appreciation of one of the world's three richest areas of biodiversity. Though faced with many threats, this small corner has been saved by the bold Chaparri project.

Film Length: 82 min

• The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil 

The DVD focuses on Cuba's transition from an industrial petroleum-based society to a sustainable society, as a result of their loss of petroleum when their source, the Soviet Union, collapsed.

The goals of this film are to give hope to the developed world as it wakes up to the consequences of being hooked on oil, and to lift American's prejudice of Cuba by showing the Cuban people as they are. The filmmakers do this by having the people tell their story on film. It's a story of their dedication to independence and triumph over adversity, and a story of cooperation and hope. Several Cubans expressed the belief that living on an island, with its natural boundaries, breeds awareness that there are limits to natural resources.

RUNNING TIME: 53 minutes

• The Real Dirt on Farmer John

Is a personal documentary about John Peterson, a farmer, artist, and eccentric/innovative thinker cast in rural Illinois. Filmmaker Taggart Siegel has documented John's struggle to redefine his family farm for over twenty years, witnessing the colorful drama of John's life. With the death of his father during the late 60's John turns his traditional family farm into an experiment of art and culture, making it a haven for hippies, radicals and artists.

The Real Dirt on Farmer John charts the end of this idealistic era as the farm debt crisis of the 1980s brings about the tragic collapse of the farm. As the intricate weave of rural America unravels, vicious local rumors turn John into a scapegoat, condemning him as a Satan-worshipping drug-dealer. Threatened with murder, his home burned to the ground, John defies all odds to transform his land into a revolutionary farming community. At the film's close, the Peterson family farm is one of the largest Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farms in the United States. Out of the ruins of single-crop agriculture, John creates an extended farm village where people and art can thrive alongside agriculture.

Age Group: High School
Run Time: 82 minutes

•  Walking the West

A New Zealander and an Irishman, quit their jobs, cash in their savings and walk 2,626 miles from Mexico to Canada along one of the longest and most challenging foot trails in the world, the Pacific Crest Trail.

Their route takes them through some of the most spectacular scenery in North America, including California's deserts, the alpine lakes and granite peaks of the Sierra Nevadas, and the massive volcanoes and temperate rainforests fo the Cascade Mountains.

Walking a challenging pace of 21 miles a day for 4.5 months, they must cross the Canadian border before winter storms hit the Cascades. The ordeal forced one of them to quit just 60 miles before the finish. This epic adventure is an exhilarating antidote to the predictability of modern life.

Film Length: 56 min

•  Water Down the Drain - CD Rom

THIS IS AN INTERACTIVE CD-ROM.

Learn the story of water pollution from a frog! Irresistible Alex, a sixfoot hip-hopping frog, introduces the causes of non-point runoff pollution in urban settings ? as only a frog can! Six modules introduce a watershed landscape perspective and provide information about the impacts of impervious surfaces and pollution problems and solutions common to residential lots.

This media-rich CD-ROM also profiles two citizen stewardship projects and features an unforgettable music video. This program is the perfect story of the hazards of pollution for students and families alike!

Film Length: 20

Film Age Group: 8 +

• Salmonera

Industrial salmon farming is a booming business, especially in Chile, where a "blue revolution" in seafood production is leading the market.

From Coastal Alaska to the South of Chile, witness the disturbing changes this aquaculture boom heralds for fishermen, consumers, and environmentalists alike.

Salmon isn?t what it used to be. Ninety percent of salmon eaten in the U.S. is factory farmed, not caught. The fish are raised by the millions in giant floating netpens, all over the globe. The southern coast of Chile is one frontier being transformed from a string of remote fishing villages into fish farm row. Now, the booming industry is also putting fishermen half a world away out of business.

In Alaska, where wild salmon abound, prices for fishermen have hit record lows, and many have been forced to abandon the fishing life. Dennis Longstreth is one of the few holding on. But for how much longer can he, when competing in a market saturated with cheap farmed fish?

Marine Harvest is the largest fish farm company worldwide, and a primary exporter to the United States. A Scottish manager working for the company in Chile demonstrates how to build the biggest salmon for the buck. He hoses processed pellet feed through a powered cannon and uses floodlights at night to hasten their growth. But recent reports suggest these bio-tech manufactured fish may come with an added price: toxicity.

Local historian Renato Cardenas has watched the multinational industry since it came to Chile in 1975. He says that salmon farms are also destroying the marine ecology. Not much time remains, he says, before the companies disappear and take the jobs with them.

Film Length: 21 Min.

•  Sustainable Coastal Management

This program looks at the causes, effects and sustainable management of coastal erosion and deposition. Filmed along the famous limestone coastline of Holderness in the UK, the DVD provides classic examples of the different landforms and how they are formed, including: limestone caves, headlands and stacks as well as beaches and spits.

The program explores the challenges created by the coastline, both from erosion and tourism and how it is managed, including hard and soft engineering. It also examines the impact of the different management techniques.

Duration: 35 min.

Grade Level: 10+

• GoingGreen: Every Home an Eco-Home

Mixing humor with everyday, affordable examples at home, GOINGGREEN tours the original Eco-Home with a group of middle-school kids who discover first-hand some simple, inexpensive ways to become more earth-friendly. Guided by eco-pioneer Julia Russell, Founding Director of the non-profit, Eco-Home Network, the children learn how to conserve water through drip irrigation, soaker hoses, graywater systems and drought-tolerant landscaping. They discover why and how to compost, what household hazardous waste may be lurking in their own homes, and how to use the sun's energy to light, heat and power their homes with sun pipes, solar hot water heaters and solar panels. The kids experience the delight of making their own organic tomato juice with tomatoes they picked right off the vine in Eco- Home's backyard garden. They learn, hands-on, how to compost, and have fun watching the progress of several serious-looking bugs that Julia describes as a crucial part of the 'composting team'. The kids ask questions and then come up with some of the answers!

GOINGGREEN shows us how we can live earth-friendly lives on a limited budget, even in the middle of a city. Narrated by environmentally aware actor Tony Shalhoub, a veteran of stage, screen and television, currently starring in the TV series, 'Monk.'

Running time 24:20 mins.

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