2/23/12

GrowthBusters: Hooked on Growth

Dave Gardener

Show Description:
GrowthBusters: Hooked on Growth is a ground-breaking new documentary film that explores society’s worship of growth -- and the forces that keep us addicted--even when it's doing us no good. "We're at a point where we have to choose either a culture of growth or a culture of sustainability," according to the film's director, Dave Gardner.

"The evidence available makes it clear the scale of the human enterprise has outgrown our planet," says Gardner. "Yet we ignore that evidence with wild abandon. GrowthBusters explores why."

He calls “Worship of Growth Everlasting the most powerful and widespread religion in the world.” From Mexico City to Mumbai, the White House to the Vatican, GrowthBusters takes us on an adventurous global tour of growth mania -- and the special interests behind the scenes working for increasing growth, no matter what. It’s Wild Kingdom with a twist: the cameras are turned on humanity, looking into the psychology of denial and crowd behavior, while also exploring our obsessions with urban and economic growth.

Growthbusters, which was largely crowd-funded and crowd-produced, includes insightful interviews with an impressive list of many leading experts, including Ehrlich, Bill McKibben and Herman Daly. As one interviewee, Dennis Meadows (co-author of Limits to Growth) puts it “Our scenarios showed growth is going to stop.  I don't need to be against it.  The planet's against it. If we continue to rely on growth… we’re setting ourselves up to suffer enormously when key parts of the system start to fail.”

The film is available for sale at www.growthbusters.org. Groups and individuals are ordering the film and organizing screenings around the world. I'd be happy to schedule an interview with Paul Ehrlich or Dave Gardener. Thank you for your consideration.

http://www.growthbusters.org

Guest Bio:
Dave has worked as a professional director for over 30 years. During his career he’s directed documentaries and other award-winning projects for a long list of Fortune 500 corporate clients and PBS (see Visions West). He eventually found a successful career serving big business and a life pursuing the “American Dream” were not his Holy Grail.

His concern about our society’s growth addiction began when he noticed rapidly growing population centers in the American West are in denial about the limits of water available to feed their continuing growth frenzy.

Dave’s became the voice of reason in Colorado Springs, a city in the U.S. projected to double in size from half a million in 2000 to 1 million by 2040. As in most cities, growth boosters dominate local politics and policy, so Dave has turned to the film medium to illuminate the follies and educate the public about the true meaning of sustainability. Colorado Springs is serving as just one example in a film of national and global significance.

Dave ran for Colorado Springs city council in 2009 on the platform that true community prosperity could only be achieved by increasing efficiency and localization, not by continuing to chase the mythical “pot of gold at the end of the everlasting growth rainbow.” He lost the race to a well-funded pro-growth incumbent, but garnered 43% of the vote. Dave prefers staying behind the camera, but reluctantly elected to be a major on-screen character in Hooked on Growth, just because he has been one of the most active “GrowthBusters” he knows! His basement is now offices for the growing “non-virtual” portion of staff and volunteers working on the film.

Since Dave has been leading the charge to question the sanity of a growth-based prosperity strategy in his own community, he decided to turn the camera on himself and include some of his trials and tribulations in this documentary. You’ll laugh. You’ll cry. You’ll groan, as Dave butts heads with the apostles of growth everlasting!