"Out of Balance" Film Screening Jan 9th

The Walpole Peace and Justice Group continues its speakers series on January 9th, 2007, with a screening of Tom Jackson's new film "Out of Balance: ExxonMobil’s Impact on Climate Change" at the Walpole Public Library, at 7:30PM. The screening is open to the public.

This holiday season, as we approached the eighteenth anniversary (March 24th) of the Exxon Valdez oil spill, a decision was handed down from a federal appeals court in San Francisco: the Valdez settlement has been cut in half, from $5 billion to $2.5 billion. Last year, Exxon earned $36.1 billion (the highest amount ever by a US corporation), and has spent more than $3 billion to appeal this case; Exxon believes it owes no more than $25 million in damages to the people affected by the spill.

Mr. Jackson's new film highlights not only Exxon's part in this ecological and economic disaster, but ExxonMobil's deliberate efforts in fabricating a debate around the science of climate change – introducing "junk science" to cast doubt on the unnatural effects of our energy economy on global climate systems. Here is the filmmaker's statement:

"'Out of Balance: ExxonMobil’s Impact on Climate Change' shows the influence that the largest company in the world has on governments, the media and citizens and what can be done about global warming. While the Earth’s climate is pushed further out of balance by increasing use of fossil fuels, ExxonMobil continues to assert undue influence around the world—making record profits while ignoring climate science for which there has been overwhelming consensus for over ten years.

'Out of Balance' does not just critique ExxonMobil, it also offers challenging, large-scale ideas for the global social changes that must take place if there’s any chance of having a livable planet for future generations."

Mr. Jackson's production company, Joe Public Films (http://www.joepublicfilms.com/), is based in Portsmouth, NH. It is an independent video & filmmaking resource that is committed to exposing under-reported human rights-related news stories from around the world, at any and every available level of media, from grassroots screenings to broadcast television.

The film is about an hour, and we hope to have some time after the screening for discussion. It is the second film by Mr. Jackson that the Group has shown; the Group screened "Worlds Apart" in February 2006.

Winston Chou
East Walpole