New Documentary Links Financial Crisis and the Carbon Market

By: 
Katy Yan

In a new feature-length documentary, Trading on Thin Air (available on Hulu and Netflix), director Susan Kucera shows that the same actors and strategies that were behind the financial crisis are currently behind today's massively lucrative carbon markets of the world – and the next big bubble. 

The film shows that the losers in this high stakes game are not only the climate and the environment (the supposed beneficiaries of this market's carbon offset schemes), but also the indigenous and local communities in developing countries that are being displaced by the hydropower dams, palm oil plantations, and eucalyptus farms on the receiving end of these carbon credit scams.

Besides featuring a diverse group of scientists and authors on both sides of the climate change spectrum (from Nation Magazine contributor and Counterpunch editor, Alexander Cockburn to best selling author and climate change activist Antonia Juhasz to name a few), the film also features Patrick McCully, International Rivers' previous Executive Director, as well as footage and interviews of activists opposed to the Teesta Dam in India, which is currently trying to apply for carbon credits.

This film is currently licensed for the US only, and will be available in Europe soon. Stay tuned for further distribution updates.

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